Eating Abroad - How to Avoid Being the Ugly American
For those Paper Palate readers here in the United States, Budget Travel offers some tips to help you (and me) avoid being the Ugly American. If you aren’t familiar with that label, Wikipedia defines the term as “an epithet used to refer to perceptions of arrogant, demeaning, unthoughtful behaviors of Americans abroad.” I guess we Americans can sometimes cause a fuss with our boisterous behavior. It’s part of our charm, right? Anyways….
For Paper Palate readers everywhere else in the world, feel free to add comments to this post about other ways we Americans can visit restaurants and dine there without embarrassing ourselves. And, remember that we don’t mean to do it. Well, we usually don’t mean to do it.
Budget Travel offers many tips, but this post will focus on the food etiquette advice. The first tip is to “find the local rhythm.” This includes realizing that getting impatient that a meal isn’t served as quickly as it is at home is often perceived as rude and pushy. One expert says: “In Germany, dinner can take three hours or more,” says Whitmore. “It’s an experience. You can offend the waitstaff by trying to speed up the process.”
Next, Budget Travel warns to “avoid careless judgments.” Commenting that something is different at home in a careless manner can seem “superior and judgmental.” Statements like “I can’t believe this restaurant doesn’t have ice cubes” should be avoided (at least where others can hear you).
Budget Travel also says we should mind our table manners. We have to know what bad manners are in order to avoid them, so this one requires some research on the local customs of your destination. For example, you would need to know that “Chileans expect wine to be poured with the right hand, and that the Japanese frown upon sloshing soy sauce on rice.” If you are served something that makes your stomach turn over, Budget Travel suggests that you “[s]mile and eat as much as you can,” in order to avoid offense.
As someone who hasn’t traveled internationally too often (except to Mexico), I was intrigued by the next piece of advice: “don’t overtip.” In some countries, overtipping is not socially acceptable because: “A taxi driver could easily interpret your tip as flaunting your wealth.” Budget Travel recommends asking the concierge to explain the local attitude towards tipping, then practice by tipping the concierge. The magazine also notes that “[o]f course, undertipping is never a great idea, either.”
[Photo from the Telegraph]
from someone who has lived in france and germany, i have witnessed this several times: there is no need to raise your voice and enunciate every word when you are trying to get someone who doesnt speak english to understand you. i think we do this unconciously, but it’s really unattractive and makes the speaker look very foolish.