Clouds from Both Sides by Julie Tullis

Author:Julie Tullis [Julie Tullis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781911342687
Publisher: Vertebrate Publishing
Published: 2017-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

– CHAPTER ELEVEN –

Ciao to China – Explorations in Sinkiang

Three days before Christmas 1982, I was wrapping up presents when the telephone rang. (It always seems to happen around Christmas!) ‘Here is Kurt. Julie, how good is your Italian?’

‘I don’t speak a word,’ I retorted, wondering what my Austrian friend might have in store for me this time.

‘Well, Spanish then … you must speak Spanish, after all your father is a Spaniard.’

‘No, I’m sorry, I don’t. I did learn it for one year at school thirty years ago, but apart from a few words, I remember nothing! But why do you ask?’

‘Well, it’s OK anyway, you can learn, you have plenty of time,’ he said, with his usual nonchalance. ‘We have been invited to join the Italian K2 Expedition to film them attempting to climb the mountain from the Chinese side, but we don’t leave until the end of April.’

The excitement welled up in me; what a Christmas present! A chance to climb the most beautiful of all the world’s highest mountains, at 28,244 feet higher than all the other peaks except Everest … and by the ‘route of routes’, the magnificent North Ridge, which had only ever had one other ascent. For a moment I completely forgot about the phone until Kurt’s insistent ‘Julie, Julie, are you still there?’ brought me back to reality. Of course I would learn Italian in four months … Chinese too, if it was necessary.

Next day I bought a teach yourself Italian book and tape. Whenever I went out in the car I would play the tape and talk back to it, and every night I would study one lesson in the book. I thought I was doing quite well, but did wonder how useful tourist Italian would be on the expedition. There would not be many chances to ask ‘When is the next train to Milan?’ or ‘Have you got a single room with bath?’

When I had been learning for three weeks, Kurt came to England. ‘How’s the Italian going?’ he asked. I said a few words so he could judge for himself. ‘That’s fine, but you know the best way to learn a language is to sing it, that way you pick up the music and rhythm of the speech.’

‘Great,’ I said, ‘but I can’t just stand and sing!’

‘No, of course not, you accompany yourself … on a guitar.’

‘But I don’t play the guitar,’ I protested.

‘Well, you can learn that at the same time.’

So to go to K2 I learnt Italian, and how to play the guitar.

By the time I went to China I was quite proud of my progress, but on the expedition I got little chance to practise further as most of the mountaineers wanted to speak English. A year later, however, I reaped the benefits. I again met Walter Bonatti, this time at the Kendal Film Festival and as I was the only person in a crowded room who could speak Italian, got a unique opportunity to have a very special conversation with him.

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