{"id":70365,"date":"2019-07-05T15:09:10","date_gmt":"2019-07-05T14:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/flashpacknew.wpengine.com\/?p=70365"},"modified":"2023-04-19T10:33:45","modified_gmt":"2023-04-19T09:33:45","slug":"americans-learn-europe-travelling-habits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sandbox.flashpack.com\/us\/solo\/travel\/americans-learn-europe-travelling-habits\/","title":{"rendered":"What Americans can learn from Europe’s travelling habits"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Writer Rachel Chang presents her golden rules for tapping a European attitude to wanderlust<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The first time I flew to Europe on my own, I found everything so odd. Whether or not we realize it, as Americans, we\u2019re often subtly conditioned to expect our view of the world to be the norm. And being born and raised in the United States, I admittedly was guilty of that.<\/p>\n

Looking back at that first trip across the Atlantic in my early 20s, I remember thinking: Why can\u2019t they drive on the same side of the street as we do? Why can\u2019t they spell words the same way as we do? And, after visiting a McDonald\u2019s, why can\u2019t they stop talking so funny?<\/p>\n

Now that I\u2019ve visited 21 European countries \u2014 including many as a solo traveler \u2014 I\u2019m completely horrified and embarrassed by my worldview at that point in time. And of all places, as you\u2019ve probably guessed, I was in London\u2026 really not that different from my surroundings back home.<\/p>\n

Throughout my European travels, I\u2019ve learned to adopt an open view of our global community \u2014 in great part by observing how Europeans visit their neighboring countries. Channeling the Euro travel spirit has made my globe wandering far richer. Here are five ways you can do so as well (rest assured, visiting foreign McDonald\u2019s locations is not<\/em> on the list).<\/p>\n

Avoid checklist travel<\/strong><\/p>\n

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As Americans, we are very focused on action items. So on a trip to Paris, we might say: Eiffel Tower? Check. Arc De Triomphe? Check. Eat a baguette while wearing a beret? Check. Being checklist travelers, means that we come in with preconceived notions (and bread-and-beret stereotypes) of how France should be in our heads. The danger in that? We only see what we want to see.<\/p>\n

Read more: 14 fun travel trends you’ll love to try this summer<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In fact, Europeans have even caught on to our habit of being overly focused on \u201cwhat\u201d we are seeing. But the more I met and got to know European travelers, the more I realized they come with an open-mindedness and blank slate, curious to understand the heartbeat of another culture. Maybe it\u2019s because their borders are so close to one another, they\u2019re more aware of other lifestyles.<\/p>\n

Instead of jumping in front of a static scene, they immerse themselves into its fabric and become part of it \u2014 therefore really getting to understand the unspoken innuendos that keep a nation ticking.<\/p>\n

Learn to speak the local dialect<\/strong><\/p>\n

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I\u2019m not naming names, but I have been in a group of American travelers, where certain people truly believe that speaking English louder and slower will make anyone understand it. And it\u2019s happened more than once.<\/p>\n

In our defense, it\u2019s all we know. While more than 60 percent of Europeans speak a foreign language, only 20 percent of Americans do (that\u2019s why our foreign language education is hugely lacking).<\/p>\n

Read more: 10 life lessons to excel in your 40s, by adventurer Ed Stafford<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

When we travel with other Americans, that cycle continues since we\u2019re just communicating with our travel companions in our mother tongues. However, when you travel solo, you\u2019re forced into a language immersion since it\u2019s all you\u2019re hearing. You pick up the words, tones, and even melodies of a language.<\/p>\n

Learning the local dialect, even if it\u2019s just a few essential words, like \u201chello\u201d and \u201cthank you,\u201d indicates to the locals that your intention is to understand them \u2014 not impose on them, thus giving you a more authentic experience.<\/p>\n

Pay attention to international news<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Watch a half hour of the news in the US and then turn on a half hour of news in any other country \u2014 and you\u2019ll be shocked how self-centered we seem. The majority of the news stories will be America-focused, whereas other countries tend to have a far broader worldview.<\/p>\n

Chat with any European while traveling and chances are, they know exactly what\u2019s happening in American politics. But the chances that we know anything about the current happenings of Italian or Polish politics? Unlikely. And in that very \u201cAmerican\u201d habit, we might think, \u201cWell, we\u2019re a much bigger country and far bigger power.\u201d But the truth is, the size of your home country is completely irrelevant. It\u2019s all about how all the pieces of the world fit together.<\/p>\n

Think of it this way: Would you go into a meeting big corporate meeting without doing all the proper research? It\u2019s the same thing. If you\u2019re going to visit a country, the only way to truly understand what\u2019s going on is to do your homework. Follow their news and get a feel for how they fit into the bigger global community.<\/p>\n

Blend in instead of sticking out<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, we should be proud to be Americans, but it doesn\u2019t mean we need to wave that flag everywhere we go. After all, as a house guest, would you walk into someone\u2019s home and immediately tell them how you do things in your home? Of course not.<\/p>\n

Be the model global house guest and travel gently. Absorb the environment around you, after all, just because you read about it in a book doesn\u2019t make you an expert. It\u2019s literally the lives of the people there. Let them be your expert hosts and treat them as such. Respect the culture and they\u2019ll let you into it even deeper.<\/p>\n

Ditch the sneakers<\/strong><\/p>\n

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When I was younger and would go back to my family\u2019s native Taiwan, I\u2019d be shocked when my grandmother told me that I was \u201cso obviously an American.\u201d What did that mean? In my eyes, I literally looked just like my Taiwanese relatives. But she added that it was from the way I walked and the clothes I wear.<\/p>\n

Then I realized, I did the same thing. It was always clear to me in the US who a native Taiwanese visitor was, why didn\u2019t I think reciprocity existed?<\/p>\n

Read more: Why Japan is a dream destination for solo travellers<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

As it turns out, one of the surefire ways of spotting an American traveler is that we tend to wear sneakers. While our serious focus on foot care should be commended, it\u2019s a clear giveaway that we\u2019re not from around there (in fact, the very fact we use the word \u201csneakers\u201d instead of \u201ctrainers\u201d is another giveaway.)<\/p>\n

Obviously sneakers should be the go-to footwear on long days for comfort sake, but if you\u2019re looking to delve deeper into a country, then change it up and hide the American travel uniform \u2014 and you just might find you blend in a bit more and see the world in a slightly new way.<\/p>\n

Images: Movie Stills DB, Alessia Cocconi<\/a>,\u00a0Huy Phan<\/a>, Artem Beliaikin\u00a0<\/a>on Unsplash<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Writer Rachel Chang presents her golden rules for tapping a European attitude to wanderlust The…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9029,9035],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.flashpack.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70365"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.flashpack.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.flashpack.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.flashpack.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.flashpack.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.flashpack.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70365\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.flashpack.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.flashpack.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.flashpack.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}