中国の友人から、手紙が来ました。

＊今週は、スペイン語学習で知り合った友人との久しぶりでの交歓の手紙のやりとりがあった。これらの人は、私の尊敬する現役の若い友人である。R-aはベルギー人で、R-gは中国人。現在それぞれの国で働いている。語学の才能は私には残念ながらないことを認めざるをえない。勉強はじめて、５ヶ月頃から酷く自信喪失し、心理障害に陥り、暫くスペイン語を離れなければ、立ち直れそうもない状態になった。この人たちは、３ヶ月を一緒の入門スペイン語の教室で勉強したなかだが、私には及びもしない潜在能力を持っていた。当初時々手紙の交換をしていたが、何時しか途絶えることとなった。スペイン語学習のために今後も手紙を交歓しようと約束したのは、その時からいつの間にかもう１年前になってしまった。それぞれスペイン語を勉強し続けたとは言えない状況であったことが分かったが、一番才能のない私が、ひょんな事でスペインで暮らしている。以下、その手紙の交歓の中から、中国の友人の手紙を紹介したい。あえて、そのまま、見ていただくのは、中国の躍進ぶりが、この手紙からも伺えて、或いは興味ある記録になっているのではないか、と思うからだ。R-nさんは独身の女性青年実業家である。私たちの手紙の交換には一つだけルールがあって、２人だけの交歓はしない、ということである。R-aさんはeconomistで、ベルギーの多国籍企業で働いているが、この１０月から、また６ヶ月の契約が更新された、といっていた。大学受験の息子さんの大学入学試験準備の勉強を一緒にするのが楽しい、といっていたママさんでもある。

Querido Senhyoue,
Querida R-a,

Here I am, still alive...sorry to reply late and imagine how long it will
takes if I write these in Spanish!!!

July I finished project work with that British company and from August I
have been working for a Russian mobile company. This company buys OEM
mobiles from China and sells in Russia under its own brand. I am doing the
sourcing and watch out the market trend. This job was introduced by my MBA
classmate who also works in the same company. The most important is that I
still work at home! as they currently do not need to set up an office here.
Recently there are quite lots of things happening ,so quite busy, like
product customization, delivery and talking to accessory suppliers etc.

I am doing fine, thanks. and also good to know you guys also doing well.
It's nice memory of Salamanca and it already one year now, right? time
really flies. No chance to practise spanish, so I forgot lots of words.
Fortunately I can still read your emails:-)))

August I went to Chiang Mai in Thailand and Angkor Wat in Cambodia for one
week. Chiang Mai is a nice clean and small city in Northern Thailand and
Angkor Wat was really impressive. My friends and me took the overland route
from Thailand to Siem Reap/Angkor Wat, and we had experience of broken road
due to the raining season.

September I visited Moscow because of this job. It was just 2 weeks after
the down of 2 Russian airplanes and I was worrying actually. Moscow itself
can be said as beautiful, you can still feel the past time, roads are very
wide and those Starlin buildings..of course, the Red Square. But feel the
level of providing service is still low. Moscow indeed has quite a lot
greens, some residential area with lots of greens reminded me of England, a
little bit.:-)) You will not believe that I also went to Moscow zoo and saw
2 polar bears, hehe..

First weekend of November I am going to Seoul, Korea and my friend there
will show me around. Then from 11th to 17th Nov I will visit India, that
time is Diwali festival there, which is the biggest festival in India, so I
decided to go. I will visit my classmate in Bombay and then head onto Delhi.
I definately will go to Taj Mahal, if you know this famous architecture,
one of the Seven Wonders in the world, also more or less this is inspired by
the love story between the King and his wife.

All right ,those will be all the travel for me this year. Next year I am
planning a big one. I guess around October I will quit the job and start a
round-the-world trip. Maybe I should do it earlier but nevertheless it is
not late anyway. I am considering studying in Salamanca again ,maybe just
one month. And R-a, I am sure I will visit you once I am in Europe. The
RTW trip I will go towards east, so south america first ,Africa and then
Europe.
　Senhyoue, the emails you have sent to me, there are always strange
characters, so I can not understand fully. But that doesn't matter, I
really admire what you have done!!! I hope when I reach your age, I will be still learning, meeting new friends and facing challenges. When you will return to Japan?

OK. It's long letter but its nice writing to you and nice to know what you
are doing, and hoping we could meet again somewhere. Please do consider to
come to （地名）, you will be impressed, I am sure.

Take care & bye for now,
R-g