27 January 2007

How Foreign Are You, Really?



How will travel change you?

That is the question in a frequently-printed advertisement of the L.A. Times leading to a gala event of travel and adventure show in February.

Sure, the picture pasted in that ad shows a man wearing a suit paired with a pinned nose bone the Maori way; or a woman wearing a sea shell bra and long lei necklace. The gist is obvious: we surely adopt something as a result of traveling.

But, the point I am making here is how travel will change you, not.

Ok. This is all about focus of perspective. Both qualities, of changing or staying the same, are valid.

When you change a little, due to traveling or other contacts, most of your being just stay intact. Or, even if you change a lot, some part of you still holds on to that old thing from the past. No one changes totally.

Stiglizt may call it globalization. The fact is we are accommodating something foreign into our being everyday. As citizens of the world, we are all hybrids of so many cultures and backgrounds. But, even when we take in some, we will always keep some (of the old). The case is more complex when you do not just travel but live in a foreign country.

That is perhaps the reason why there is something of the old standing together with the new. Otherwise, how can we explain the existence of, for instance, a China town in New York or Los Angeles. There is this Little Tokyo in Los Angeles, even Little Saigon. Something that was left behind is being transformed into something of here and now.

Amazingly, a quickly flourishing part of the city of Los Angeles is, in fact, the Koreatown area.

If you are brought and dropped there blindfolded and suddenly open your eyes, you would probably think that is Seoul or Kwangju just by glimpsing at those so many Korean characters in business billboards. When you take a quick look and see so many Asians around, you would probably be more convinced and think that the white, black and Latino individuals passing by as just tourists.

True, that is Los Angeles, a very multi-cultured city in America.

The point remains---even if you change, what changed is just some part of you. It is within the foreign setting, however, that process of cultural accommodation occurs more deeply.

So, a person of Chinese, Korean, Philippino, Indian, Bangladesh or Indonesian background will pick up and adapt to the local way, acting like an American. While some may absorb the good quality, some others may just translate liberty or equality into self-centered attitude or sarcasm.

All of a sudden there stand the newly-cultured individuals that whine on everything else but failing on self-criticism. Only after a dose of Uncle Sam, you would also find some who would see their home country as just the place of the corrupt and the incompetent.

Yet, even so, people will never really change fully.

As Americans in other countries missing their home, including their favorite pancakes, foreigners in America experience the same things. Small things can be what are missed badly.

So the Middle Eastern immigrants will still go for the kebab, for instance, the Korean eat bulgogi, while for the Indonesians the ikan asin or salty dried fish will still be favorite.

Now, tell me, how will travel change you? Not?

1 comments:

Fitri - saya turis... said...

hi om, being an x-diplomat daughter myself, you're blog intrigued me.

just wanted to share my own experience in this matter. because of my upbringing (living from one country to the next), i have acquired a different set of standards than most indonesians, which sometimes leads me to feel like a foreigner in my own country.

until today (after living in jakarta for 6 consecutive years), i still can't understand how people can be so laid-back about being late!

so does travelling change you? i think it really does! does travelling not change you? in the short run, it doesn't...but in the long run...that "new something" that you have learnt, will be come the "old thing" that remains with you...

am i making any sense? hahaha...maybe not.. :)