> -----Original Message----- > From: J. van Baardwijk [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: Saturday, June 02, 2001 6:44 AM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: Pride and Arrogance Re: American Attitudes (wasRe: > Hardworking?) > > > At 22:01 1-6-01 -0400, John Giorgis wrote: > > >At 06:00 PM 5/29/01 +0200 J. van Baardwijk wrote: > > >producing way to many decibels in conversations. > > > >This has nothing to do with arrogance, and everything to do > with cultural > >differences. > > I wrote "[..] Americans whose behaviour abroad can only be > described as > arrogant and loudmouthed". I think it's rather obvious that > "producing way > to many decibels" goes in the "loudmouthed" category, not the > "arrogant" > category. > > 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. It may take some getting used to, but it That is not as easy to do as mentioned. Some things are very counter to what is done here. For instance, bringing a bottle of wine to a hosted dinner in Italy is considered very rude. We do the opposite here (in the US), especially if Italian cuisine is to be served. There are many examples where we would appear very rude in other parts of the world. Consider Americans being loudmouths. In America, it is considered rude to whisper, and loudmouths are tolerated, and sometimes they are amusing. What is rude is to speak some other language loudly in front of people. I was on a crowded elevator yesterday, and two Germans we conversing and laughing loudly. They were not loudmouths, but it was extremely annoying. Cultural annoyances go both ways! > will definitely > be appreciated (as Sonja and I found out in Thailand). > > When you have guests in your house, wouldn't you expect them > to live by > your rules while they are there? In Thailand, you take rice out of a bowl, roll it up into a ball, and dip it into sauces. How would any American know this without reading it. How do you, as a host, attempt to fill in the gaps of what are ordinary house rules to us Americans? Nerd From Hell > > > Jeroen > > ______________________________________________________________ > ___________ > Wonderful World of Brin-L Website: > http://go.to/brin-l > >
