When I started out traveling, I was very ignorant of the world. Still am, in so many ways. But when I was really "green" (like Kermit) and young, I knew basics about certain things (e.g. capitals, our allies, our enemies, places with good food, some famous people here and there), but not nearly enough to have a really good conversation with anybody. Some of it was due to not having enough life experience. Some of it was the educational system - even though I completed four years of college. Some of it was the lack of encouragement within the environment to inquire about things, or to spend time on what's perceived to be unnecessary topics.
While traveling, once you become more and more aware of your own ignorance, it's a bit disconcerting. Whoa! As human beings, there's a longing often times for certainty - to know things, to be sure about things. Maybe the more we know or think we know, the more relaxed we feel. It can be humiliating or embarrassing to say, "I don't know." For many, the less we know, our anxiety tends to rise. And when you're traveling, and everything you're experiencing is new, you're constantly realizing how naive and clueless you really are. On group tours - and I think this is a reason people choose them - the anxiety you might feel is lessened, just simply by the fact you are in a group and everybody is going through this together. And on group tour, you're less likely to truly interact with a local or expat in the country (ies) you're visiting. And as you're traveling together, you can always fill time with pleasant small talk about home. And there's nothing wrong with that. Human nature. Psychology 101. We desire to feel comfortable. But if you're solo traveling or living overseas, it's just different. Unless you're an extreme introvert and great at walling off the outside world, you're going to be up close and personal with the society. I would think that's one of the reasons you're there - to experience it fully. You could be sitting in a coffee shop in, let's say in Spain, and at the table next to you is a traveler from India or Germany or Australia or perhaps a citizen from your home country (maybe from a different region). Often you fall into conversations with these other travelers. It could be as simple as finding out where somebody is from, how long they have been in the country, and what they're up to next. Sometimes, though, it leads to moving over to their table and having a deeper conversation or making arrangements to meet up later to explore a part of the city you're both strangers in. I have had many experiences like this. And inevitably, some varied topics would come up - some they initiate, some I initiated. Are Texans and Alabamians similar in their thinking and culture? Are people in Australia very religious? Have you noticed some weird things about the country we're in? Why is your country so friendly with country X, when they have a totalitarian dictatorship and suppress freedom of speech? Why don't Americans learn other languages? Do you have right and left wing politics in Japan, and what do they each stand for? When you visited my home country, what impression did you have? Why isn't soccer popular in the United States? What are your thoughts on the wars in the Middle East and what's going in Russian and Ukraine?
Some of those topics are heavy. How would you handle a situation like this? Would you try to talk it out the best you can? Or maybe try to bullshit your way out of it? Would you crawl underneath the table? Would you smile? Or would you say you need to research things a bit more? Is it just fine to express that you don't know, and perhaps sit there and get insight from them? Or is it wise to shift the conversation to something else. It's inevitable, though, if you're traveling alone or certainly living in another country, that you will have to talk about more, think a bit more. And if you don't know something, it's apparent. Trust me.
I recall, after traveling to Vietnam, and discovering how little I know, that I would test some folks back home to see if they knew some basic things about Vietnam. These were the questions I came up with.
1. How many people live in Vietnam?
2. What does Ho Chi Minh mean?
3. Is Vietnam a landlocked country or does it have a coastline?
4. When did the Vietnam War begin and when did it end?
5. What do the Vietnamese call the Vietnam War?
6. How many people died in the Vietnam War?
And these are the responses I got from one person. This individual has a university degree. and general interest in politics and world affairs (more so than many back home).
1. How many people live in Vietnam? 22 million
2. What does Ho Chi Minh mean? no idea
3. Is Vietnam a landlocked country, or does it have a coastline? landlocked
4. When did the Vietnam War begin and when did it end? began 1963, ended 1975
5. What do the Vietnamese call the Vietnam War? American War
6. How many people died in the Vietnam War? 165,000
Prior to traveling to Vietnam, I wouldn't have gotten close on any of these, except the time period of the war. It was only when I traveled to Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) and picked up a Lonely Planet travel guide. Population number still surprises me. 80 million is a lot. I also have seen where 3 million are known to have died during the American War, as they call it. Ho Chi Minh was the Thomas Jefferson or Fidel Castro of Vietnam. He left Vietnam when he was young and worked in Paris and New York, all the time vowing to return to Vietnam to free the Vietnamese from their colonial power, France. His mausoleum is in Hanoi. When I was in Vietnam the first time, I spent time with a young guy from England. He was planning to take a train up the coast, and said it was must-do, that the beaches were beautiful. I didn't do it. Three US presidents obviously were at the helm during the war. Kennedy was there at the start.
When I started out traveling, I was very ignorant of the world. Still am, in so many ways. But when I was really "green" (like Kermit) and young, I knew basics about certain things (e.g. capitals, our allies, our enemies, places with good food, some famous people here and there), but not nearly enough to have a really good conversation with anybody. Some of it was due to not having enough life experience. Some of it was the educational system - even though I completed four years of college. Some of it was the lack of encouragement within the environment to inquire about things, or to spend time on what's perceived to be unnecessary topics.
While traveling, once you become more and more aware of your own ignorance, it's a bit disconcerting. Whoa! As human beings, there's a longing often times for certainty - to know things, to be sure about things. Maybe the more we know or think we know, the more relaxed we feel. It can be humiliating or embarrassing to say, "I don't know." For many, the less we know, our anxiety tends to rise. And when you're traveling, and everything you're experiencing is new, you're constantly realizing how naive and clueless you really are. On group tours - and I think this is a reason people choose them - the anxiety you might feel is lessened, just simply by the fact you are in a group and everybody is going through this together. And on group tour, you're less likely to truly interact with a local or expat in the country (ies) you're visiting. And as you're traveling together, you can always fill time with pleasant small talk about home. And there's nothing wrong with that. Human nature. Psychology 101. We desire to feel comfortable. But if you're solo traveling or living overseas, it's just different. Unless you're an extreme introvert and great at walling off the outside world, you're going to be up close and personal with the society. I would think that's one of the reasons you're there - to experience it fully. You could be sitting in a coffee shop in, let's say in Spain, and at the table next to you is a traveler from India or Germany or Australia or perhaps a citizen from your home country (maybe from a different region). Often you fall into conversations with these other travelers. It could be as simple as finding out where somebody is from, how long they have been in the country, and what they're up to next. Sometimes, though, it leads to moving over to their table and having a deeper conversation or making arrangements to meet up later to explore a part of the city you're both strangers in. I have had many experiences like this. And inevitably, some varied topics would come up - some they initiate, some I initiated. Are Texans and Alabamians similar in their thinking and culture? Are people in Australia very religious? Have you noticed some weird things about the country we're in? Why is your country so friendly with country X, when they have a totalitarian dictatorship and suppress freedom of speech? Why don't Americans learn other languages? Do you have right and left wing politics in Japan, and what do they each stand for? When you visited my home country, what impression did you have? Why isn't soccer popular in the United States? What are your thoughts on the wars in the Middle East and what's going in Russian and Ukraine?
Some of those topics are heavy. How would you handle a situation like this? Would you try to talk it out the best you can? Or maybe try to bullshit your way out of it? Would you crawl underneath the table? Would you smile? Or would you say you need to research things a bit more? Is it just fine to express that you don't know, and perhaps sit there and get insight from them? Or is it wise to shift the conversation to something else. It's inevitable, though, if you're traveling alone or certainly living in another country, that you will have to talk about more, think a bit more. And if you don't know something, it's apparent. Trust me.
I recall, after traveling to Vietnam, and discovering how little I know, that I would test some folks back home to see if they knew some basic things about Vietnam. These were the questions I came up with.
1. How many people live in Vietnam?
And these are the responses I got from one person. This individual has a university degree. and general interest in politics and world affairs (more so than many back home).
1. How many people live in Vietnam? 22 million
2. What does Ho Chi Minh mean? no idea
3. Is Vietnam a landlocked country, or does it have a coastline? landlocked
4. When did the Vietnam War begin and when did it end? began 1963, ended 1975
5. What do the Vietnamese call the Vietnam War? American War
6. How many people died in the Vietnam War? 165,000
Prior to traveling to Vietnam, I wouldn't have gotten close on any of these, except the time period of the war. It was only when I traveled to Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) and picked up a Lonely Planet travel guide. Population number still surprises me. 80 million is a lot. I also have seen where 3 million are known to have died during the American War, as they call it. Ho Chi Minh was the Thomas Jefferson or Fidel Castro of Vietnam. He left Vietnam when he was young and worked in Paris and New York, all the time vowing to return to Vietnam to free the Vietnamese from their colonial power, France. His mausoleum is in Hanoi. When I was in Vietnam the first time, I spent time with a young guy from England. He was planning to take a train up the coast, and said it was must-do, that the beaches were beautiful. I didn't do it. Three US presidents obviously were at the helm during the war. Kennedy was there at the start.
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