Travel Schmravel
I was just perusing (browsing/ viewing) some pictures of a friend of mine on her escapades around the world. This whole "travel" thing is overrated. Totally overrated.
There is a difference between "experiencing" a different culture and having an "experience" in a different culture. Let me explain.
Roots
One of my most influential teachers (Herminio Teixeira, "Western Political Theory") made very stern his recommendation that if we, the students, want to broaden our horizons, we need to travel. That wasn't influential, but it echoed what I have been hearing from people for years. Too bad this advice cuts short of a more meaningful insight. It is not where you travel that is important but what you experience at the destination.
When you go to Russia, China, wherever, for that one week you don't experience that culture. You experience just how different things can be from your common experience. So the people talk weird, the money is funny, and the old people are respected. So the people live a life by the sea and the people are carefree and fun. Stop. I'm bored.
The philosophy
To experience a culture, you need to live it like the culture does - like the local people. Experience comes with growth, and growth needs firm roots planted into the ground. You need to establish yourself and grow with the change. You're not going to get that from your hotel nor flashing your bills around the street buying every cent you can of the culture.
Case analysis
So I have friends who have been to "Cuba", lounging by the beach. That's not Cuba. That's a gated American resort where you don't see the armed guards beyond the barbed-wire fences that are just beyond your view. Sure, things are cheaper, your dollar goes far, the drinks taste great and the bigwig that got you there is covering his back. You don't know Cuba - but you got what you needed - an "experience" in "Cuba" that lets you avoid and forget the hardship of life back home and a conversation topic with people who can scratch your back if they let you scratch theirs.
But my friend got an experience...
The experience, and culture shock people get on vacation, isn't precipitated (enacted, triggered, caused by) by the culture you visit. It is caused by the removal of your own culture and the exercise of thinking outside your mind. Yes Virginia, there is a culture beyond our own. But you can't buy the experience with dollars and cents, and you cannot put an arrival date for when you will get that experience.
One's experience of their life and surroundings can even be completely different growing up in a different house on your street. It's a question of opening your eyes and getting your perspective from a vantage point that reveals truth. Analogy: Let's say you find a house and it appears everything inside is green. You live in a house and it appears that everything outside is blue. Perspectives on the world, although entirely accurate, are not true - our houses can have tinted windows.
Suggestion:
If you want an experience, go out and sleep on the street. You'll get an experience, and you'll learn a thing or two, about yourself and your surroundings, such as how difficult it is to live on the street, and how much you rely on your personal belongings.
Firmer suggestion:
You still want an experience? Get out there in the world. Work. Live. Do as the common people do. When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Your pictures of stunning scenery do not impress me. Your experience with overcoming adversity, hardship and the culture barrier impress me. Like the stories told to me by my ex-roommate when he lived for like a year somewhere in Africa. I forget where he went, I forget how long he went, but his stories are damn interesting and beat anything I've heard about how cool and nifty Europe or anywhere else is.
Oh yeah Doug, what about you?
So I haven't travelled. So I haven't seen the leaning tower of Pisa or the Pyramids of Egypt. I have no interest to either. The people interest me. I will go to find the cultural mirror that exposes me to the prejudices and conveniences I hold. When I come back to Canada, I hope I tried my hardest to endure, experience and enjoy Hong Kong. I also hope it will help me when I try my hardest to endure, experience and enjoy my road towards my aspirations.
Relax, Doug.
So that's my firm babble for this evening. Take it as you will. These are views I have had for a while, but certainly articulated with a more firm approach since having a more firm experience to grasp on.
Mind you the grain of salt is in plenty supply - I still can't communicate with the locals and my family and family friends and family-friends'-friends are helping immensely to catalyze (ease) the experience and soothe the culture shock, a benefit not afforded by all, not even the locals. It's my fourth week. Wish me luck.
My cousin and I enjoying our travelling exploits around Hong Kong
posted by Canadian "Civil" Servant at 02:47
2 Comments:
Certainly, I wish you luck. Although you already have plenty. Remember my definition of luck? (Well it's not really MY definition. I stole it from somebody else, who probably stole himself it from someone less notable.) "Luck is preparation meeting opportunity."
It's obvious that you are well-prepared for the opportunity at hand. So yes, relax and enjoy this great adventure.
"Too bad this advice cuts short of a more meaningful insight. It is not where you travel that is important but what you experience at the destination."
This actually sounds familiar, so I think we may have had this conversation already at some point. But I think when people say they are travelling, the experience is usually what people want (and probably what your prof meant too). People who go to resorts do not usually refer to their trip as 'experiencing cuba' but vacationing in cuba.
I agree that it's way more valuable to go to a city and spend time learning what it's like from the perspective of locals -- that's the only way you'll really experience the place, and it doesn't even require going and living somewhere for a year or two. It can be done in a month or two if you make a point of seeking out those landmarks that define the city for residents. The eiffel tower, while an important part of Paris, is not what the locals do and see, but it still is a part of the city and the city's history, so there's no harm in climbing it, or taking photos of it either. I'm not quite sure what you got from your friend's photos, but they don't necessarily reflect what she may have experienced there.
Anyway, my point is you can get to know a city by living with families or getting to know locals. Sometimes the cities try and keep the tourists from seeing particular aspects (ex. poverty), so it's useful to have people who can take you around and show you what is there and tell you what to be careful of. Not everyone has this luxury though.
Anyway, blahblah.
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