My First Culture Shock

Traveling to a Latin American country was a dream come true for me. While in Guatemala, I had to keep pinching myself to reassert that this dream was real. Everything was new and exciting and truly immersed me in the Guatemalan culture, from the Spanish language that swirled around me, to the bill boards displaying Bible verses, to the survival-of–the-fittest driving that makes even inner-city US driving look tame in comparison. In Guatemala, I quickly learned that aren’t really any notions of right of way or courteous driving principles. I watched Guatemalan drivers cut each other off at will, barely avoiding each other and nearly causing collisions on a regular basis. As for pedestrians, in Guatemala, the pedestrian right of way does not exist; on the road, drivers have the right of way and they know it; drivers feel no obligation to slow down or stop for pedestrians crossing the street. I didn’t know what I was expecting Guatemalan driving to be but I never thought that it would be so dangerous and seemingly devoid of rules. Driving was one of the first facets of Guatemalan culture that confronted and conflicted with my pre-conceived notions of social and cultural behavior. This culture shock made me realize that although I kept comparing what I saw and experienced to US culture, I could not assume that both cultures would be the same in any given aspect, even something as mundane as driving.