Arrogance Abroad

When traveling in Asia, leave the sneakers home

On a recent swing through China and Japan, I couldn’t help but notice the disparity between the sanctuary-like atrium style lobby of the Aman Tokyo and the young American executives strolling and lounging around in it. These young professionals looked like they were dressed for a football game. Traveling through the region in the hope of building global business relationships, they seemed ill-prepared, ill-suited and ill-mannered.

Do Not Bare Your Sole

At the $1,000 per night Waldorf Astoria in Shanghai, one young American executive was shrieking multiple “OMGs” about the view as she ate breakfast with her feet perched on the opposite chair, displaying the soles of her sneakers to the world, a cultural faux pas. The couple next to me turned on a white noise app to drown her out. The next day, a bearded male reclined on a lobby couch as he would in a frat bro living room, shoes propped on the furniture. These are some of the reasons we are called “the ugly Americans.”

American cultural arrogance blinds us to our manners and appearance. But the ugliness runs deeper than New Balance sneakers. When we travel abroad, we bring an attitude that is as obnoxious as our dress habits. CEOs who assign young executives the challenge of building business relationships may not be aware of how poorly their companies are being represented. Yet, all it takes is some good old-fashioned cultural retraining.