"Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook," John Cleese. From Monty Python's Flying Circus, Series 2, Episode 12, "Spam," originally aired December 15, 1970. Transcript available: http://www.montypython.net/scripts/phrasebk.php
There are free and wild spirits out there who go where the wind blows them, caring not whither they may roam. Money? Hotel? Language? Hah! They are FREE! Such things are not worth fretting about! Just go!
Yeah. Good luck with that.
Most of us make some kind of effort to learn something about our destination. Climate. History. Useful phrases. Cultural sensitivities. What gestures that are innocuous here are deeply obscene there. Something.
All of which means guidebooks. Which have been around for a very long time.
The "Seven Wonders of the World" basically date back well over two thousand years, and were a kind of itinerary for Greek (and later Roman) travelers (or as Patsy Cline put it, "See the pyramids along the Nile/Watch the sunrise from a tropic isle/Just remember darling all the while/You belong to me").
Guidebooks and travelogues became a popular literary tradition. One of the great travel books was "The Periplus of the Erythraen Sea," a guide to the ports of the Eastern Mediterranean, Red Sea ("Erythraen" = "Eritrean"), East Africa, and the Indian Ocean, written about 2,000 years ago (you can read the text [in translation] here: http://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/periplus.asp). You can find a nice, non-technical discussion of some of these early travel guides here: http://archive.aramcoworld.com/pdf/2000/200504.pdf).
Guidebooks for Medieval Pilgrims to Jerusalem were hugely popular, and travel literature was popular about the same time in China. Starting in the 16th and 17th centuries cultured Europeans began taking "Grand Tours," and guidebooks were crucial for the young rich idiots who wanted to acquire a "practical" education.
The first guidebook produced for travelers in the United States was apparently Gideon Minor Davison's "The Fashionable Tour," in 1822 (you can find the book here: http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/gideon-m-gideon-miner-davison/the-fashionable-tour--a-guide-to-travellers-visiting-the-middle-and-northern-st-iva.shtml). Today one of the liveliest areas of any book store is going to be the travel guide area. No matter where you're going, there's a guidebook.
What if you're not traveling from the US? What if you're traveling to the US? What kind of advice is given to travelers coming here?
It's an interesting question. And one which is a lot harder to answer than you might think.
For one thing, guidebooks for foreigners are written for foreigners. In foreign languages. Which I don't read. For another, they're not generally for sale here in the good ol' US of A. But a little sleuthing turns up a number of short online excerpts (a list of the guidebooks excerpts is at the bottom of this post).
Just going through these, it's possible to note some common observations about America and Americans:
- Driving: Americans are apparently very obedient when it comes to driving, according to the guides from Japan, Ireland and Australia. This, however, isn't necessarily a good thing. Since we focus on "rules" we're not necessarily all that good at paying attention to what's going on around us.
- Smiling/Friendliness/Laughing: It seems we smile. A lot. A lot. It may not mean all that much, but we are constantly, aggressively, maniacally cheerful. Apparently this frightens and confuses people.
- Eating/Portion Size/Doggy Bags: The French, the Japanese, and oddly enough the Irish seem appalled that American portions are not miserly. Reading the "advice" made me feel like I was being scolded. And our lack of shame at taking food home in a "doggy bag" was also something that brought disapproval (the portions are large, we don't try and eat it all there, we take some home -- seems reasonable to me).
- Sales Tax: The fact that price tags don't show what you'll actually pay infuriates people from the UK, Australia and Ireland. Especially since taxes vary from state to state (even city to city) in the US. In our defense, I'll point out that they rarely vary all that much -- the difference between 8.75% and 7.5% isn't likely to bankrupt a traveler. Unless they're that free spirit I mentioned above.
- Tipping: Equally infuriating to folks from Britain, Australia and Ireland is the idea of a semi-obligatory tip. It's not entirely their fault; many people here in the US aren't aware that the minimum wage laws aren't the same when it comes to food service. In many parts of the country the minimum wage for food servers is $2.13. In Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming it's under $3.00 per hour. Theoretically employers are supposed to make up any difference between the "tipped wage" and the regular minimum wage (nationally $7.25/hour), but let's just say that doesn't always happen.
These are excerpts from an extremely limited sample. But one thing to consider: Do these observations seem reasonable? If not -- how much credence should you give guidebooks?
Selected references:
http://mentalfloss.com/article/55140/10-japanese-travel-tips-visiting-america
http://mentalfloss.com/article/54461/4-russian-travel-tips-visiting-america
http://mentalfloss.com/article/55306/11-french-travel-tips-visiting-america
http://www.bbcamerica.com/anglophenia/2014/05/summer-america-10-pieces-advice-visiting-brits
http://mentalfloss.com/article/55717/12-chinese-travel-tips-visiting-america
http://www.roughguides.com/article/18-things-everyone-should-know-before-visiting-the-usa/
http://mentalfloss.com/article/62180/8-german-travel-tips-visiting-america
http://www.traveller.com.au/usa-travel-tips-20-surprising-things-visitors-will-discover-ggyxww
http://www.takenbythewind.com/2015/01/13/travel-advice-other-countries-give-to-people-visiting-the-usa/
http://www.fluentin3months.com/usa-clashes/
I recall you read an 18th century commentary--Teilhard de Chardon perhaps?--making snotty remarks about us country bumpkin sorts.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely not Teilhard de Chardin, since he wasn't an 18th century person (born 1881, died 1955). Could you be thinking of Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859 -- which is 19th century, but close enough)? Personally I'm not fond of de Tocqueville' he seems to be every conservative's favorite foreign observer (though in fairness he condemned both slavery and the mistreatment of Native Americans). Charles Dickens made some interesting observations about America in his "American Notes," based on his visit in 1842, has some nice commentary, some of it quite complimentary, some of it pretty critical.
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