Follow us. All the Spanish I know I learned from Grindr. Admittedly, almost none of it has stuck: me and my boyfriend with Grindr only conspicuous by its absence just went to Bilbao and I could barely ask for the bill. But flash back to my time in Mexico in , and I could just about direct you from any part of Oaxaca to my airbnb.
Language is best learned when immersed, and even though I was only in Oaxaca for a very short period, I very quickly picked up how to get what I needed, whether that was a dozen al pastor tacos or a dick. It is astonishing how, when necessity presents itself, we discover we are actually far better at foreign tongues than we ever thought.
Where normally the idea of asking a pain au chocolat in French fills me with dread, I suddenly found myself able to say, "If you head to the end of this road, turn left, and go through the gate, my apartment is on the right. There are times when, doing this, I suddenly became very aware of how incredibly reckless, and feckless, I can be abroad. One of the men I met in Mexico offered to pick me up one night after looking round an art exhibition and take me to a motel for a pre-dinner shag.
Great, I thought. How could this complete stranger, in a foreign country, in which I lack easy access to all normal forms of communication, hurt me? Other times, hooking up with strangers on holiday has also been an amazing way of getting to know the local culture.
Other times, people have recommended the city's best bars to me or offered to take me to their favourite coffee shop. Most of them seem to make their position very clearly known from the off: when someone on your Tinder is clearly not from round here, everyone seems to know it might be because they want to get to know the area rather than you. But I also spoke to people who have met long-term partners β and even spouses β on dating apps abroad.
