Q. When people move to another country, some of them prefer to adopt the customs of the new country. Others prefer to keep their old customs. Which do you prefer?
A.
Everyone should travel at least once, so they say. When we live abroad, the difficulty is sometimes knowing whether to adopt another culture’s customs or not. In my time abroad, I have always preferred to adopt the home country’s customs to keeping my own in order to blend and increase my benefit from my new home.
Adopting another country’s customs is a method of blending. When we blend, we become another background. Going unnoticed in the background matters in countries and cultures with strong homogeneity. In other words, how we navigate another country directly responds to the group’s demand that we fit in. Rogue acting in situations which call for control and not indicating your correct emotional responsibility during sports are not smiled upon in foreign settings. For instance, imagine happiness during the tragic example of Holy Week in southern Spain, where everyone is incapable of joy. Adopting another’s customs is the appropriate response to everyday situations and avoid awkwardness.
One last reason I adopt the other culture is to squeeze benefit from this new place. Since I usually do not know how long I’m staying in a current location, I seek its complete benefits. More generally, in any situation we’re led to believe that expertise is unnecessary. This is false. Tourism, as an ignorant onlooker incapable of suffering or emotional response, is dead. What we need now to benefit translates from know-how and expectations. For example, while in Central America proper nutrition would have been impossible had I let long lines or language dissuade me. I kept my head and the line eventually moved. I was able to reach the cashier. Even paying improved after awhile. I could use the optional credit card with confidence. Adopting cultures plainly increases beneficent returns.
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