Academic Abroad: A Cautionary Tale

By Kerry Soper. As an academic trained in American studies, I've always dreaded the thought of being perceived as an Ugly American when traveling overseas. Eager to distance myself from images of the idiot abroad, I've learned French, dabbled in Spanish and Italian, and occasionally put in some serious effort, when preparing for a conference trip or a study-abroad excursion, to learn about other nations' artistic traditions, sports manias, and food fetishes.
My motives, alas, are not always a sincere interest in other peoples and places—I just want to be liked and not judged provincial. In most cases, however, I don't succeed in impressing my foreign hosts and acquaintances; instead, I just seem to irritate or amuse them. Some examples:
What's good for the goose. About eight years ago, on a conference trip to southern France, I got myself into an awkward situation while visiting Sarlat, a medieval village famous for its goose-liver paté. Looking for an excuse to display my language ability, and to prove to my American companions—as well as the French locals—that I was savvier than the typical American traveler, I approached a woman at the visitor's bureau with a question that I felt was simple enough: "Where could one purchase some fresh foie gras?" More...