Retelling Stories of Desire in TESOL: English, Imagination, and Encounters in Tourism

Abstract

This article investigates the language learning desire of multilingual tourism workers. The data were drawn from two sites in Nepal: an English for occupational purposes class and workplace interactions during treks. The article shows that the male tourism workers use their claims of heterosexual relationships with foreign female tourists as resources to build and boast their masculine identity and homosociality among their peers. The workers' ability to communicate in tourist languages functions not only as a transactional tool, but also as a resource to enhance their language learning desire and investment in order to imagine, establish, and sustain heterosexual romantic relationships. Their relationships of intimacy combine with the opportunity for economic benefits and spatial mobility made largely possible by their ability to communicate in English and other international languages. The research contributes to our understanding of the connection between language learning, multilingualism, and desire in the context of intercultural contact.