Coming into Rosario with a background in Sociology I knew that I was going to have a very exciting time learning how to interact with the locals. You see, sociology is the scientific study of human interations, figuring out what influences the surrounding social sphere has on shaping who we are, and on forming what we may pursue for our future. That part might make it sound kind of boring, and maybe I am just a nerd, but what is so exciting to me is that I knew that coming into Rosario I was going to be the outsider coming in.
One of the best perks to being a Sociologist is that you
have an excuse to go to events that draws in fanatics,
and particpate; all in the name of research and Science.
Would I be treated differently? (Most certainly, yes, I thought). What would people think of me? How would I conform, or distance myself? The term Double Consiousness was coined by W.E.B Du Bois to describe how individuals of a minority think not only about how they percieve themselves, but how the surrounding society percieves them.
These flooding thoughts influence how people interact, how they restrain themselves, and what is considered taboo. Comfortability is found when we don't have to be thinking about how we are perceived as different, and it is part of the reason why the 24 Americans that I study here with prefer to spend evenings and weekends together as a group, eating together, studying together, going to the beaches together.
Now I know what it is like to have Double Consiousness.
I remember when I first arrived I had it set in my mind that I was going to spend this trip avoiding Americans as much as possible. No way was I going to come back home regretting that I missed out on a perfect oppurtunty to immerse myself in an Argentine Culture. Talking with locals from cafes, meeting people at churches, getting connected with friends that I prefered to have little to none background in English. Most people I have found were very excited to meet an American, the girls especially (for some unknown reason). But I remember one day that I went to a nearby grocery store to look for Peanut Butter, (I admit, that is very American, but I wanted to make Cookies for my host family). Looking through the aisles googly eyed and lost in all the translations, I am sure I stook out as a confused and helpless foreigner. When one of the ladys working tried to ask me what I needed I responded in words only resembling an extra-terrestrial dialect of murmurs in my attempt to simply say "I am looking for Peanut butter." Now there were 2 ladys trying to figure out a way to assist me in someone, or at least come to an agreement on what I was trying to commuicate, and be confident that I wasn't lost and stranded and needing immediate return to the other side of the planet. By this time I'm positive all eyes and all jokes in the store were on me.
The second lady spoke - "De donde sos?" Where are you from?
Now I was dumbstruck. My eyes glazed over. What matter did where I am from have on helping me find Crunchy Peanut Butter? I was fine with even taking Creamy by then! Were there different sections of the store designated to accomadating different nationalities and cultures? Was there a Walmart down the road? Slowly, the words "The United States" slipped off the tip of my tounge floating in the air like the Goodyear blimp.
"Aja, es un Gringo!"
I felt like I was walking through a zen garden, then suddenly hit in the face with a rake that someone left lying upside down. The word Gringo sunk in to my memory bank and returned with thoughts of all the racial slurs I had heard back home in the United States. I didn't know what to say, so I agreed. Yes, I am a Gringo. And I left the store.
I later learned upon telling this story that in Argentina it is not a racial slur, nor is it meant to be derogatory by calling someone from the U.S. a Gringo. They also say "Shanky" (the local pronunciation of yankee). The ladies in the store and myself had two seperate processes of socializtion in out past. I was socialized to think that Gringo was a racial slur, and they were socialized to understand terms like these as normal, and unmalitous. These ideas that we are brought up and trained to believe and used to guide our actions are called "Norms," and I realized that our norms surrounding this point are different. My professor later enformed me that there is no idea of Political-Correctness here in Argentina, and I have to begin to change my mentality and understand that this is not an inherent evil. It is different, it is not to be taken offensively, and here right now, it is not my job to tell people what actions are right and which are wrong.
As a sociologists I am forever burdened with lugging around the hefty " Social Lens", a idiom for how we look perspectivelly at our surrounding situtations and try to figure out what certain social interactions signify, and how they came to be. The Social Lens becomes a filter through which we see the world. And also, it becomes a clear proof to me that what you learn in school and do in your future doesn't have to be dreaded - I kind of digg being a Sociologist. The best title to bear in the world.
At least that is what I've been taught.
Hey, that's my textbook!!
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What do you imagine are some of the difficulties faced by people coming into foriegn lands and becoming a minority? Do you think limitations are created?
What challenges do you think are faced when having to realign your sense of what is normal and acceptable behavior? Like... pedestrians not having the right of way when crossing traffic? I think it's a lot of confusion.
Whose responsibility do you think it is to try and correct a different cultures practices?
Do you think there is ever time when it is necessary?
Is this a trick question? Maybe...
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