Cross Cultural Communications 101

Had a conversation yesterday.
Mier lives in the Respite home that I also stay in. She and I and some other friends were all out near Manila Bay and were discussing the word "exotic".
Someone said something about wanting to travel abroad and marry a foreign husband and somehow someone added to this by saying that in the west, girls from the Philippines are considered exotic. To this, Mier looked a little put-out. (for the record, i was keeping quiet for this part of the conversation.)

"What do you mean when you say 'exotic'?" Meir turned and asked me.
"I don't know" I reply, "'foreign', 'hard to come by', 'beautiful'?" She stops me there.
"Oh, ok, fine." I seem to have given the right answer.
"Yea, it's a good thing." I add.
"Because when I hear exotic," she explains, "I think about exotic foods, which here in the Philippines mean things like, 'snake', 'reptile', 'rat' - things like that."

And that is why cross cultural communication will always be a work in progress.