Writing

Write a 2 or 3-page essay stating your reaction to one of the quotations given below.

“Home-keeping youth have ever homely wits.” (William Shakespeare)

“They change their climate, not their soul, who run beyond the sea.” (Horace, 65 B.C. – 8 B.C.)

“The more I sea of other countries the more I love my own.” (Mme de Stael, 1766-1817)

HAVE YOUR SAY

Comment on the cartoon.

Many writers have recently discussed the difference between tourists and travellers. Look at the list below of some of the things people do when they visit other countries, and then put each one under what is, in your opinion, the correct heading.

TRAVELLERS

TOURISTS

(a) Learn some of the language of the country so that they can speak it to people if they meet.

(b) Travel in a coach full of people from their own country.

(c) Eat in their hotel food cooked by chefs who know what their hotel guests are used to.

(d) Travel on trains and buses used by local people.

(e) See the famous sights which everyone who goes to that country looks at.

(f) Eat the local food with local people.

(g) Go to places few visitors have seen, even when difficult or uncomfortable.

(h) Meet, talk to, share experiences with local people.

Now, explain the difference between a traveller and a tourist.

3. Read the argumentative essay below. Study the arguments and the counter-arguments; reconstruct them; contribute some ideas of your own. Now take part in class discussion of the topic arguing "for" or "against".

'The tourist trade contributes absolutely nothing to increasing understanding between nations'

The tourist trade is booming. With all this coming and going, you’d expect greater understanding to develop between the nations of the world. Not a bit of it! Superb systems of communication by air, sea and land make it possible for us to visit each other’s countries at a moderate cost. What was once the ‘grand tour’, reserved for only the very rich, is now within everybody’s grasp. The package tour and chartered flights are not to be sneered at. Modern travellers enjoy a level of comfort which the lords and ladies on grand tours in the old days couldn’t have dreamed of. But what’s the sense of this mass exchange of populations if the nations of the world remain basically ignorant of each other?

Many tourist organisations are directly responsible for this state of affairs. They deliberately set out to protect their clients from too much contact with the local population. The modern tourist leads a cosseted, sheltered life. He lives at international hotels, where he eats his international food and sips his international drink while he gazes at the natives from a distance. Conducted tours to places of interest are carefully censored. The tourist is allowed to see only what the organisers want him to see and no more. A strict schedule makes it impossible for the tourist to wander off on his own; and anyway, language is always a barrier, so he is only too happy to be protected in this way. At its very worst, this leads to a new and hideous kind of colonization. The summer quarters of the inhabitants of the cité universitaire are temporarily re-established on the island of Corfu. Blackpool is recreated at Torremolinos where the traveller goes not to eat paella, but fish and chips.

The sad thing about this situation is that it leads to the persistence of national stereotypes. We don't see the people of other nations as they really are, but as we have been brought up to believe they are. You can test this for yourself. Take five nationalities, say, French, German, English, American and Italian. Now in your mind, match them with these five adjectives: musical, amorous, cold, pedantic, naive. Far from providing us with any insight into the national characteristics of the peoples just mentioned, these adjectives actually act as barriers. So when you set out on your travels, the only characteristics you notice are those which confirm your preconceptions. You come away with the highly unoriginal and inaccurate impression that, say, ‘Anglo-Saxons are hypocrites’ or that ‘Latin peoples shout a lot’. You only have to make a few foreign friends to understand how absurd and harmful national stereotypes are. But how can you make foreign friends when the tourist trade does its best to prevent you?

Carried to an extreme, stereotypes can be positively dangerous. Wild generalisations stir up racial hatred and blind us to the basic fact – how trite it sounds! – that all people are human. We are all similar to each other and at the same time all unique.

The argument: key words

1. Considerable tourist traffic, but no greater understanding between nations.

2. Superb system of communication: air, sea, land; moderate cost.

3. Grand tour: for very rich. Now: package tour: high level comfort.

4. What’s the sense, if ignorant of each other?

5. Tourist organisations responsible: protect clients from local people.

6. Modern tourist: a sheltered life; international hotels, food, etc.

7. Local sight-seeing censored by organisers.

8. Tourists happy to be protected.

9. New and hideous colonization: e.g. cité unversitaire: Corfu; Blackpool; Torremolinos.

10. This leads to persistence of national stereotypes.

11. See others not as they are, but as we have been taught to believe they are.

12. Test for yourself: match French, German, English, American, Italian with: musical, amorous, cold, pedantic, naïve.

13. Adjectives: no insight into characteristics, but barriers.

14. When traveling you notice characteristics which confirm preconceptions.

15. E.g. Anglo-Saxons: hypocrites; Latin peoples: noisy.

16. Foreign friends make you understand stereotypes absurd, harmful.

17. Tourist trade prevents you making foreign friends.

18. Stereotypes: dangerous, can stir up racial hatred.

19. All people human; all similar; all unique.

The counter-argument: key words

1. Stereotypes: nothing to do with tourist trade.

2. Idea of stereotypes only a party joke anyway.

3. Tourism contributes enormously to international understanding.

4. Pre-war days hardly anyone travelled; today hardly anyone doesn’t.

5. This in itself cannot fail to lead to understanding.

6. E.g. consider the way nations influence each other: fashions, eating habits, etc.

7. Many examples of ‘national’ fashions becoming world fashions.

8. World today: a small place; barriers breaking down everywhere.

9. E.g. European Economic Community; United Nations, etc.

10. Increasing tendency to identify with larger groups.

11. Great interest in language learning.

12. People who are ‘protected’ at international hotels are old and rich.

13. The young are more impressionable, not so ‘protected’.

14. People are eager to get to know each other; curious about different way of life.