Steph, what is the meaning of...

So it's been fun working with nationals and explaining things about American culture and dealing with young girls and women from the States.

One funny conversation centered around calling a person "fat." In India, telling someone they are fat is not offensive. It just isn't. My friends were trying to explain to me that if a person is fat, you say...wow, you are fat. And the return response is, yes I know thank you. Or, I was thinking about losing some kilos. I will work on that.

What? That was the only response I could think of. The rest of the conversation went something like this:

Me: "Friends, you never call an American fat. Not even joking around."

National Friends: "Well why not?"

"Because it's offensive, like going to a person's house and not eating what is set before you."

"So what do you say to a person if they are fat? What if you have never seen someone who is that fat before?"

"You just don't say anything. If you want to refer to someone who is not skinny, then you just say that they are a big person. Never say they are fat."

"So you lie to people?"

"No, it's not lying. It's more protecting that person from ridicule about the way they look."

"So how do you tell a person that they need to loose some kilos?"

"Oh! You don't! We think this way: if we see someone who is fat, we assume they know that they are fat, and if they wanted to lose some weight then they would do it. It's just rude to call someone fat. You don't comment on the way people look if it's not positive. Like you don't talk about how bad their acne is or anything like that."

"But I have said these things to you. I think once I asked you what happened to your face."

"Yes (as I well know), but I know it's just part of your culture, so I try not to let it bother me. It's also the way that a lot of girls are wired, they want to be desirable to someone. They want men to look at them and think, 'wow, she is beautiful.' Instead of thinking about all of the flaws she has. It's true for Indian women too, why else do you think that they spend money on bleaching their faces and getting their eyebrows threaded. Every woman wants to be seen as desirable and saying stuff about her weight or acne doesn't help her feel beautiful."

I'm not exactly sure my explanation got through to them, but it made for some laughs.

Other funny requests from my friends have been, "what does this 'holy crap' and 'B.S.' mean?" And their confusing phrases like "don't eat my brain," (which just means don't pester me) elicited some funny looks. Why would I want to eat your brain? hmmm.

Oh the funniness of cultural differences.