How to Keep Your Sense of Humor While Traveling

Culture shock, logistical difficulties and rough conditions can challenge even the most experienced traveler. Cultivating humor can make tough situations more meaningful and enjoyable to you, your fellow travelers and the local friends you've made.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Address Books
• Foreign Language Phrase Books
• Local Guidebooks
• Portable Tape Recorders
• Mirrors
• E-mail Accounts
• Envelopes
• Paper And Pencils

1. Keep a journal or carry a miniature tape recorder and make regular entries or recordings. Taking a step back and articulating an experience from a more objective stance will open the door for humor.

2. Write a letter or e-mail a friend when you find your humor waning. Challenge yourself to tell at least one good story in this message; you'll be surprised how funny things can look when narrated to someone outside the situation.

3. Keep a list of odd or funny things that you observe during your first few days in a new culture, and an explanation of what you think these things are all about. Look back on these lists later in the trip; what seemed odd before is probably familiar now, and your explanations may be funnier than the things themselves!

4. Imagine writing an entry in a guidebook about a frustrating experience or encounter you are in the thick of. How would you describe your experience to subsequent travelers? What travel advice would you offer?

5. Try to see yourself through the eyes of locals: What might they find particularly odd, funny or inexplicable about what you are doing at this moment? When your tolerance for cultural differences starts to break down, taking a fresh look at your own idiosyncrasies can be enormously funny.

6. Remember that mishaps with service providers may occur due to cultural or linguistic misunderstandings, and that getting angry will make communication more difficult and engender bad feelings. Instead, try to see the humor in whatever distorted assumptions both sides may have about each other.

7. Pull out a hand mirror and make funny faces at yourself when all else fails. Be aware of your setting when you perform this last step.

Tips & Warnings

• Be careful not sacrifice respect for local culture in order to lighten things up for yourself and fellow travelers. A laughing fit, an arm wrestling match, or a game of tag may seem like innocent silliness to you, but may bring about bad feelings in an inappropriate setting.