評論
打印
Physical differences are not so difficult to adapt oneself to as religious, ethical, and irrational ones. Indonesians are trained from earliest childhood to give and receive things with the right hand only. The left hand is considered unclean. When a foreigner offers an Indonesian something with his left hand, or holds out his left hand to take something he is being offered, the Indonesian may explain this action rationally as arising from a difference in custom, but the deep prejudice against the use of the left hand, which he has been lectured about over and over again since he was young, will not be so easily done away with.
比起宗教、倫理和不合乎常理的差異來說，適應(yīng)具體的、實在的差異卻沒那么困難。印度尼西亞人從小就被教導只能用右手來給予或接收東西。左手被認為是不干凈的。當一個外國人用左手遞給一個印尼人東西或伸出左手準備接東西時，印尼人會合理地解釋道，這一動作是來自風俗的差異。從小，別人就無數(shù)次地告訴他對于使用左手的深刻偏見，但人們不會輕易擺脫這一偏見。
There are some travelers who adapt themselves so successfully to foreign customs and habits that they are often severely criticized by their more stubborn fellow countrymen. If they are Asians, they are accused of having become "Westernized"; and if they are Europeans, people say they have "gone native." Which is better: rigid, self-satisfied prejudice against foreign things or loss of your certainty that your own country's habits and customs are the only right ones, and hence the inability to be one of the herd any longer?
有一些游客對外國的風俗習慣適應(yīng)地非常好，以至于他們經(jīng)常嚴厲地批評自己固執(zhí)的同胞。如果他們是亞洲人的話，他們就被指責為變得“西方化”；如果他們是歐洲人的話，人們會說他們“本土化了”。哪一種更好呢：對外國事物帶有一種洋洋得意的頑固偏見，還是不確定自己本國的風俗習慣是唯一正確的，導致今后無法和同伴聚在一起？
Perhaps the ideal would be that travel could make people tolerant of the habits and customs of others without abandoning their own. Shouldn't the standard for judging a foreigner be: Does he try to be polite and considerate to others? instead of: Is he like me?
理想的情況或許是，旅游能夠使人寬容地對待別國的風俗習慣，而又不放棄自己的那一套。評判外國人的標準難道不應(yīng)該是看他是否努力做到禮貌而又顧及別人的感受，而不是看他的行為舉止是否和我的一樣嗎？
