« Another bra intervention | Home | Glad I turned back »
A cultural observation
By Meg | July 23, 2007
Just a quick cultural observation I made while in London last week…
The people of London seem very reserved. All in all, they seemed quieter than people here in the U.S.A., and less talkative in general. At the concert, they seemed more restrained than American audiences. In the U.S.A, I’m used to people tapping their feet, giving standing ovations, hollering, etc.
At first, the people of London seemed stand-offish and unenthusiastic. However, the more I got to know the people of London, the more I realized that really they were very nice and polite. When I looked ill or lost, I could almost count on some nice older lady asking me if I needed help. After the concert, many people came up to us and gave us great compliments on our performance.
As for us American tourists, we were our normal loud selves which must have made us seem like barbarians to the locals, when really that’s just our way of showing our excitement.
I can see now how there might be cultural misunderstandings, even between people that share a common language and follow much of the same media.
It is perhaps fitting then that the only souvenir I bought was a book I got at the Imperial War Museum entitled Instructions for American Servicemen in Britain 1942. Written for our soldiers during World War II (among them, my own father), it is full of warnings about possible cultural misunderstandings. Just now as I was writing this last paragraph the book happened to open to page 4, “British reserved, not unfriendly”. Looks like some things are still the same.
So remember when traveling, or just interacting with people from other backgrounds, cultural misunderstandings do happen and often they are hard to detect. Some of the worst misunderstandings and hardest to detect are those that have to do with what is considered “polite”. What is polite to some is rude to others, and vice versa. So, give everyone the benefit of the doubt and explore cultural differences. I’m glad I did, because I found that the people of London were really friendly once I gave them a chance.
Tags: Etiquette
Related Posts:
July 24th, 2007 at 8:40 pm
I couldn’t agree more!!!!!!!! I once worked with a couple of Englishmen, and I thought for the longest time they hated me, because they didn’t speak very much, and weren’t very outgoing/open to talking about themselves. I felt like it was a one-sided conversation most of the time. Turns out, they were just too polite to talk about themselves, and just needed time to be more comfortable with strangers, instead of just blurting out whatever came into their heads. :P
July 25th, 2007 at 10:50 am
I’m glad the truth came out! What an awful feeling it is to think someone hates you and to not even know why!
July 26th, 2007 at 7:16 am
Absolutely…. :) But I’ve also learned that not everyone has to like you ;)
July 26th, 2007 at 2:17 pm
That’s very true! It’s a hard lesson to learn for many, though - even those who don’t expect themselves to like everyone else. Fortunately, it is a lesson that I am learning (with a few tears along the way I’m afraid).
July 27th, 2007 at 6:36 pm
Cultural differences are very real. I noticed that especaily when we lived in France and now that I’m in the US.