by Steve Hertz (Spokane, WA)WHILE TRAVELING OVER THE WEEKEND to Venice, I experienced an encounter that I would classify as intercultural dissonance. We had arrived at the train station to wait to board our train home to Cagli. While Vicki waited at a nearby table, I went to purchase a couple of paninis for the long ride back. There was a man and a woman working behind the counter, I stepped up to order and the man looked right past me as though I didn’t exist, asking the person behind me for their order. At first I let it go, be the ignorant tourist, I told myself. Then he did it again, taking the next person’s order…now I’m hot! This is totally inexcusable, and I was officially angry. He now could recognize my emotions and what seemed like reluctance, told the woman to help me. Then he went in the back room never to see him again. The woman gave me the sandwiches, and I was off but totally amazed that I was treated this way by a total stranger when I hadn’t said a word and had made no apparent “tourist-mistake”.
I can only surmise that this gentleman was nowhere near an appropriate level of acceptance on Intercultural Learning Continuum. Perhaps the responsibility lies with the person traveling, and not the host country. I know that I seem to making an excuse here, but I am at a loss to identify this action with some sense of humanity.
