The English language is the best friend while traveling in most countries.

In all my travels in Asia, the one most constant thing was that English was spoken and understood in every country.

Part of the reason was the influence of English colonialism, and the fact that most people study English as a second language.

While English is prevalent in both Japan and Hong Kong, Sometimes natives seek out touring English-speaking people so they can practice their English.

This happened to me in both Japan and Hong Kong.

In Osaka, Japan, I had walked some distance to observe the castle on the heights.

I must have walked a mile, and it was hot and I was tired, so I settled down on a bench facing the castle. There were a lot of people milling around, so I wasn’t alone.

I had been there for 10 minutes or so when a Japanese man got up from a nearby bench and came over and sat on mine.

He soon struck up a conversation in broken English.

He was straightforward and explained that he wished to talk with me to practice his English.

Pleasantries were exchanged and he was doing well with his English. He explained that he lived in a little village nearby and wondered if I would be interested in going with him to his home. He said his wife then could practice her English.

At the time I thought this a little strange, so I declined.

While in Tokyo, I got together with a Japanese family. I had met one of their family at the University of Washington and said that I would try to get together with the family while in the country and extend greetings.

I had packed a Japanese/English dictionary in my bag just in case. It was a good thing I did. We shared it in an effort to communicate. They were anxious about their English and excited to try it out.

While there, the family invited me to their home. It was way out in the suburbs, and they told me what subway to take and what stop I was to get off on. That was perhaps the most anxious moment of my trip. But everything went like clockwork.

On a later stop, this time in Hong Kong, I got the opportunity to be a guinea pig for another party.

This was a similar incident. I was sitting on a bench when a man came over and sat down and started speaking in English. English was a second language in Hong Kong, since at the time Hong Kong was under British rule.

We were getting along real well when he invited me to his home, explaining it was in the New Territories. We got on a bus, and after what seemed like an hour, we got off and walked a couple of blocks to a very meager house. There I met his wife and family and enjoyed tea and bread.

After an hour or so, the man returned me to the bus with directions on how to get to my hotel.

While that might have been a little risky, I was glad afterward that I had done so.

English is a great travel companion that makes it easier to enjoy the travel experience.