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Personal Narrative: A Social Norm

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Personal Narrative: A Social Norm
Europe is full of amazing things, and one of those is the way those in the Netherlands travel. Cars are rare and tiny - main modes of transport include biking and public transport. After spending a week in the Amsterdam and Leiden, I feel I have become a master at both biking and using public transportation. However, an experience I had a couple of days ago may prove otherwise.

I was with a group of students from the study abroad I'm with and we had taken the train to visit The Hague. We had a great time exploring the city and visiting the Pier. On the way back to Leiden, however, we were reminded that we were in fact foreigners to this country.

Now I need to preference this with a little psychology. A social norm is an unspoken …show more content…
We found an almost empty compartment on the train and decided to sit there, still talking and laughing. We weren't even sitting for five minutes when a lady sticks her head through the door and reprimands us. It turned out the compartment we were in is a "silent" compartment. The word silent was in fact written on the windows, but we didn't notice until she pointed it out to us. Later, I noticed pictures outside of the train that indicated which compartments were silent. I assume these compartments are meant to be used by those wishing to work while on the train, or even for those who have long commutes and want to sleep. I could see why a rowdy group of Americans would be obnoxious. Because I was with a group, the implications of breaking the social norm was a lot less than I think it would be if I had been alone. Still, I felt embarrassed for disturbing the other passengers and clearly not following the rules. Also, if I had been alone I would not have brushed it off as quickly as I did with the group. After the lady told us off for making noise, she would glare at us if we so much as giggled, and I'm sure she wasn't the only one that was irritated. In an ideal world, I would never be mistaken for a tourist because of my quick adaption to the social norms of every country I visit. However, I think that would also take some of the fun out of traveling. As embarrassing as it can be, violating social norms is
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