Cultural Differences

Do you do much international trade?  *Laughs*  Doesn’t everyone these days?  I suppose even the act of blogging, particularly if you blog in English is an international trade of some sort, given that it’s an exchange of information, and cultural information.

I remember years ago, entering the US on a J1 Visa, which is an exchange visa (as opposed to a tourist visa), which allows you to work in the US as a Summer Camp Counselor etc that kind of thing, for a few months.  The immigration officer at JFK was tough. The toughest I’ve had yet entering the US.  He gruffly asked me why I was on an ‘exchange visa’, and I said that I was there to work as a Summer Camp Counselor.

He tried to corner me into saying something wrong, by saying words to the effect of, “Oh, so you mean that South Africa has summer camps too, and that OUR PEOPLE go over to YOUR COUNTRY as camp counselors there?”  and I was like (23 and full of arrogance at that age I might add – plus I was pretty well travelled, and SO not in the mood for this guys unneccessary hasseling of me).

So with a hint of rolling my eyes at him, I said with a modicum of sarcasm, “No, a J1 visa is a CULTURAL exchange visa, which means I come over here, teach horsebackriding to some kids who’d like to learn, and while I’m doing that, the kids get to learn what my country is like, and what someone frome that country, i.e. ME is like. In return, I get to learn all about things like Thanksgiving – which we don’t celebrate by the way – and egg nog recipes and get to travel around afterwards seeing more of the country.”

I really did say egg nog recipes to an immigration officer. I mean after all no other country in the Western world knows what that stuff is – or why people drink it either – yuck – I mean seriously, so where else are you going to learn?

He waved me through after stamping my passport a bit roughly, and I have a feeling that had there *not* been a queue of people like 100 long forming behind me from another flight that had just landed, I may just have been subjected to a more thorough grilling!