May 8, 2006
Innocents Abroad
OpinionJournal has an interesting article, Innocents Abroad: A new guidebook offers Americans advice on how to behave overseas, by Martha Bayles. Excerpt:
Poor Yankee Doodle. Our lovable bumptious boy, given to bragging about his bank account at top volume through a mouthful of fries while sticking his sneaker-clad feet into other people's faces, has been diagnosed as antisocial by a significant number of foreigners. As red-blooded Americans, our first reaction was, "Say it ain't so! The world loves us, right?" But then Doodle's behavior began to hit us where it hurts, in the pocketbook. So we decided to take steps.In a nutshell, this is the story behind the "World Citizens Guide," conceived in 2003 by Keith Reinhard, chairman of DDB Worldwide, an international advertising firm.
The articles goes on to note "... the first 'World Citizens Guide' lists four reasons why the world dislikes America: 'foreign policy,' the 'negative effects of globalization,' 'our popular culture' and 'our collective personality.' "
In my experience, you might be correct if you insert the word "European elites" for "the world" in the sentence above.
In Asia, Africa and Latin America, and even much of Europe, regular folks lap up our popular culture, befriend Americans and don't appear to give a moment's thought to globalization.
Further, annual inmigration rates of 1 million or more to the United States belie any notion that foreigners overwhelming dislike this country.
That isn't to say that American expatriates and tourists are perfect. We all learn to modulate our voice volume, wait for explicit invitations to come into a home or a room, avoid personal questions and try to read when "yes" means "maybe" or "no" in another culture. In that sense, a "World Citizen Guide" should be valuable for the more doltish.
Just be sure to give this booklet to European tourists, too, who (providing one of potentially hundreds of real incidents I've observed) chatter nonstop during Brazilian religious ceremonies while the Americans watch in silent respect (as I mentioned in the Brazil chapter of 
An Amateur's Guide to the Planet).
- posted by jbelliveau at 5:47 PM in Love, Sex, Romance and Travel
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