Meeting of the cultures

Essay

I do not have many real friends. But majority of my best friends is international – American, British, French, Indonesian, Italian etc. Some of them have already visited me in my country and I had a possibility to spend some days in their country, too.

When I am abroad it is typical for me to taste original meal of the country I am in. I always ask how I should eat. The way of using cutlery or the way of holding the cup as a native has a special magic for me. When I return home and I eat for example spaghetti I use the cutlery as a real Italian. “It is stupid to prefer foreign culture and thus forget your own,” says my father. But foreign eating habits present me all the beautiful moments I have spent.

But not every foreigner behaves as me. My Italian friend Francesco has tried our cuisine but he was not interested in the ritual of eating. He ate what was on his plate, said “It was OK.” and started a new topic of our talk.

I think eating is for Slovaks much more important than for other nations. We spend hours by preparing our national meal, setting the table. My Irish friend Michael invited me to a restaurant, ordered burgers and after fifteen minutes we left. Slovaks like eating at least two meals (soup and usually meat with potatoes or rice + vegetable) and they eat slowly. Eating is the time for relax, friendly talk. Slovaks abroad would prefer home made meal because they believe that if somebody invites you into his/her kitchen, it is an invitation into his/her heart. And if foreigner asks a recipe of the meal he has eaten, Slovak will be the happiest man in the world. Foreigner does not appreciate only skills of the “cook” but the culture, too. And then the Slovak feels that he/she is accepted because we have an interiority complex - we are small nation who has made some mistakes during its existence and not every foreigner is tollerant. But ordinary people are not bad. They are good hearted, very nice and friendly. They see a friend in every foreigner. Unfortunately it is not the same when Slovak is in the position of foreigner. But Slovaks can forgive and this fact allows them to meet any foreign culture and experience it as much as possible.