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Learning from Cross-Cultural Experiences
by Melissa Hess, State spouse.Living in a foreign culture provides opportunities to observe how people live, act, and think. One sees an entirely different side of life that tourists never see. In every post, I have found opportunities to gain insights into other cultures by interacting with people in ordinary, daily activities.
For example, most people find food shopping routine and unexciting. However, as a Foreign Service spouse who has lived and shopped in different cultures, I have found shopping anything but dull. (I'm certain that other spouses reading this will agree). Whether in Paris arguing with an irritated fruit vendor, in Kaduna bargaining with a Nigerian merchant, or in Leningrad waiting in line with Russian babushkas, I view buying food as an opportunity to learn about people.
Parisian markets were bountifully supplied with beautifully displayed fruits and vegetables. Despite the enticing surroundings, impatient Parisian merchants often made shopping an unpleasant experience. Merchants shouted at me for selecting my own fruit, instead of asking for assistance from the clerk, scolded me for requesting vegetables by the piece, rather than by the kilo, and chided me for having the temerity to give back items I considered to be of unacceptable quality. Shopkeepers even snubbed me for making grammatical errors in French. They preferred no business at all to dealing with requests that disrupted their accustomed patterns.
In Nigeria, foreigners were always struck by the shocking physical features and pervasive smells of the Kaduna Central Market. Meat and produce lay unrefrigerated all day under a hot African sun. Unbathed humans and animals lounged in every shady corner. People urinated wherever they found a spot. By the end of the day, the combination of smells could overpower the foreign shopper. The profusion of physically deformed beggars also shocked foreign shoppers. Blind people sang for alms and polio victims crawled about dragging their bent, withered legs through the dust. Even lepers with faces and fingers eaten away by the disease approached shoppers for money. Despite the disease and poverty, shopping at the Kaduna market was usually a pleasant experience because whether the merchant's approached was relaxed or aggressive, he always treated the customer in a human way. Even hard-bargaining sessions ended with a laugh and a smile. My limited use of Hausa, the local language, occasioned amazement and pleasure--far different from the disdainful looks produced by my language deficiencies in French markets. One merchant regularly gave me a few extra tomatoes--what the Nigerians call "a dash"--to encourage my continued patronage. The merchants' livelihood depended on shoppers. Their interaction with customers, far from being a nuisance, represented for them an essential and valued part of their profession.
Shoppers, not merchants, fill my marketplace memories of Leningrad. Russians took shopping seriously. Basic foods were available, but if the homemaker wanted more than cabbage and beets, she had to constantly be alert for the unexpected discovery. A centrally planned economy grew and distributed food according to the dictates of the bureaucracy, not the consumer In theory, this provided for a "scientific" distribution of food among the populace, but no Soviet citizen was ever able to unravel the logic of the system. No one knew when or where bananas would next appear. Vegetable stalls would be flooded with oranges one week--the next week oranges would disappear completely. The shopper' screed was "Be prepared." No woman would venture out without her "just-in-case" carrying sack and roll of rubles. If a line began to form, the astute shopper joined in first and asked questions later. While line "standees "often seemed gruff and "pushy" to me, line-standing had its own code of etiquette, and any breach of the rules brought instant admonishments from one's fellow citizens. No one cut into line except the handicapped, veterans with proper I.D., and occasionally women carrying babies. It was acceptable; however, to ask the person in front of you to hold your place while you go do other shopping. In fact, the seasoned shopper would work two or three lines simultaneously.
Food shopping in a foreign culture gives an outsider the opportunity to observe the "natives "in one of their most fundamental, unadorned activities. Shopping is an excellent way to see how people interact with one another and offers clues to basic values. In every Foreign Service post, there is much that can be learned about people by interacting with them in ordinary, daily activities. The opportunities abound, if we are attentive and look for them.
Melissa Hess is the Managing Editor of Foreign Service Lifelines. She currently is an instructor of English as a Second Language at Thunderbird--The American Graduate School of International Management in Glendale, Arizona.