How to make a Sri Lankan guest welcome?

February 23, 2018 1:21 AM

Our hospital is having a couple of Sri Lankan visitors for two weeks to observe and take notes around improving their hospital back home. We've volunteered to host one of them. What I know: he's male, a manager of an emergency department, so I assume middle class, Tamil and Hindu. What can we do to make his stay as comfortable as possible?

My partner's a vegetarian so cooking without meat isn't a problem. I feel like serving what we'd normally eat would be appropriate as we wouldn't go to Sri Lanka expecting pizza and burgers for every meal.

We've got a 1 year old running around and I'm not sure about limiting his nude time (aka every time we're home) - would he take offence or would it be normal for him?

Mostly we're just curious about cultural nuances and little things we should avoid or promote to make him feel more welcome.

posted by Silentgoldfish to Travel & Transportation around Sri Lanka (5 answers total)

Best answer: You're on the right track in serving the food you usually eat etc - especially as your partner is vegetarian so you probably cook a lot of vegetarian anyway. Not all the Tamils I know are vegetarian but you're absolutely right in your gut instinct to make what you would normally make.

I really don't think you need to do anything extra beyond what you would do to make any guest feel welcome. As in, I don't think he would necessarily expect any nods to where he comes from. And as long as you're happy, I don't see a need to change how you normally let your child be indoors.

Just be nice, friendly and welcoming, and I don't think you need to worry too much about cultural nuance. I see a lot of questions on AskMe about cultural naunces of dealing with people from other countries - but even though it comes from a good place, I don't really think it needs to feel like a big deal that they're from a different country. Middle-class people in Sri Lanka and other South Asian countries are pretty familiar with Western culture so I don't think you need to go out of your way, especially for such a short visit.
posted by Ziggy500 at 2:12 AM on February 23, 2018 [3 favorites]

How are you so sure that the Sri Lankans are Tamil?The Sinhalese make up about 75% of the population of Sri Lanka. You could probably tell from the names however. Even if Tamil, they're not necessarily vegetarian (in fact, am an extremely non- vegetarian Tamil here). That most Tamils (or Indians) are vegetarian is a myth brought about because of extreme sampling bias - the majority of South Asians with the resources to travel abroad have been from the upper castes who are much more likely to be vegetarian. Here is an article about it. The map there shows that the majority of people in Tamil Nadu (the south eastern most state) are actually non-vegetarian.

That being said, I think your instincts are right to cook what you'd normally cook. Even if the visitors are non-vegetarian they probably would still appreciate vegetarian meals.

Baby nudity is not really a big deal for most South Asians so I wouldn't worry about that at all.
posted by peacheater at 2:56 AM on February 23, 2018 [2 favorites]

I see you're in Melbourne. So I agree normal cooking is fine, but checking where you can get an egg hopper (etc) if he fancied one wouldn't be a bad idea - out East for example, you have Corlan Kitchen in Syndal for casual cafe-style eating, as well as several other Sri Lankan places in the same strip.
posted by hawthorne at 4:03 AM on February 23, 2018

What Ziggy500 said.

When you travel abroad, you’re happy to enjoy the foreign culture with all its quirks and peculiarities. If you’re in Australia, I should expect to live the Australian experience rather than be reminded of my home country at every turn.

And when something is bizarre, you shut up - because you’re a gracious guest.
posted by Kwadeng at 4:53 AM on February 23, 2018 [3 favorites]

Although you aren't sure yet if he's vegetarian, I'd make sure you ask if he eats eggs or not - Indian vegetarian typically does not include eggs, and American vegetarian typically does.
posted by Lady Li at 1:34 PM on February 24, 2018