Chopsticks

While I was out at lunch with family and some family friends, an aunty posed the following question at me before our food arrived: “Do you know how to use chopsticks?”

I could only stare at her, flabbergasted. Remember, I am half-Chinese, spent my childhood summers in Hong Kong, and am halfway through studying abroad in Beijing for a year. Do I know how to use chopsticks? Damn straight I do. I would be a downright embarrassment to my family and myself if I didn’t know how!

While I know this isn’t what the aunty was getting at, it made me think of the foreigners who come to places like China and refuse to adapt to local cultures, customs, and traditions. I don’t expect everyone who comes to China to know how to use chopsticks beforehand (although that would be the most practical) but I do expect those people to be willing to learn how to use them upon arriving in China. I do expect visitors to be open minded to the things they experience, encounter, and see in China. I’ve seen foreigners get frustrated with the salespeople and wait staff in China because of the worker’s inability to successfully communicate in English. It frustrates me to no end when visitors expect locals to speak languages like English fluently but have made no attempt whatsoever at learning the local language to help ease communication barriers.

It’s scary to step outside of a comfort zone; I’m not denying that. But honestly, if you’re going to requests forks at every eating establishment, eat only Western food (or the equivalent of whatever food is “safest” or most familiar), make no effort in learning the local language, etc., why bother going abroad?

It just seems like a waste of time.

Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.