1
# Chapter 1. I Want to Travel
The servers carried dozens of beer mugs at once. Every time they did, people paid for their beer right there and immediately downed it.
This was a Bierzelt in Munich.
Today was the day Oktoberfest was being held.
I called over one of the servers.
"One beer, please. How much is it?"
"16 euros, including the tip. But your German is really good?"
"Well, this much is basic."
After paying, I took the beer mug from her.
Since it was a one-liter beer mug, it was extremely heavy.
I attached my phone to a selfie stick and started recording.
A historic moment. I intended to record myself today so I could keep a video of this moment.
"Hey, are you filming a video?"
"Yeah, that's right. Do you want to be in it too? I can't pay you an appearance fee, though."
"Oh! I'd love to."
"Say hello to the camera."
"Hello! I'm John from America!"
John was a cheerful guy.
We introduced ourselves to each other.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Mino."
"Did you come alone?"
"Yeah. But that's okay. Aren't all the people here friends?"
"Haha, that's true. So how did you end up coming here?"
"It's one of the things on my bucket list. To attend the world's three biggest festivals."
"What about Rio and Sapporo? Have you been there too?"
"Not yet. I want to go, but I don't know when I'll be able to. I have to start work next week, after all. Haha."
"Oh! Jesus!"
"What can I do? I have to make a living."
"Come to think of it, where are you from? Your English is insanely good."
"Me? I'm Korean. Korean."
At that moment, a woman sitting across from us spoke up.
"Wait a minute. You're Korean? Oh! My gosh. I'm a huge fan of K-pop."
"Really? I don't know much about K-pop. Still, it's nice to meet you."
She said she was from Thailand.
Looking at her, I spoke in Thai.
"I've always really wanted to visit Thailand, but I haven't been able to, which is such a shame. I'm definitely going to go next time."
"What? You really haven't been to Thailand? Judging by the way you speak, you're practically Thai! How do you speak Thai so well?"
"That's because I studied hard."
Then another foreigner sitting beside her spoke to me.
He was Turkish.
He opened the conversation with a playful grin.
"What? Is something fun happening? What's going on?"
"Nothing much. I was just talking with these two."
"Huh? You? What are you?"
When I spoke fluent Turkish, his eyes widened.
"What else would I be? I'm a tourist who came here to drink beer, just like you."
As I spoke English, Thai, and Turkish one after another, the other foreigners also became curious and started talking to me in various foreign languages.
Every time I responded fluently and continued the conversation, they all shook their heads in disbelief.
Anong, who had come from Thailand, shouted at me.
"Oh my God! You're crazy! Just how many languages have you spoken? Nine? Ten?"
"I don't know. I'm not sure myself. Around ten, I guess? Haha. Anyway, let's just raise our glasses and have a toast."
We lifted our heavy beer mugs and clinked them together.
"Cheers!"
The refreshing quality characteristic of lager came through perfectly.
It was on a completely different level from all the beer I had ever tasted before.
It was really delicious beer.
"Ahh, this beer is incredible."
"Seriously. It's an art. It's really good."
"So this is why people come to Oktoberfest."
I kept raising my glass and drinking without a break.
Every now and then, I also interpreted simultaneously for the friends who had come from different countries.
I was slowly starting to feel drunk.
I checked my phone.
After recording continuously for about an hour, the battery was almost dead.
At that moment, John came over and asked.
"Mino. You're going to upload the video you just recorded to YouTube, right?"
"Ah, right. YouTube. Yeah, I should upload it."
Drunk and careless, I logged into YouTube.
Then I uploaded the entire video I had just recorded without editing it at all.
"Well, shall we go again?"
"How about a one-shot contest this time?"
"Let's do it!"
We climbed onto the table.
Then, staring each other down, we started gulping down the refilled beer.
"Ugh, I'm done. I can't drink anymore."
John gave up halfway through.
"Boooooo!"
The crowd immediately started jeering.
I forcibly poured the beer down my throat.
At last, I successfully finished the entire drink in one shot.
"Woooooah!"
Cheers and applause erupted from every direction.
And then I passed out right there.
---
"Mr. Minho, wake up."
"Ugh, mmm..."
"Mr. Minho!"
I opened my eyes at the sound of someone calling my name.
I was sitting there with my head down.
Where was I?
Was this the Bierzelt in Munich?
As I looked around with blurry eyes, instead of beer mugs, I saw packets of instant coffee.
This wasn't Munich.
It was the company's break room.
The person who had called me was Park Suhyuk, another interpreter who worked with me.
"Suhyuk, wh-what time is it?"
"There's five minutes left until lunch break is over."
"Already? Ugh, thanks for waking me up. I stayed up all night in a video conference yesterday and then went to sleep..."
I forced myself upright and stretched.
Cracks echoed from various parts of my body.
My whole body felt stiff and sluggish.
"What kind of dream were you having? You kept mumbling things like 'Cheers' to yourself."
"Oh, I guess I was talking in my sleep?"
"Yes. Were you having a company dinner even in your dream?"
"Not exactly. Have you ever heard of Oktoberfest?"
"Isn't that one of the world's three biggest festivals? The one held in Munich?"
"You know about it?"
"I went there five years ago, and I happened to dream about that day."
"So you must have drunk plenty of beer in your dream."
"Haha, that's right. It really was delicious. I can still remember the taste, you know?"
It had been my first overseas trip, one I had taken after scraping together every last bit of the money I had saved from the translation jobs I had steadily done after graduating from university.
That trip remained an unforgettable memory for me even now. Every moment of it had been wonderful, but if there was one thing I regretted, it was losing my phone while returning to my accommodation drunk.
Because of that, none of the photos or videos I had taken during the trip remained. I had to rely on my hazy memories to recall those moments.
"That's a shame. If you had a video, I would've wanted to see it too."
"It was just a video of me fooling around while drunk, haha. If you're curious, can't you just search for Oktoberfest? Travel YouTubers go there sometimes too."
"Come on, I'm curious about how you traveled. Ah, come to think of it, I want to go traveling too."
"Me too. It's been way too long since I've been able to travel."
While we were chatting and reminiscing, it became one o'clock.
We left the break room and headed back to our desks.
I worked as an in-house interpreter at one of the top five conglomerates in the country.
Among the interpreters, I was a company-wide interpreter, supporting translation and interpretation for major executive meetings, also known as company-wide meetings.
The reason I had become an interpreter was because of a special ability I had possessed since I was young.
When I first started speaking, I found that I could naturally speak a wide variety of unfamiliar foreign languages.
Even though I had never studied them before, I could communicate in them freely.
So I made use of my talent and became an interpreter.
However, if you asked me whether I was satisfied with the work I was doing now, my answer would be no.
The company would probably want to renew my contract next year as well, but I was hesitant about renewing it.
The biggest problem was that I hadn't decided what I would do after quitting my job.
[Interpreter Han Minho, there's an executive meeting in 30 minutes. Please come to the booth on time.]
"Yes."
I hung up and looked at the clock on the wall.
There was still a long time before I could leave work.
The day was dragging by far too slowly.
---
I barely managed to make it through the day.
I turned down my fellow interpreters' invitation to go drinking and returned home. It was an officetel near the company, more than spacious enough for me to live alone.
"Should I look up Oktoberfest?"
Maybe it was because I had dreamed about it earlier that day.
I wanted to experience that atmosphere again, even if only through a video.
I took a can of beer from the refrigerator and put a thick sausage in the microwave.
After preparing my drink and food, I searched YouTube for Oktoberfest.
"What should I watch?"
I scrolled down with the mouse wheel.
Then one video caught my eye.
It was titled "Oktoberfest." It had been uploaded five years ago and had more than 14 million views.
Compared to most videos, which had anywhere from a few thousand to as many as 800,000 views, this particular video had an unusually high number of views.
Even more surprising was that the video was an entire hour long.
I was curious why so many people had sought out such a long video.
"Should I give it a try?"
If it wasn't interesting, I could always watch another video.
I pressed the play button and took a sip of beer.
Pfft.
The moment the video started, I involuntarily spat out the beer I was drinking. Beer splattered all over the monitor, but I could only stare at the video with a blank expression.
My face was appearing in the video.
"Why is this video..."
It was the exact video I had filmed with my phone when I went to Oktoberfest five years ago.
"Did I upload this video?"
Everything was confusing.
"More importantly, why does it have more than 14 million views?"
I paused the video and started reading the comments below. There had been only a few comments scattered here and there for several years, but around three months ago, the number of comments had suddenly exploded.
Could it have somehow been picked up by the algorithm?
There were comments in English, German, French, Spanish, Turkish, Thai, Vietnamese, and many other languages.
@user_dv712dfdz (2 months ago)
Wow, so this is how you're really supposed to enjoy Oktoberfest. Of all the videos I've watched, I think this one was the most enjoyable.
@user_df1cs23ds (1 month ago)
Did all of you really just meet here for the first time? Anyone watching would think you've been friends for years. lol
@user_dsf921sz (2 months ago)
Look at him. He's crazy. How many languages do you speak? I've heard more than ten languages from you alone.
@user_bdfd481df2 (2 months ago)
I'm amazed by how easily you get along with people, and I'm even more amazed by your language skills. This is truly an amazing video! I've never been to Munich, but I feel like I enjoyed Oktoberfest together with you. Thank you.
@user_df2ds110 (2 months ago)
I really felt like I was actually at Oktoberfest. It was the best trip! It's a shame there's only one video. Come back, my friend!
There were thousands of other comments besides those.
But there was one question they all had in common.
[Just how many languages can you speak?]
I wasn't sure how I should answer.
I could speak every language fluently.
I stopped reading the comments and entered the channel.
More than 30,000 people had subscribed to my channel, which I had made carelessly long ago and then forgotten about because I couldn't even remember which email address I had used.
"What the hell? Does this make any sense?"
There was only one uploaded video, and even that was an unedited, one-hour-long original recording.
And yet, there were more than 30,000 subscribers.
On top of that, the video had surpassed 14 million views.
I played the video again.
I was seeing myself again for the first time in five years.
I had been in my late twenties back then, young and overflowing with confidence.
There I was, speaking to the camera.
"I'm definitely going to accomplish everything on my bucket list."
"What's on your bucket list?"
"The world's three biggest festivals, the Seven Wonders of the World, and what else was there? Ah, right. I have to visit the world's three biggest waterfalls too."
"Hey! Mino! At this point, isn't traveling around the world your bucket list?"
"You're right. Just like you said, my bucket list is to travel around the world!"
I bit my lip as I watched the video.
Just as I had said five years ago, my bucket list was to travel around the world.
But accomplishing a bucket list required money, and that was why I had gotten a job.
As a freelance interpreter, I had too much risk to take on the challenge recklessly. I hadn't graduated from a graduate school of interpretation and translation, nor did I have experience or connections.
So I joined a large corporation and became an in-house interpreter.
I had also thought, even if only a little, that becoming an interpreter might give me plenty of opportunities to travel overseas for business.
But instead of traveling, I was buried under work every single day.
That was when it happened.
Another video began playing automatically.
It was a video titled "The Regrets People Have Most When They Die."
I stared silently at the monitor.
First, living the life other people expected of you instead of the life you wanted.
Second, being afraid of change and failing to live more courageously.
Third, living while carrying countless worries.
Fourth, failing to experience the many countries of the world.
As I read through the list, tears began to well up in my eyes before I even realized it.
Why was I crying?
Was I regretting my life right now?
I bit my lip.
I was doing my best to live my life.
But was this the life I actually wanted?
Or was it the life someone else expected me to live?
"I want to travel."
The words slipped out before I knew it, revealing what was truly in my heart.
I picked up the faded notebook sitting in the desk holder.
Inside the notebook was the bucket list I had written when I was young.
1. Visit the world's three biggest festivals.
2. See the Seven Wonders of the World.
3. Visit the world's three biggest waterfalls.
4. Go to Africa and take a safari tour.
And so on.
Every single one was related to traveling.
But I had only accomplished one.
No. I hadn't even properly accomplished that one.
"What's the big deal? Let's just do it."
I decided that instead of being afraid of change, I would finally take a chance.
Rather than living while carrying a mountain of worries, I decided to live the life I wanted, the life I truly desired.
After putting an end to my hesitation, I made my decision.
I was going to quit my job.