Inviting someone to your home: Differences between cultures

 In the last class we discussed something pretty simple but interesting because it’s something we all experience every month or every week; inviting guests to our home.

We reviewed several aspects of this, for example; Who do you invite to your home? What’s the reason of the invitation? What do they do in your home? Do you prefer indoor or outdoor activities?

From my mexican western perspective, my home is not really a “sacred” place or something very very personal, of course it’s my home and my privacy but it’s not a big deal if people come to my house, of course as long as they’re not strangers and if they’re strangers they should be watched to avoid stealing or they should not leave the common area at all. In Mexico we have this saying of “Mi casa es tu casa”, which means “My house is your house” so that’s why we normally have our doors opened to everyone.

It was interesting to see the difference here because people of the West had similar perspectives, like me, but maybe some specific countries of Europe and most asian students agreed that home is a very private place and they do not receive people at all, or maybe just close friends and family.

Also we discussed about if you should bring a present/gift when going to other’s home and most people agreed on bringing a gift, but maybe in Mexico if you do it everytime you visit it can be seen as suspicious, like you want something from us or you’re expecting us to give you something, so is not that common as other countries that said they bring gifts every time.

Finally, we talked about the reason why they visit you’re home and this is similar but also different depending on who you ask, but most responses were about going to eat, drink something, party, movies and just passing by to say hi.

I would say most people from the west had similar opinions on this topic, the big difference is with the asian people and it’s very interesting!