At 21:34 9-6-01 -0500, Dan Minette wrote:
> > Anyway, cultural differences are not an excuse for being loudmouthed when
> > you're a tourist from an other country. When you visit an other country
> > (either as a tourist or on business) you are a guest in an other people's
> > country; it's nothing more than common decency to behave yourself
>according
> > to their customs.
>
>This attitude is very different from the attitude in the United States.
>First, though let me give a general observation,. It is virtually impossible
>to change habits of a lifetime in just a few days. It seems, from what you
>wrote, that you feel you accomplished this while you were in Thailand.
>However, I would guess that the people where you visited would have a far
>keener sense of your variance from local practice than you do. I'm not
>faulting you for this, I just think it is a part of human nature.
Oh, I'm absolutely convinced that we didn't appear as if we'd lived there
all our lives. We did however do our best to adapt. It's all in the little
things, like not holding hands or bumping into other people (the Thai
dislike touching each other in public), return a bow when someone greets
you with one (happens all the time), and learn to say "hello" and "thank
you" (and a few other words) in Thai.
> > When you have guests in your house, wouldn't you expect them to live by
> > your rules while they are there?
> >
>
>In the sense of this discussion, the answer would be a definite no. If you
>come and visit, I would not expect you to behave like a member of my family
>or to follow the rules of behavior that are unique to this house. In
>America, that's considered rude. I would expect you to make some
>accommodations, just as I expect us to make some accommodations for you.
>For example, when we know we have vegetarians visiting, we don't expect them
>to eat meat, we prepare enough veggie food for them to be comfortable eating
>here. We consider that hospitality.
That is exactly what I meant. I don't expect a visitor to behave as a
member of my family. I do however expect him or her to "make some
accomodations", like not putting his feet on the table, or smoking in my
house. It works the other way around to, like, as you said, preparing a
veggie meal if a visitor is vegetarian.
The same thing applies to any tourist in this country. We make some
accomodations, like not getting angry when you do something in a different
way then we do, and speaking to you in your own language, rather than
expecting tourists to learn Dutch (although we too appreciate it if you can
say a few simple phrases like "hello" and "thank you" in Dutch). On the
other hand, we expect tourists to make some accomodations, like not showing
obnoxious behaviour, or smoke in a non-smoking area, claiming that "you
have the right to smoke wherever and whenever you want".
So, bottom line, I think we actually agree on something, Dan... :)
Jeroen
_________________________________________________________________________
Wonderful World of Brin-L Website: http://go.to/brin-l
