Roman Misunderstandings

by Kerel Pinder 

I had two experiences with cultural dissonance; the first occurred because of a language barrier and the non verbal communications seem to confuse the situation as well. My classmate Steven and I booked two separate single rooms for our hotel room in Rome. However when we arrived to the Hotel we were only given one key. We spoke very little Italian and the Nun at the front desk spoke very little English. This language barrier caused so much confusion; we spent 20 minutes trying to explain that we booked 2 rooms not one. We eventually started to use sign language and so did she. Eventually we interpreted her sign language to mean this one key open the door to both rooms. Like a joining room maybe, so we went upstairs only to see our original thought was correct, we had one room with two beds. We went back down stairs eventually she understood but still could not help, after speaking on the phone for 10minutes with another employee. We eventually got our own rooms with a single bed. A process that would have taken 5 minutes to explain if we spoke Italian or she spoke English, took 45 minutes. I guess it’s time for us to brush up on our Italian a little more.

The other example occurred when I exited the Coliseum. The men dressed up as Gladiators asked if I would take a picture of the family in front of me. Once I was done they asked if I would like a photo and I cheerfully agreed. There was no sign indicating there was a charge for the photos but I assumed that the photos were expected to be done for a small tip. He took my photo and then demanded 20 Euros. I was furious, I could see a euro or two as a tip, but it was taken with my personal camera and you are honestly demanding 20 Euros! I gave him 2 Euros and walked off but I felt caught off guard so much, not because of the language barrier but because of this covert knowledge shared by all vendors to over-charge tourist that don't know any better. He spoke great English he just knew I didn't know the culture and as a tourist expect me to believe all vendors should be rewarded 20 Euros for their efforts. Other vendors doing “special tricks" tried to haggle me throughout the day but I just kept on walking. If I didn't continue to walk around I would have interpreted this misunderstanding as an idiosyncratic behavior because by no means do I think all Italians are this way. I do however think that knowing this part of their gypsy culture would have kept me more aware when visiting the tourist sites, because I was more surprised than anything.