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Navigating Cultural Differences

In this post, I would like to reflect on a critical incident that occurred since I arrived in my study abroad country. Recently, I had to have a conversation with the program manager responsible for arranging my Spanish classes. The purpose of this discussion was to request a change in host families as my current family resides quite far from the town, making it challenging for me to socialize in the evenings after the bus route ends in the late afternoon.

At the moment of the conversation, I remember feeling quite nervous. I spent time rehearsing my story and planning out what I was going to say. However, once I had the opportunity to speak with the program manager, I felt a sense of relief and assurance. The situation was resolved satisfactorily, and I was content with the outcome.

From my perspective, this incident involved elements of culture that influenced the way I approached the conversation. In Costa Rica, I discovered that people tend to be less conflict-oriented. They prefer expressing their discontent or dissatisfaction in a more subtle and pleasant manner. This cultural norm meant that I needed to find a way to convey my request convincingly without coming across as rude or demanding, respecting the local cultural expectations of conflict resolution.

Considering the program manager’s point of view, I believe they were also influenced by cultural elements. They likely valued maintaining a harmonious and positive environment, which aligns with the cultural preference for non-confrontational communication. Their willingness to listen and find a solution without creating unnecessary tension further highlights the cultural elements at play in our interaction.

If I were to use a metaphor to describe this experience, I find the camera lens metaphor fitting. What initially seemed like a simple resolution to a problem became more complex due to the cultural differences in conflict resolution. The varying degrees of sharpness and blurriness symbolize the need to navigate between cultural norms while still addressing my concerns effectively.

From this experience, I have discovered the significance of being aware of cultural differences and prioritizing cultural understanding in my interactions. While I was fortunate to have received orientation about these cultural nuances from my program, it has underscored the importance of proactively seeking knowledge about cultural norms in the future. Understanding and respecting the cultural expectations of a country or a particular group of people will undoubtedly be a higher priority on my list moving forward.

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Pfingstmontag

I was hungry last Monday. Sadly, if you had looked in my backpack, on the table, or in the fridge of my AirBnB, you wouldn’t have been able to find anything to remedy this situation. It wasn’t as if Vienna had run out of food, or I had run out of euros. No, it was Pfingstmontag, that is, Pentecost, celebrated fifty days after the Resurrection, when the Holy Ghost had descended upon the gathered Apostles. An unfortunate two thousand year chain of events followed, culminating in me starving in my lofted bed.

The problem was that all the grocery stores were closed. Further compounding this was the fact that Pfingstmontag naturally takes place after a Sunday, where most European stores are also closed, meaning two consecutive days without access to groceries. To add insult to injury, Pfingstmontag was a feast day. Of course, most Austrians had planned around this problem, and had wisely purchased their food before the public holiday, but me being the clueless American that I was (am?) had not done so, resulting in my unchecked hunger. At the time I was outraged, and sulked to myself along the following lines: “Don’t Austrians know that people need to eat? You know in America, everything’s twenty-four seven, right? Why is everyone so lazy here?”

I talked to Josef, my German tutor, about this. He said (in German) that Austria has so many public holidays—Pfingstmontag is just one among many, you can check the national calendar online—was mainly because of the strength of labor unions here. Sure, Pentecost is a religious event, and Catholicism is still fairly practiced in Austria, but the reason Europe has so many holidays and the U.S. so little isn’t really thanks to the laity. Still less is this difference because of some quirk in the calendar.

Rather, the unions here had fought for these holidays as a time of rest, a carefully drawn boundary where people can relax apart from the stresses involved in busily accumulating capital for others. I started noticing this difference in other parts of life, too: businesses close much earlier in the day here. The Viennese have more time for themselves, perhaps to spend time in cafes, to read, to talk, to smoke. Indeed, the legacy of “Red Vienna”—when the city was governed for years by the Social Democrats, who constructed affordable housing blocks and initiated welfare programs—continues to this day, even leading to the New York Times to dub the city a “renter’s utopia.” Given how my American perspective has trained me to treat the dominance of finance over the public good with a kind of inevitability, my experience of Vienna has shown me the possibility of a radically different, and dare I say better, relationship between labor and capital. Even if this experience had to began with an empty stomach.

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Blog Post #1 – Pre-Departure Expectations

Today marks one week till I leave my home and travel to Buenos Aires, Argentina for an eight-week language acquisition and cultural immersion program. While there are countless thoughts and emotions running through my head this week, the underlying one is without a doubt excitement. South America is a new continent for me and the prospect of traveling to the southern hemisphere fills me to the brim with anticipation. I am most looking forward to the unique traditions and cultural heritage, and can’t wait to explore both the nature of the region and the city streets of Buenos Aires. I imagine myself a month from now eating exquisite cuisine and tango dancing the night away.

All my research about the city taught me that the charm of Buenos Aires is due to the unique population that comprises the city which blends European customs with a combination of Latin American and indigenous traditions. My time in Argentina will allow me to assimilate into a new and unknown community. However, along with all of this eagerness, there is a small bit of uncertainty. 

I am nervous to be surrounded by the Spanish language and have the need to form new friendships in this language. While I have been studying the language for a while, it has almost always been in an academic setting. My immersion program in Argentina is definitely an uncharted territory for me. I have some experience traveling in the past including my participation in a Notre Dame study abroad program in Rome. However, this program was filled with other Notre Dame students at the Notre Dame Rome Global Gateway. My program in Buenos Aires will bring me out of the comfortable and familiar zone of my past summer.

One of my main goals for the summer is to form quality relationships with my classmates in the target language. This means I will need to bring out my personality using the Spanish language. I know this will take time, and luckily I have eight weeks. This anxiousness is far outweighed by the opportunity to expand my worldview and master the language I have strived to know for nearly half my life. I am excited to post my experiences to this blog and share my stories while in Buenos Aires.

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Pre Departure Blog – Siena, Italy

Memorial day weekend I traveled with my seven siblings in our big black van to the Catskills to visit some family in the “Blue House,” my grandparent’s Victorian-styled mountain home. The first evening I was chatting away with my grandmother, otherwise known as “Gwy” to her twenty four loving grandchildren. As I was helping Gwy cook dinner in the kitchen, she, between shouts from kids sliding down the bannister in the adjacent room, remarked on just how novel this time in my life must be for me. As I thought more about this, I realized that going to Siena to stay with a family I’ve never met and to practice a language still so foreign to me in a place I’ve never been really is so unlike anything I have ever done. Growing up and being one of so many kids, travel was expensive and so I did very little of it. Until last fall, I had never been out of the country, and I still have never been to Italy. Instead, I spent my summers and vacations at my grandparents house upstate, running around building fairy houses with my cousins, catching salamanders in ponds, or picking wild blueberries and raspberries for “jam” which never tasted quite right. I loved those moments, and I suppose they make up my culture. Mine is a culture of big families, long dinners with academic conversations (basically my entire mom’s side of the family are professors), and mass at the chapel down the hill every Sunday.

Thus my grandmother’s observation, while true by any objective standard, did make me pause. What part of climbing trees and pretending to be a fairy in the woods lacks excitement? After some thought, though, I’ve decided that perhaps I have just outgrown those experiences and there is nothing wrong with opening myself up to a new culture which may even connect with some of my own experiences in surprising ways. I applied for the SLA grant in Siena to challenge myself to not only improve my command of the Italian language, but also to prove to myself that I can learn from other cultures and branch out. Past experiences have taught me that the only way to truly develop, as cliche as it sounds, is to put oneself in situations of discomfort. This past school year in architecture during sophomore studio was a prime example of that for me. I worked harder than I ever have in my life and was challenged in every sense of the word, and I changed. I was forced to address my bad habits, my assumptions, my interests, and even my priorities. Now, while an entire grueling school year in a studio is not exactly the same as five weeks in Siena, I do expect these next five weeks to challenge parts of myself I haven’t even considered before. I expect to question some core assumptions about my heritage and beliefs and also perhaps even adapt some of the Senese culture to my own.

Ultimately, I have outgrown the Blue House not in the sense that it is no longer a source of happiness, but because I am so comfortable there. And right now I am searching to be uncomfortable, at least for a period of time. I expect this semester in Siena to be awkward and fatiguing at first, but ultimately rewarding, and perhaps even familiar at the end. One question many people have asked me when I tell them I am going to Siena is if I’m going with friends. When I respond that I do not know anyone else going, they sound surprised or respond with a kind of “you’ve got this!” face. What’s funny is that not only do I not mind going without friends, but I actually prefer it. I have never traveled alone but am excited to just observe life around me a bit more. I find that as much fun as I have with my friends, I am able to take in my surroundings far better on my own. I am excited to have some time to explore and reflect before this next school year and I’m more than curious to see what experiences await me in Siena.