Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Clash of Cultures 


  There are lots of anecdotes when you travel outside your country and the situations when cultures crashes are very particular especially when you took part in an Argentinian exchange student program in the City of Austin, TX located in USA. First of all, I have to say that it was awesome how English movies describes so well many and different aspects of the reality in the city such as peoples, meals, parties, schedules, and rythm of life. And for a citizenship drom Misiones like me, it was so crazy how peoples from there survive without drinking mate! 
Mate (To see what mate is, look at the link behind the post) is a typically drink from Argentina.  To summarize, it`s a hot drink that we, the Argentinians, drink in groups trough a straw in a recipient with some of "Yerba mate." in which you have to put some hot water in the recipient, and then suck the straw. It taste like green tea and the huge majority of the people in Argentina likes it. It is very uncommon to see an Argentinian who doesn`t like the mate, or terere. (Is the same drink than the mate, but it have to drink cold).

  But what is common in Argentina, it isn´t in Austin. In this place, you can find many kinds of people. It goes from a Chilean whose Argentinians partners in his work taught him to drink mate, a Venezuelan woman who learnt to drink mate with her mother in law, and a Chinese who taste for the first time the yerba mate, and he added to drinking with the Argentinians group. 

However, not all is rosy. Despite of the fact that there were very good impression to the people who lives in Austin, the mate is not accepted by all the people there. Some people doesn`t like taste it for not sharing straw, others don`t like it because it is litter, but is an interesting phenomenon to see the reaction of the people, especially in Austin because it has a lot of immigrants, and students from other countries. 


As same as the mate has problem to introduce in the countries culture, lot of foreigners have the same problem with the food and some difficulties with the people. I strongly believe that here in Austin they don`t put pepper in the water because there is a special law that forbids doing that! Furthermore, the food from one country to other differs a lot. Imagine how much you will miss your food from the country that you are, if you move from another one.



Another topic to see in clashes cultures is: How will be your feelings when you don`t know how to greet to other people? Kisses and hugges are common in Argentina, but are very uncommon for the North American people, and for other cultures that it has too. Some, they just shake a hand, and are very strict with the personal space. So, it takes a bit of time to learn how to greet to all the people.



As you can see, the cultures clashes all the time, but fortunately there are lot of people here that has the sames problems as a foreigner student has. So, be calm, and keep Austin friendly!

                                                                                                                                          The End

9 comments:

  1. Great post David! You should have your own yerba mate company, man!

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  2. I think is really cool what you are doing: trying to have everybody tasting some mate. Also, I agree with you that texans love pepper!!!

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  3. I had never met a person who likes so much drinking mate. You can write a book about yerba mate, David!
    And, why is the food so spicy in Texas!?!? I have to ask everyday how hot the different plates of food are.

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  4. I agree with Marco; I think it is really nice that you have become the mate ambassador in Austin. The experiences you have on this exchange are meant to be enriching for you personally and professionally; but the fact that you are not only soaking up the culture here, rather sharing your own, is something to be very proud of. Keep Austin Mate'd!

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  5. David, you make a great observation about certain cultures not being able to find the foods and drinks that are common for them. Currently, I am doing a research project in one of Austin's neighborhoods. This neighborhood is home to dozens of different cultures and people from all over the world. A problem many of these people are having is not being able to find their cultural food and drink in American stores. There are a few ethnic speciality shops in the area, but many still struggle to find food and drink that reminds them of home. I'm glad you came prepared with our own mate!

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  6. Good post David, you really are the mate ambassador!

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  7. You don't have to give some mate to every people you meet, you are going to run out of it!!

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  8. David you export out culture, what's really nice. We should learn about our traditions and share them with the world as you do.

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  9. David, I really like your post... I did the same that you are doing with our loved "Mate" but in Chile, with my foreigners friends and it was amazing when my spanish friend decided to travel into Argentina and buy her own "mate" because she loved it. So, sometimes people dislike mate, because they don't understand the "ritual" that it involves: to share a nice moment with your family or friends. But when some people understand that and enjoy that, they start to love our traditional drink!

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