Next week, travel guru Rick Steves will speak on campus, but he won鈥檛 be talking about how to find a cheap hotel or what the must-see sites in Paris are.
鈥淚鈥檓 going to talk about the value of travel, not how to travel,鈥� said Steves, who was speaking by phone from his office in Edmonds, where he heads up Europe through the Back Door, a travel company that takes about 6,000 people to Europe every year.
Americans Abroad in 2005: Rick Steves鈥� Thoughts on Traveling in Europe is the title of the talk, planned for 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 28, in 120 Kane.
Sounding exactly the same as the relaxed, chatty guy you see on his KCTS/ 9 travel programs, Steves is nevertheless a man on a mission. 鈥淚 want to convince people that travel is more than a good time,鈥� Steves said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a way to broaden your perspective; there鈥檚 intrinsic value in leaving your own culture and experiencing another, then coming back.鈥�
Steves says too many Americans go abroad not understanding the cultures they encounter and come back with erroneous impressions. 鈥淔or example, Americans go to a restaurant in France and the service is slow, so they conclude that the French don鈥檛 like Americans,鈥� he said. 鈥淎ctually, in France, slow service is respectful service, because for the French a meal is an event; it鈥檚 not something you do on the way to something else.鈥�
But Steves doesn鈥檛 think it鈥檚 necessary to study up on culture before leaving home. 鈥淚鈥檓 often the classic buffoon when I travel,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 screw up all the time. The point is to not judge. Americans are too quick to judge.鈥�
In fact, Steves went on, Americans have a reputation for making such judgments. He quoted a man in a caf茅 in Kabul, Afghanistan, who said to an American, 鈥淵ou know, one-third of the world eats with a knife and fork like you do, one-third eats with chopsticks and one-third eats with their fingers like I do. And we are just as civilized as you.鈥�
Steves is convinced that if people travel with an open mind, they鈥檒l 鈥渃ome back with a positive impression of the people of the world.鈥� Then, he said, 鈥渢hey鈥檒l see diversity as something to celebrate, not something to fear.鈥�
Big as Steves鈥� business is now, it鈥檚 easy to forget that he started out teaching a class in the UW鈥檚 Experimental College. He self-published his first book, Europe through the Back Door, in 1980. That book is now in its 23rd printing, and he鈥檚 also written many guidebooks to individual countries.
A UW graduate, Steves majored in European history and business. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think I could have picked more perfect majors for what I wound up doing,鈥� he said.
Steves鈥� talk is sponsored by the Center for West European Studies. For more information, contact the center at 206-543-1675 or cwes@u.washington.edu.