Americans have a bad rap
We are loud, obnoxious, demanding and rude…right? Locals can spot a group of Americans coming from a block away. We expect immediate service when being waited on and everyone to speak beautiful English. We want western toilets and a Starbucks on every corner, just like at home. We want to wear next to nothing with hot pink hair and covered in tattoos. If these things apply to you, you may want to consider another hobby besides volunteering abroad. Other Americans behaving this way when I am in another culture are embarrassing and will annoy me pretty quickly.
Obviously, not all American travelers are this way but a lot of them are. This is why the world has this perception of us. The USA has positioned itself as the dominant, ideal culture and country to the world for 100 years. While most of that had to do with government, military, security, and trading. When I am traveling, people may find out you are American and expect that you make decisions and communicate like our fearless leader, Mr. Trump. I spend a lot of time trying to overcome that.
Why would you even go then?
If you fancy the luxuries you are used to having, wish for everyone to speak English, and complain the American Food is not really like American food, why did you even bother going to another country? I love seeing how locals live and doing the same. I didn’t come here to eat American food, I want this to be just as much of a freaking food journey (Legit Pad Thai in Thailand….am I right???). I remember being in Bangkok for an anti-human trafficking project and my coworkers adorably wanting to take me to the neighborhoods where all of the expats were, basically where anyone white lives in Bangkok. There are American and European restaurants there and everything is in English. I had to politely explain that I get enough of those loud, obnoxious jerks at home. I didn’t come here to hang with Americans. I flew 32 miserable hours to live with the people of Thailand.
Learn the Language…not just so you can communicate.
In high school, I was fascinated with foreign language. It did not come easily to me, my husband likes to say it does. I took four years of Spanish, two years of French, and they were the only classes I truly applied myself. I don’t know, maybe it was my way of imagining this white-ass, Minnesotan girl was “exotic.” I hadn’t traveled at all but it was easy to imagine you were in foreign language classes. Now when I travel, I throw myself into learning the official language of that country. You’re busy, I’m busy. We all are busy. Who has time for that noise? Well, I just go the local library or order Pimsleur Language CD lessons and listen to them in my car while I am driving all day for work. Each lesson is 30 minutes and you really shouldn’t do more than one per day…so 30 minutes. You aren’t that important. You can handle that.
The reason why I do it is not so that I can help myself while I am there. I partially do it because language still fascinates me the way a bucket of WI cheese curds with a pitcher of margs. Anyone who knows me, knows that is a bold-faced lie. Nothing gets me as excited as cheese curds, duh. Anyways, the reason why I do it is because of the reaction I get from locals. Unless it is Spanish, it is generally 100% save to say an American cannot speak anything BUT English. We don’t even try! We do not drill it into our small children the way other countries do.
I heard this not-funny joke one time: What do you call a person who can only speak one language? Sophia Rodriguez. Just kidding, she’s going to kill me. AN AMERICAN! Before going to Croatia, I learned some Croatian. Not a ton, but enough to greet people, order food and drinks, etc. I think my pronunciation must have been pretty terrible because they would ask if I was American right away. Then they would cheer, high five, and try to say things in Croatian to me just because they were so happy I was attempting to speak their language. Bartenders would pour us a round of shots I did not order and toss them back with me. A+ for effort, right?
Put some clothes on!
Unless you’ve found yourself a nudie beach in Europe, there is a good chance the cultural dress code is more conservative than what Americans may be used to wearing in 90+ degree weather. This is not your home and you could be downright offending the locals here that preserve this place you wanted to see so bad. Be respectful and put on more clothing. As a rule of thumb, be prepared to have at least elbows to knees covered, unless you are swimming, like actually IN the water. Not walking around prior to going to the beach.
There is a very good chance the root of a culture’s conservative clothing may come from their religion. Check yourself on that before going. It’s one thing to show my husband your inner knee, forget to take your shoes off when you really should have, but you showed my god the better part of your cha-chas and butt cheeks, OH HECK NO! Do not mess with God, no matter what that may be to the people you are amongst. Look up expectations for visiting those beautiful temples before going and make sure you are prepared.
There are areas where ignoring this advice could just be downright unsafe. So if you do not feel a ton of respect is owed to the people, the religion, then hopefully self-preservation is of priority to you. If you are a woman in a middle eastern culture and not covering your head, body, and sometimes even face, you could find yourself in a vulnerable situation. Again, use common sense. If you are concerned about solo travel as a female, check out my experiences with this here.
Cultural Appropriation
Everyone has a different opinion on this. The definition is “the act of taking or using things from a culture that is not your own, especially without showing that you understand or respect this culture. Learn the cultural guidelines for clothing and full on putting on a super traditional dress made by locals are two very different things. Yeah, buy some souvenirs, preferably not statues of a higher power. Not sure what that means, check out this article about Buddha is Not Decoration. I personally had a moment of being in Thailand, seeing these super cute dresses that came in my size and one for my daughter, and purchased them. I went to the night market the next day and thought it would be great to wear, was cute, and would keep me co
ol (Thailand is soooo hot). It never crossed my mind that it could be offensive to locals in the area. The dress is more of a mass-produced replica of traditional dress handmade by the Hmong Hill Tribe People. I love the dress but I haven’t worn it again after the realization. Here is it. What do you think?
You eat like a barn yard animal.
Are you open minded when it comes to trying new international foods? Great, then traveling is going to be really enjoyable for you. If not, you may get frustrated really quickly not being able to find things to eat. So you meet these locals, they invite you to their home to eat dinner, which is a huge honor because often I find the people doing this do not have a lot of food to begin with. They take a lot of pride in their food, sharing their home, their culture, and homemade booze! If you get this opportunity, take it! You will not regret it. But what if you get there, the food comes out, and you immediately do something wrong, like eating with your left hand?
Did you know you shouldn’t ever eat with your left hand? Didn’t you realize that is the hand reserved for wiping your butt, not eating food? Now you (literally) just shat on this awesome nice thing they wanted to do for you. Know your role. You do not have time to learn every cultural tradition or etiquette before traveling to a new place but I would highly suggest you learn how you should eat. If you are polite and making the effort, the food and booze will keep flowing. If not, they will rush you out of there faster than you can swallow.
What’s up with your face? You simple or something?
I once had a friend tell me that when she moved from Ukraine directly to Minnesota, she thought she had moved to a town reserved for mentally disabled people. As you can imagine, I looked pretty shocked and confused when she said this. She did not understand why strangers would intentionally make eye contact with her AND why they would impulsively smile when they do so. This is kind of an American thing to do. If you are from MN, its written into your code. We just do it. Someone catches you looking at them, an awkward smile will rectify that situation!
Yeah….other cultures do not do this. Actually, that isn’t totally true. People in Thailand are awfully smiley. Anyways, making eye contact could mean you are sexually attracted to them. It could mean you are trying to scare them in almost a threatening way. It could also mean that you do not know better because you are mentally handicap. What I find most interesting about this, is my friends from Ukraine use more emojis than anyone I know. Go figure.
Check out cultural norms for this. Just watch locals and see what they do around strangers and how they greet a stranger as opposed to someone they know.
So…what do you think about Trump?
Every day. Twenty times a day. What do you think about Trump. I decided immediately that I would not actually share my opinions about this. It is asking for a fight and you may have to share a hostel room with this person tonight! In America, we kind of have this rule where we do not ask a person about religion or politics and we sure as heck do not argue our side with people. Every time you have ever heard a person start up on this, you probably rolled your eyes and thought, “Oh here we go. This isn’t going to end well.”
In other cultures, it is totally acceptable to ask someone their political views or religious beliefs before asking their first name. Being well informed and able to have a debate is respectable. Many people just want to see if you know what is going on outside of our little life in our country. The first time this happened, I thought two guys were going to kill each other! They were yelling loudly with arms flailing. I guess this was totally normal, no need to worry.
You could write about this all day right? How do you prepare to go to a new culture? I think these are the things I make sure I do before going but did I miss anything that is a must? Throw me some comments below and let me know what your experiences have been like.
Just be open.
