|
Good
morning <$firstname$>,
"Are
you enjoying your holidays here?" The waitress
at the Park Cafe in Villach is very friendly as she serves
the fabulously rich cake and strong coffee we ordered, with
a glass of water by the way, which is typical for Austria.
People often address us as visitors, even when we're not
- or maybe they are right and we are tourists everywhere,
except the place we grow up in. We lived in Cape Town for
nine years until recently, and settle here in Austria's
Carinthia now - but we are German.
How
can they tell you're different?
'When
in Rome, do like the Romans do.' I found that to be
good advice in the past whenever I travelled to places
I hadn't been to before. Trying to blend in at airport customs
in Jakarta is what you did when you arrived in Indonesia
via Singapore from South Africa on a second, clean passport
during the Apartheid years.
But
does it work? Did the locals think I was born in Venezuela
when I was in Caracas? I am sure I didn't pass for a local
in Cape Town's Kayelitsha township, but a few kilometers
away in Simon's Town nobody gave me a second glance walking
down our Waterfront.
Fact
is that we're all different, of course - six and a half
billion unique human beings on this planet, our fingerprints
prove it; and it's not important how far apart we are geographically
- what matters is how close we are culturally. There's a
difference, although there is a proportional relation.
If
I start yodelling in the middle of Hamburg, passers-by will
stop and stare. In a small village in North Korea I would
get arrested and put in an asylum for that, but anywhere
in Austria, folks would smile and join in. Well, the way
I yodel some of them might think I am dying and call an
ambulance, but that's not the point.
The
point is that others can tell very quickly that you're different
first by the way you look, and then by the way you speak.
Or write?
That's
what I am trying to find out from you today : can you tell
that I am German from the way I am writing this article?
I publish COMPASS for subscribers on four continents (Asia
doesn't seem to be interested much) and I consciously try
to choose a neutral style here.
Working
in Public Relations, on other occasions I would use a different
approach for a particular purpose. When I lived in London
in 1979/80 I sometimes played a little game with myself
at parties : how long could I hide the fact that I am German
by putting on as much of a British drawl as I could muster?
After
a while, the best score I achieved was just under one hour
if I remember correctly - and it was either because of,
or in spite of all that really good French red wine they
offered there.
Now
here in Austria, I spoke to a gathering of Germans and Austrians
last week and all of them, without exception, were amazed
that I hadn't lost my northern German accent after 22 years
in South Africa.
That's
how the waitress in the Park Cafe could tell we weren't
Austrian, so we had to be tourists : not everyone wears
Lederhosen here so we didn't look different, but I am not
one to keep my mouth shut for long.
We
spoke differently. Do I write differently? Please drop me
a brief comment from here
and tell me what gives me away - or doesn't.
Next
time I'll ponder on whether it helps or hinders to be different
- if there is pressure towards conformity, where does it
come from? And why?
Until
then, all the best from :
|
