Etiquette Lessons

When you travel you pick up various tastes. You may like Mate herbal tea or Italian Nutella. If you're like me you shriek whenever you see the Spanish clothing brand Mango. But when does cultural curiosity go beyond just that and become just plain obnoxious?

I feel like you need to step into the shoes of a physics major to answer the question: it's all relative. If I am with friends at home and pronounce bruschetta not at broo-shet-ah, but as broo-skay-ta, I am commonly met with mocking tones. Apparently I'm too cultured to say it like the rest of America. But why should I say it wrong? Just because everyone else is saying it wrong? Should I fall in line and conform with acceptable cultural norms because others have not had the same experience? I've come to the conclusion that yes, yes I should. It's hard to convey your own personal travel and self-discovery to others. You come off pretentious rather than informed. As snobby rather than worldly. Just avoid the conflict in general and eat your toasted bread and tomatoes.

I do, however, react differently with people who have had similar travel experiences. You have a common base. An understanding that there is an incredibly complex world out there and you only know a little bit about it. I can sit there and pronounce "yo hablo" without emphasizing the 'h' and not be criticized for it. Perhaps this is why I feel more comfortable when I travel than when I'm in the United States. Perhaps this is why I made a promise to myself senior year of high school that I would leave the country at least once every year for the rest of my life.

Good, bad, or indifferent, I feel that traveling both isolates you in your native land, and exposes you to many foreign ones. But, if this is the price I have to pay to understand the world I live in, I'll gladly pay it.