Later at night on that same shift at the resthome, my one (edgy) (Ethiopian) coworker asked me if I was still studying Ancient Egyptian, and I said that I was, only I wasn't taking my flashcards into work with me anymore, since I was afraid of getting Covid contamination on them.
"I study German here now," I was like, and I showed her my German vocabulary app on my phone.
"You are good at language," she was like, "You should teach."
At that, I reminded her once again that the sector I'd trained for for years was falling apart, that's why I had switched sectors and began working with the elderly, though who knows, maybe I'd go back one day, if things ever clear up.
And, I said that I do very much enjoy learning languages and learning about other languages, and I asked her what other languages she had studied in her life.
Just English, it turned out; she grew up speaking Amharic in Ethiopia, and she studied English at school.
"Chemistry, math, that what I like," she was like, "But physics no, language no."
"Do people in Ethiopia ever study Italian?", I was like, and I added, "Wasn't Ethiopian an Italian colony or something?"
"No, never," she was like, and she explained to me that Italy was in Ethiopia for 3 years, but then Ethiopians kicked them out.
"Ethiopia and Gabon," she was like, "Only two countries in Africa, to stop the colonizer."
"That's really good," I was like.
"Yes, very good," she was like.
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