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Culture Shock: The generous hostess
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Jul 18 05:49 UTC 1995 |
You are in a foreign country where you don't speak the language,
and are staying in the home of a neighbor of a relative, along with a few
other American friends. The woman whose house you are staying in doesn't
speak a word of English, and you and your friends don't speak more than a
few words of the language she speaks. None the less, she is being a very
generous hostess, having provided beds for the night, and then in the morning
making it very clear that she wants you to take a bath in her very dirty
bathtub, and then come eat breakfast. You do not take a bath there, knowing
that there are showers and clean clothes to change into at the hotel a mile
away where more friends and family are staying, and follow her into her dining
room for breakfast..
She serves you some very good breaded chicken, which you eat. As you
are eating it, she leaves the room, and then walks back through the room
carrying some raw chicken on her way to the kitchen. As she walks through
the room she stops to talk to you and your friends for a few minutes, putting
the raw chicken down on the table as she talks. You and your friends don't
understand a single word she says during the whole conversation. She then
picks up the raw chicken off the table cloth and goes into the kitchen. She
comes out a minute later with a loaf of bread.
Looking forward to the bread, you are upset to notice that she puts
it down in the same spot on the table where the raw chicken had been a minute
before. You no longer want to eat the bread at that point, but don't want
to be impolite either. You and your friends discuss it in English, and decide
that it is still safe to eat the bread, as long as you cut off the part that
has been in contact with the table. Then she starts slicing the bread, lying
the slices flat in the puddle left by the raw chicken. You realize then that
it is not safe to eat the bread at all.
As you are still trying to figure out how to politely refuse the bread,
she comes back into the room. This time she's carrying a bottle of vodka,
and as you are trying to turn it down in a mixture of English and the few
words you know of the language she speaks she pours you all glasses of the
vodka. You don't normally drink alcohol, and especially not vodka for
breakfast. She is standing there seemingly urging you to drink the vodka,
and also seeming a bit concerned about why you aren't eating the bread she
gave you.
You know that she has been putting a lot of effort into providing
things for you, and will be offended if you don't eat her food and drink her
vodka. Again, you can't explain to her why you don't want to eat the bread
or drink the vodka, and you don't want to be impolite or ungrateful. How do
you handle the situation?
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zook
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response 4 of 14:
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Jul 24 03:17 UTC 1995 |
Soak the bread in the vodka for as long as you can, then slurp up some of
the mix. With luck, you will have sterilized the bread and disgusted your
hostess so she won't offer another time. Best of all, what can she say?
You tell her it's an American thing to eat your bread that way. If she
does persist on future occasions, then you start making signs like you
have an ulcer, so you shouldn't drink (and thus, not have the bread).
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