Half These Mistakes Could've Been Prevented With Research. The Other Half Never Can Be.

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Put the Guidebook Down, brought to you by Kultura Travel, with me, Kiara, the creator, as your host. In today's episode, we're going to get into the cultural faux pas, the travel mistakes that you don't know you're making.

Have you ever had the experience where you're walking into a store and the employee greets you and says, "hi, welcome," and you're so caught off guard that you end up saying "welcome" back to them? I think we've all been there, maybe not with the word welcome exactly, but a similar situation. Another one, have you ever been in a restaurant while traveling, or even in your home country, and you look around and see everyone eating with their hands, but you're the only one eating with utensils? No, you're not alone, mistakes happen, but in this episode we're going to break down what travel mistakes you're making without even realizing it, so you don't end up being that tourist.

The first one we're going to break down is language missteps, or miscommunication. This happens a lot, especially when traveling into countries where English isn't the first language, or maybe not spoken at all. We try our best to communicate with whatever little knowledge we have, and sometimes it comes down to gestures, facial expressions, and when all is lost, we now have the technology to break out Google Translate or any translator app. But sometimes we make mistakes in that process of trying to find a commonality, without even realizing it. Here's a personal example: when I was in Moldova and didn't speak Romanian, I would greet my students and colleagues by saying "hi," and just kept saying "hi," and people would look at me kind of confused. I was like, what am I saying, what's wrong with this, I don't understand. It wasn't until I started my Romanian classes that I learned "hai" also means "let's go," like, let's go and get going, do this, but it's not spelled H-I like in English, it's spelled H-A-I. Pronounced the same, different context, different meaning.

And this isn't specific to English. I remember learning this in my French class too, I'm blanking on the exact term my French teacher used, but it's kind of like "imposters." Like "biscuit," you'd think it means biscuit in English because it looks the same in French, but it actually means cookie. Looks the same, different meaning. These are just some examples of how language can become a cultural barrier just from pronunciation and context. We also experience this with expression and pronunciation, because a lot of language comes from intonation and inflection points to help convey meaning. In some languages, like Russian, they follow different speech patterns and tones to express a concept that might be completely different from English. A lot of languages have that rising inflection with questions, starting at a lower tone and rising at the end, the question mark is implied, but we don't always have that in every language, or it's expressed with a different inflection point. This can lead to miscommunication and create a new barrier to understanding. That's why when traveling to another country I always say, learning the local language, even just a couple of terms and phrases, helps overcome the language barrier and shows interest in the local culture, which is extremely important, but it also helps avoid these language missteps.

Another one I mentioned at the beginning is eating. A big thing for me when traveling is being a little extra conscious about tipping culture, how you eat certain dishes, because I don't want to be the tourist sitting there eating a local dish with utensils when you're supposed to eat it with your hands. In Indonesia, there's a common street food, fried chicken with a side of white rice and a very spicy red sauce, not for those who can't handle spice, let me tell you. My first week there it was pure intuition to ask for a fork and knife to cut up the chicken, big no-no. I had to learn this is one of the dishes in the region you eat with your hands, and it's meant to be messy. A big indication from the context was that even at the food stalls, there was always a place to wash your hands, before and after eating, so you could have clean hands before you left, which was also a good indication that this was a hands-eating dish. You'd rip into the chicken, grab it with the rice, dip it into the sambal, and eat it directly with your hands. Locals have different techniques for this, and my host family liked to say you push it with your thumb to get everything into your mouth in one bite, so it's not half in your hands. That's again something to learn, since in American culture we tend to eat a lot with utensils, not so much with our hands.

Another one, in Eastern Europe, we have burgers, right? In America we eat burgers just picking them up with our hands, maybe holding the wrapper. In Eastern Europe they like to serve burgers with non-latex gloves. This was something I also wasn't aware of, but for burgers or messy hand-eaten meals, you put gloves on before you eat to avoid getting your hands dirty. Very interesting, not something you'd know, and it prompted a conversation with the locals with us about why they serve it that way.

And as an American, we have a big tipping culture here in the States that's not necessarily the same abroad. I worked in food service as a waitress, so I understand the importance of tipping in America, because of how wages are built. But in some countries, like in the EU, employees have a higher base wage in certain industries specifically to account for what the U.S. would rely on tipping for. So tipping isn't necessarily the same there. I'm always hypersensitive about this, like, how much do I tip in this country, where do I tip. Especially in some countries where tipping is very deeply embedded into the culture, the first one that comes to mind is Egypt. If you're researching a trip there, planning to go to the pyramids, the Sphinx, a very common bucket-list adventure, one of the top things that showed up in my research was to budget about 20% of your entire trip cost just for tips. For me, that was huge, I was like, 20% of my entire trip cost, just for tipping, that's crazy. And it's true, a hundred percent true, anything from a photo to food comes with an expectation of tips, and if you don't give one, you might experience some following or slight harassment. That's just how their tipping culture works. That's an example I'd also like to use as encouragement to do that research beforehand, so you're not in an awkward situation, whether tips are highly expected somewhere or you're in a country that doesn't do tipping and you leave one anyway, either way it can lead to disagreement or miscommunication. Very important to research this in advance to avoid that awkward situation.

Another big one is cultural norms, anything with dress, etiquette, gestures, the other context that comes with a culture or language. A big one when it comes to Western travelers visiting more conservative countries in the Middle East is the dress code, especially for women. I highly recommend anyone read up on this before a trip, especially women. You don't want to be the tourist standing in booty shorts and a sports bra, common athleisure wear back home, in the middle of a mosque, okay? That may be shocking to hear that people do this, given the knowledge and respect that comes with, say, being fully covered to enter a mosque. I've seen it, I was in a mosque in Egypt, a very popular tourist one, and I'm aware of how to dress conservatively for a mosque, I've been in several, so I knew what to pack. I go in with my friends and we see Western Europeans wearing short shorts and crop tops in the middle of the mosque, and I was like, wow, that is a statement. The weather may be hot, but you're still in the local culture and country, so you need to give respect. It doesn't look good to other tourists, travelers, or locals, because we're all about cultural respect and context here at Kultura Travel. It's just about being aware and doing your research. Everyone wants their pretty photos and videos, or maybe just to dress comfortably given the heat, you don't necessarily want long pants and long sleeves, but that's the cultural norm and expectation there. Going back to our previous episode on traveler versus tourist, the traveler is the one who's aware of those cultural contexts and still adheres to them, because they're giving respect to where they're visiting.

Gestures are a big one too. I'm someone who likes to talk a lot with my hands, in case you didn't notice from this video podcast, but in some cultures that could be considered rude, talking loudly with your hands, maybe coming across as aggressive. Being aware of how you present yourself in public could avoid a large cultural faux pas. One I get a lot as an American is being extremely loud and using a lot of gestures, talking with my hands, and people go, "that's an American." I'm not saying this as a stereotype, at least speaking for myself, it's true, I've been shushed in multiple restaurants in different countries for talking too loud, and it's not out of anger, it's just excitement. Americans getting excited together can create a lot of noise. So again, being aware of that so you're not that tourist.

So there's a lot of different cultural faux pas out there, I listed a few, but really the one point I want you to take from this is: do your research, and make sure you're being respectful based on those findings. You are a guest in the country, you are a visitor, but that doesn't mean you're entitled to act the way you normally would at home. Because if you do, you could come across as offensive, lead to more miscommunication, and potentially create unsafe situations, when you're really just there to immerse and explore the local culture and have fun. So intention matters, but awareness goes a long way, which is why we're talking about this.

But how do you actually avoid this, going back to the difference between a tourist and a traveler, how do you go deeper to avoid the cultural faux pas and really become a traveler, not just stuck in the touristy realm? I've said it before, I'll keep saying it again and again, it's a core pillar of cultural travel: do your homework. Research the cultural etiquette, research some language, learn a couple of phrases, learn how to dress for different situations. Go as far as researching restaurant and food culture, back to my example about eating with your hands and tipping. This awareness goes a long way. Another one, observe your surroundings and tune into your senses. Look at the locals around you, look at the tourists around you, mirror what the locals are doing, how they're dressing, how they behave, they're the ones living there, this is their culture. Don't model what travel influencers are doing because they visited for some amount of time. Don't copy what other tourists are doing because it feels okay in a large group, safety in numbers doesn't make a difference, you're still being disrespectful. And the biggest one, when in doubt, ask. Humility beats assumptions. Asking also shows that you have interest, care, and respect for the local culture. And as I've said in a previous episode, just by asking and initiating a conversation with a local, you may be forming a new relationship, building a new friendship, you might end up on a completely different side quest or adventure that wasn't part of your itinerary, just because a local gets excited to show you another aspect of their culture because of your increased interest in it. This kindness, this awareness, this genuine, authentic interest goes a long way. This is what helps you immerse into the local culture and community, this is where you begin to grow as a person, shape your perspective, and leave your trip as a better version of yourself, which is what we're all about here at Kultura Travel.

There's so much to experience, so much to learn when traveling into new cultures. Why not learn something? Why not try to immerse into the place you are, rather than staying at the surface level by only taking photos and videos of authentically curated destinations? Be open to new experiences. I'd love to know the worst travel mistake you've ever made, since I've shared a couple of mine across different kinds of cultural faux pas. Send me your stories, I'd love to hear them. We're all human, we grow, it's okay. Be sure to tune into our next episode of Put the Guidebook Down, and as always, please check out our website and social media channels to learn more about Kultura Travel, and keep an eye out as we further develop the app and website, releasing soon. Thank you so much.