Quote: (01-15-2013 11:27 PM)liberman Wrote:
So their is little to no hate when i get back from traveling, people genuinely want to know how your trip went and what you experienced.
I think to offer a bit of balance in this thread it's important to mention that we also get a lot of love and curiosity about traveling from Americans too.
For every person who has made an ignorant comment, there are another ten people who have gotten excited and drilled me with questions. Admittedly, some do both (the negative comments being phrased as sarcastic jokes).
But whenever it slips that I used to live abroad, it never fails to arouse attention and start a conversation with a stranger. Hell, the very idea of the thing seems to get some women wet. I've been enthusiastically drilled by my doctor and a bank cashier just this week and those are nearly the only strangers I've interacted with all week. I can't even tell you how often people tell me how they wish they could do what I do or how they will when they "have the money."
I've also met a ton of Americans who have been to Thailand, Europe (assorted countries), Peru, and Ecuador specifically. Met a couple women this last year who've studied in Africa. Many more young Americans do seem to be traveling - although most hug the tourist track pretty closely, much like travelers from other countries, not all do.
There
are ignorant people here who can't fathom the idea - hell I have an ex-gf in America whose family talked shit behind my back for getting her into
reading books, of all things (yes, these people do exist). So ignorance peeks its head for sure. And I too, as mentioned, get comments about my intentions and lectured about women abroad and the need to settle down and jealousy, etc.
I also come from a very small town so the people I know are especially sheltered.
But I think this thread is painting the wrong picture that travelers are completely ostracized in this country. We also get a lot of love and interest in our experiences.
And here's some further balance for you - I take issue with the idea of the comments coming only from Americans. While abroad,I've also been lectured by close-minded Australian, Brit, and Russian (to name a few specifically)
travelers while in Thailand about my choice to be there long-term. These are people who are already there but usually on a short holiday and thinking they already know the score about it because they've heard from similar uneducated travelers and their brief exposure to the seediest areas in the country.
Most are well-meaning and expressing their view in polite conversation - trying to warn me, I suppose - but I had one old British woman even give me a hard time about my young-looking gf in an elevator once (talked right over my girl as if she wasn't even there). My girl was 23, but looked much younger, and I was 28 or 29 at the time.
So I find it hard to believe these people aren't doing the same back in their own countries.
I've talked with a lot of women and men from abroad that have expressed ignorant assumptions and views about people who live overseas in expat locations, and you get just as many expats from various locations expressing ignorant views about the backpacking crowd and the locals. Old guys make comments about the young guys. Young guys make comments about the old guys.
Haters gonna hate.
And I've been told by my Irish buddy that people back home would severely judge and look down on anyone who married a girl from Southeast Asia.
I remember one time I got a ride in a van from Northern Laos to Luang Prabang over the mountains, and it was packed full of Aussies and Brits. I hadn't associated with other tourists in quite some time, and I was really blown away.
Here were a few groups of people who'd left their countries to travel one of the most rugged countries in the world and all they did the entire time was bitch about the bumpy road, being packed like sardines, their discomfort, the danger, the Laos and Thai people (with them sitting right there), the drivers (with them sitting right there), and the food. Sure it was hell, but I saw it as an adventure, and we were already caught in the situation, so why flap about it and whine all day?
A lot of it was seemingly in jest, but I'd never heard so much bitching in my life and couldn't wait to get away from these people and back to hanging out with the Laotians. It was hard to even enjoy the epic views with these ignorant, trivial passengers barking about every little inconvenience and jolt in the road.
I remember we stopped at some roadside market in the middle of nowhere and while I was eating and drinking shots of Lao Lao with a group of local men, laughing it up with them, these "hardened travelers" were huddled together outside, marveling at my audacity in doing so and pointing out strange animals laid out for consumption. I think I talked ONE of them into eating a fried chicken leg. He "jokingly"worried for the rest of the ride about getting sick and how it'd be my fault.
And again, these were fellow world travelers - not your average citizen.
Americans get a bad rap for being close-minded, but
I've heard more ignorant comments about Americans than any one else. How's that for irony? Which is another reason I want to offer a balance.
I love it, for instance, when some European I meet in a bar makes disparaging comments about where I'm from and how ignorant we are when he himself has just labeled and boxed me in based on my citizenship, thus proving himself to be just as close-minded and ignorant as the subset of Americans he claims to detest.
And it's become so accepted that even Americans make ignorant comments about other Americans to reassure everyone that they're not like the "rest."
Point being that it's not just Americans that are ignorant about foreign travel, specific cultures, living abroad, intercultural relationships, and the like. Not at all in my experience.
I think we're only getting part of the story here from those of you claiming your peers don't do it too. Either that or you're over-estimating what your fellow posters mean by "travel hate."