By: Jim Taylor

First impressions matter. Unfortunately, unlike computers, first impressions don't come with an "Undo" button.
          During my growing-up years, maps typically colored the far-flung British Empire red. Visually, it led many Britons to a faulty assumption -- that they could communicate in Oxford English almost anywhere in the world.
          Famed missionary doctor Bob McClure used to say acidly, "When an Englishman encounters someone who doesn't understand him, he believes that speaking louder will overcome that natural disability."
          William Lederer and Eugene Burdick painted an even less flattering portrait of Americans in their 1958 bestseller The Ugly American. Six years before the United States got sucked into the quicksand of the Vietnam war, they presented a slashing indictment of American arrogance, incompetence, and corruption in Southeast Asia.
          In their novel, a Burmese journalist remarks, "A mysterious change seems to come over Americans when they go to a foreign land. They isolate themselves socially. They live pretentiously. They're loud and ostentatious."

SUBTLE DISTINCTIONS
          I've met my share of these "ugly" stereotypes. And not just in poor countries. My wife and I were buying a camera in Geneva, Switzerland, when a brassy blonde -- lacquered hair, scarlet fingernails, rhinestone high-heeled pumps -- banged open the door.
          "Hey!" she interrupted. "Anybody in here speak American?"
          "Certainly, madam," replied the owner without missing a beat. "And English too."
          The jibe went right over her head. But we winced. Because most of the world cannot tell the difference between Canadians and Americans.
          Since then, we usually wear an unobtrusive maple leaf pin, or a Canadian flag pin, when we travel. But just a small one, of course. That's the Canadian way.
          Once, at Tikal in Guatemala, another tourist with what we took to be German accent asked cautiously what part of the U.S. we came from.
          "We're Canadians," retorted my wife. "We don't like being lumped together with Americans."
          "I know exactly what you mean," responded the other woman, with sudden warmth. "We're Swiss."

INTERCULTURAL RELATIONS
          The point comes up because this week, February 9 to 16, has been chosen as International Week at the UBC-Okanagan campus. The university hosts a variety of special events, speeches, and workshops.
          Dana Reiter organized many of them. She's the university's International Advisor, Student Development and Services. She's deeply committed to improving intercultural relationships.
          Twice -- in 2000 and 2006 -- she sailed on the United Nations' University's Ship For World Youth program, lecturing and advising 300 students from 16 different countries. She has worked in Patagonia, in southern Argentina, on the Fundación Cruzada Patagónica, a rural social development project with indigenous Mapuche.
          Reiter is also a Fellow of the prestigious Salzburg Seminar, one of the world's foremost international educational centres dedicated to broadening the perspectives of tomorrow's leaders.
          Too bad George Bush never had an opportunity to study there.
          In 2004, Reiter won an Ambassadorial Scholarship from Rotary International, to attend the School for International Training in Vermont. She did her Master's degree in Intercultural Service, Leadership and Management. "It's a life-changing experience," she says now.
          Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarships, currently worth $26,000 U.S. for a year of post-graduate study, are "as well known around the world as the Fullbright Scholarships," Reiter says.
          The Ambassadorial Scholarships are Rotary's oldest and perhaps best known program. (For conditions and application forms, see http://www.rotary.org/foundation/educational/amb_scho/. Applications should be sent to Gwen Zilm, c/o UBC Okanagan, 3333 University Way, Kelowna, V1V 1V7.)
          Nearly 800 scholarships were awarded in 2005-06. Since 1947, some 37,000 men and women from 100 nations have benefited from studying outside their home country.
          "I was expected to speak at least 12 times to Rotarians in Vermont, so you develop confidence in public situations," Reiter explains. "You get local support. You build networks with other international scholars. It makes a world of difference to your perspective."

THE QUALITY OF THE PERSON
          I was involved last year in interviewing some candidates for Ambassadorial Scholarships locally. They needed the usual academic transcripts and references. But what impressed me most about the selection process was the committee's focus on the kind of person they were choosing.
          "The purpose of the Ambassadorial Scholarships program," says a Rotary publication, "is to further international understanding and friendly relations among people of different countries."
          "Your grades matter," interviewer Tony French advised applicants. "But remember that you are first of all an ambassador -- for Canada, and for Rotary."
          Last year's winner, Brandon O'Larey of Yakima, Washington, was chosen over other candidates mainly because of his community work. He'll complete an education degree at the University of Hull, in England. But in the meantime, he's teaching math at the juvenile detention centre in Yakima, to kids who have gotten themselves into serious trouble, and who may be in his class for a few days, or a few months.
Because he can make a difference to them.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS
          Unfortunately, the inhabitants of our world are more likely to focus on less attractive stereotypes -- the bum-pinching Italian, the pushy German, the bargaining Arab carpet weaver, the beer-guzzling Australian.
          Some of these stereotypes even have some basis in fact.
All the more reason why they need to be countered with good behaviour, sensitivity, compassion, and honesty.
As an unnamed reviewer commented about Burdick and Lederer's Ugly American: "A few Americans are genuinely devoted to helping the local people. A priest, a soldier, a chicken farmer -- spurned by their own government, they work small miracles in their own ways. But who will the people see as America's true face: the career diplomats, or the chicken farmers?"
          Intentionally or not, all of us become ambassadors for our home culture and society when we travel.
          My wife and I remind ourselves that we may be the only Canadians some of these people may ever meet. Their impression of Canada may depend on their impression of us.
          The qualities that matter for a Rotary Ambassador wouldn't hurt the rest of us, either.

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Copyright © 2007 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups permitted; all other rights reserved.
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