But Is It Contagious?

Welcome to my random musings about the world, on a weekly-to-occasional basis.

Where we are: We’re in Osaka, Japan. Tomorrow we leave for Naoshima, a tiny island in the Seto Inland Sea that has become an international destination for contemporary art.

Mea culpa: Last week’s essay was confusing, because I failed to point out that I wrote it while we were in Australia. My apologies! We are currently in Japan, but I wrote the following a couple of months ago, while we were in New Zealand.

But Is It Contagious?

Everyone in New Zealand says good morning. Apparently it’s the polite thing to do. I love saying good morning; I did my best to teach my children that it’s important to greet the people in your life before you launch into whatever flights of fancy or harangue are on your mind first thing in the morning. New Zealand, therefore, felt very right to me.

Even the tourists were polite, even as they were being tourists. On our way to lunch in a small town, we crossed paths with a group of tourists crowding the sidewalk. We couldn’t tell who they were—they could’ve been New Zealanders with multicultural ancestry—but they all said good morning. It happened over and over again. We’d walk past a group, and they’d all say hello. It gave me all kinds of warm, fuzzy feelings. It’s like an entire country of extroverts who really, really want you to enjoy your visit.

It even made us nicer, I think. We met three young hikers asking for a ride, so we said sure. We chatted with people everywhere we went. We stayed in a bed and breakfast in Christchurch for a few days, and basically made ourselves the welcome committee. Part of that was Lee’s natural sociability, but part of it, I think, was the influence of being in such a friendly culture. Being openly kind to each other seems to be a priority.

I wonder what happens when someone from a more reserved culture (looking at you, Eastern European countries) visits New Zealand, or even moves there? Do they automatically become more smiley and gregarious? Is it a difficult transition? How long does it take to learn to smile at complete strangers, if that’s not something you’ve ever done before?

I’d like to think that a culture of friendliness is contagious. My own experience is that cultural habits have great power over visitors—at least, I hope they do. I feel strongly that as a visitor to any country, I want to respect the local norms, even if they challenge me a bit.

Case in point: queuing. I am a tidy queuer. I get in a line and wait my turn. People who try to circumvent the process stress me out to an extreme. I get super-agitated. One of the things I loved most about Taiwan was how very polite everyone was about waiting in lines.

But drop me down in a culture where people don’t queue patiently, and I will eventually learn to push and shove and elbow my way to the goal. It takes me a few weeks, but I get there. I have mixed feelings about the fact that I can so easily shed a piece of what I consider to be my character, but maybe it’s okay. Culture, after all, is contagious.

Take care,

Lisa

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