Introducing Risk

The class suddenly stops writing and a stream of comments, stories and questions comes from the floor. All the bodies of the learners are attentive, fight or flight, eager and keen to share their observations, butting in, engaging fully ‘isn’t there a law about passports? Last year in Italy I nearly couldn’t get in to the hotel because I didn’t have mine to hand.’

There is puzzlement and sudden anxiety in the class. The methodical work of acquiring phrases and vocabulary for ordering a hotel room now intersects with the world of official papers and new elements of risk and danger are present as memories and anxieties. This is what we might term the ‘future present’ tense of tourist learning, the moment where the future is indeed present in the here and now of the common-feeling of the class and its situation in each others’ stories, fears and memories. The sense of risk is almost palpable in the room. Together we have left the comfort of a nice ‘camera doppia con bagno’ and we are facing some risk.