Cultural Contact Zones...Chile

KEITH G JUTKOWITZ

My dad is originally from Chile, but he has lived in the United States since he was 15 years old. When I was 16 years old I went to Chile for the first time in my life to visit my family there and to learn Spanish. I stayed in Chile for about six months studying Spanish at a language institute. I stayed in the house of my uncle, aunt, and cousin who was 18 years old at the time and a senior in high school.

The culture in Chile is very different than the culture here in the United States. For example, when I first got there we met up with my uncle, aunt, and cousin to eat, and for me it was the first time that I met them.

In Chile smoking cigarettes is very common and almost everybody smokes. So as soon as I met my aunt she started to smoke and gave my cousin a cigarette and then asked me if I wanted one. In Chile that would be an insult if she did not offer everyone at the table a cigarette. Of course I was in high school at that time and I was used to hearing speeches about how smoking is bad and about not drinking. It was very funny for me because there drinking and smoking is part of their culture and here it is very different. This was just one of many cultural differences that I noticed. In Chile there is also no political correctness, so people say whatever they want, and it is acceptable. Down there people don’t get offended very easily. It’s hard to describe this to Americans because some of the stuff that they say would be an insult or taken the wrong way here in the U.S.

In Chile people move very slowly and things take time. It is very different in the United States--especially on the east coast were everything is very fast and people don’t have a lot of patience. For example when my cousin says “vamo” (let’s go/ get out of here), I know that means in reality we won’t be leaving at that moment but in like 25 or 30 minutes. Also people go out much later there and everything closes later. At 9:30 or 10:00 all of the bars are empty and nothing much is going on. There, people leave at like 12:00 or 1:30 in the morning and get back to their houses at around 5:30 or 6:00 in the morning. Chile is a completely different world compared to the United States.

In Chile they also have a different sense of style than they do here. There it’s acceptable to have long hair and be un-shaven. You could go to a job interview with a beard and long hair, and it is not viewed as not taking care of yourself.

Part of my cultural contact zone was living there and getting used to their customs, but the other part has been coming back to the United Stated and getting used to how things work here. It is hard to readjust to the lifestyle here after coming from a place that is so different. It is also hard to describe how things work down there to people here because it is so different and I don’t want people to get offended or take it the wrong way.