Get There

Nothing is more exhilirating, terrifying, and hunbling as taking a trip abroad.

When I was 15, I spent a summer as an exchange student in Lochristi, a small town outside of Ghent that was famous for its begonias. FOr three months, I was surrounded by white people speaking Flemish. I was the only Asian for 100 miles. They wrote a story about me in the local tnewspaper. I loved it.

When I travel now, I try to do my homework. Try is the operative word. My list of recent boo-boos includes...

• Landing in Barcelona not knowing that they speak Catala, not Spanish
• Not understanding tha India is culturally similar to Japan
• Asking for directions in French while in Montreal

Trying to Be a Good Traveler

I think the difference between a good traveler and the proverbial "ugly American" lies in making an effort. Saying things like "your country is the smaller than the state I live in" is probably not the best way to make friends.

We've started watching BBC game shows recently, and we're amazed at how little British people know about Belgium or Denmark or France, all of which are closer to the UK than San Francisco is to Los Angeles. This is the ugly American in me. The fact is that my next door neighbor speaks a language that I don't understand and is from a culture I have no knowledge of.

Travel-ish

Communication is a key skill in my line of work, which means that a trip to a non-English speaking country creates huge amounts of anxiety.

When we were in Paris last May, we stopped at a touristy bistro near the Grand Palais. Seated at the table across from us was a young family from Italy. The husband was speaking broken French to the waitress and giggling as he struggled through his lunch order. There, I thought, is a great traveler: not afraid to make mistakes and doing his best to navigate the local language.

For some reason, I forget that even Europeans are faced with the same challenges as an American (I blame this on my summer as a exchange student, where I lived with a family that spoke five languages fluently).

You have to think on your feet for the most mundane tasks, and do your best not to offend the locals. If you've done your homework before you arrive, everything is easier, and you may even be welcomed with open arms...except in Spain, which is full of leftover Franco fascists.

I've had plenty of adventures abroad, and every American owes it to themselves to see how the rest of the world perceives us.

Asian Benefits

There are advantages to not looking like a "typical" American. I've pretended not to speak English when a drunk in an airport bar made a sloppy pass, and I've shared my "expert" opinion on Shintoism, even though I was raised Methodist. It's awesome.