Week 1 Post A

"The first time I went to an Indian restaurant in Canada I used my Fingers. The waiter looked at me critically and said, 'Fresh off the boat, are you?' He had no idea how deeply those words wounded me"(7)

The author of Life of Pi is Yann Martel. He has lived in almost every corner of the globe and from his writing, it is clear that the cultural differences he writes about reflect his own experiences and embarrassments throughout his life. The passage above describes a character's first arrival in Canada from India and his first meal at a restaurant. I have mixed feelings about the subject but I believe that the waiter was out of line when he decided to put his customer down. It has to be tough enough traveling to a different continent and getting criticized for the way you normally do things. At the same time however, I do believe that a foreigner should learn the customs of the place where he is learning. Appearing less different will get a foreigner into less trouble (usually). It is human nature to put other people down and in the case of the waiter, he put the main character down because he doesn't get very many foreigners in the small town that he lives in.