HOW TO BE AN ALIEN
This is the title of a book by the Hungarian author George Mikeš; it was
given to me when first I arrived in Britain in 1964. It describes in a very
humorous way the impressions of a foreigner encountering the British way of
life. Much of it wouldn’t apply these days, British people have changed a lot
over the years, maybe because of the EU, and of many having holidays
abroad. And that is not only noticeable in their diet and the products
available in the supermarket. Lidl has a slogan attached to the shopping
trolleys: ’Why not try something you can’t pronounce’. Doing this, you might
be a foreigner for a short while.
‘Alien’ does not mean ‘from another planet’ for Mikeš, he meant ‘to be a
foreigner’. In 1964 I was warned by the person interviewing me for the
teaching job I had applied for, that I might encounter anti German feelings,
‘better tell them that you are Austrian when asked’. No, I can honestly say
that I never experienced unfriendliness because of my nationality, but I
would have understood why. Yet after all these years in this country I am still
asked where I come from because of my accent. ‘You don’t speak proper’,
one of my pupils once said to me, and he was surprised that I laughed in his
face and only corrected his grammar. People ask- more out of curiosity-
wanting to talk and listen to a stranger. That is not a bad thing. I haven’t met
any of the xenophobia which we are told is abundant these days in Britain,
but as I am white and a pensioner with a bus pass, I am clearly one of them,
unless I open my mouth.
I don’t feel an alien any more.
At Heidelberg University one of the professors has been studying ‘how to be
an alien’ from a historical point of view. He said that the Bible tells you:
‘Remember that you have been a stranger in Egypt’.
Of course, that was addressed to the Israelites, but apart from those who
have been to Egypt on holiday, it means that we should think that we all
have been foreigners somewhere, like when on holiday abroad.
On holiday you are placing yourself into the position of a foreigner on
purpose, because you are curious, and curiosity is part of the human
condition. It is the reason why we don’t just sit on the beach but would enrol
in a diving course, since we want to know what is underneath the water. We
are using our new surroundings to enlarge our personal experience. Those
who want to experience being foreign on holiday enjoy a good life.
Yet these days millions of others have different experiences in foreign lands.
There it often concerns survival. The words associated with being a
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