My one shameless exception was eavesdropping on Amis who would talk on the subways and in other public places as though everyone around them was deaf. On a later visit I heard two guys loudly discussing how German girls wouldn’t put out but the pickings were easy in Prague and Budapest. I felt like reporting them to some authority that could revoke their visas on grounds of boorishness. I also ran into two teenage girls one time, probably army kids given their suburban destination, who were savvy enough to know that many Germans speak English and so had a tittering conversation about everyone in the S-Bahn car in Pig Latin.

In Mexico, where I could never pass for a local (in Germany I could do it until I opened my mouth), I’ve also had the experience of a friendly local wanting to practice English while I really wanted to speak Spanish. It’s been hard to decide whether to stick to my total-immersion guns or gracefully indulge the other guy.

It must be very different now that the Internet is a global addiction and the first thing many travelers do when they hit a new town is check their e-mail from home. I can’t see myself going offline for a year just to avoid English. Maybe I could read everything via Babelfish? :-)

Direct eye contact between people facilitates important social-cognitive effects, improving the speed with which we can categorize people as men or women and categorize them based on our individual stereotypes, according to a study published in the September 2002 issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the American Psychological Society. Authors of the study are researchers C. Neil Macrae, Dartmouth College; Bruce M. Hood, University of Bristol, England; Alan B. Milne, University of Aberdeen, Scotland; Angela C. Rowe, University of Bristol, England; and Malia F. Mason, Dartmouth College.

Thanks!