Vagabonding book club: Chapter 6: Meet your neighbors & pack your sense of humor!

“Thus, the secret to interacting with people in foreign lands is not to fine-tune your sense of political correctness (which itself is a Western construct) but to fine tune your sense of humor…. And while humor might seem like a fairly contemporary way to deal with unfamiliar environments, it’s actually a time-honored travel strategy… On the road, a big prerequisite for keeping your sense of humor is to first cultivate a sense of humility. After all, it can be hard to laugh at yourself if you swagger through the world like you own it.”  –Rolf Potts, Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel

It is, perhaps, the most important thing you can pack for your journey, and is certainly the most helpful tool you have in connecting with locals across culture and language barriers. Your sense of humor, about yourself, and the funny ways you don’t fit in, are a bridge you build between worlds, a hand of friendship you offer across cultures, and sometimes a safety net that catches you in a potentially dangerous or uncomfortable social situation.

Humility plays a part in humor. Unless we’re willing to be the fumbling bottom rung of the social ladder, and we’re okay with being the guy in the room who does not get the joke, it’s going to be hard to react with genuine humor and instead we’ll end up with a bruised ego. The essence of humility is to admit that we do not know, or may have more to learn. It is to engage from a position of more questions than answers and to be genuinely teachable in our spirits. Humility is a childlike approach to the world, in which we are willing to attempt things and do them badly at first, to give up our “rights” to another, and to adjust our expectations to accommodate others. Often, the results are humorous, if not to us, then to others around us. Being able to genuinely laugh along with them is what Rolf is getting at in this chapter.

When you make an effort to get off of the backpacker strip and connect with the local community, funny things are going to happen. You’re going to make social gaffs. Kids are going to double over in giggles at your fumbling attempts to do the things that they’ve been doing since they were babies. Your pronunciation is going to be a source of amusement as you venture into a new tongue. Your reactions to new foods will be gauged and giggled at. You’ll be treated like a mascot and a guinea pig for the amusement of a local group, and your best bet is to smile, laugh, and submit to it like a good fellow. It’s in this way that you’ll find, and make life-long friends and have some of the best travel experiences of your life.

Don’t be afraid to reach out. Don’t be afraid to laugh (at yourself!)