Expat Meme Overload

The British scientist Richard Dawkins introduced the word “meme” (pronounced /ˈmiːm/, rhyming with “dream”) in The Selfish Gene (1976) as a basis for discussion of evolutionary principles in explaining the spread of ideas and cultural phenomena.

This is what advertisers rely on in selling catch phrases, clothing, cars and even water. Consider the Evian Roller Babies, the commercial became a YouTube sensation in a week! In only a few days the video had over 2.6 million views and is currently at 10.8+ million views and climbing.

Memes are a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation. This is how an entire society can quickly adapt to new rules and rituals.

When you arrive in a new culture you are bombarded by a salvo of new memes.  Expats are often in meme overload. You cannot learn them fast enough, or even appreciate them. Oftentimes you have no idea why you feel like a misfit or an alien from another planet.

For example, I’m an American, we eat any time of the day, that is any time of a 24-hour day. In France, the eating hours are generally fixed. I’ve lived in France more than three years and I’m still shocked to go to a restaurant at 2 pm (daylight) and to be told the kitchen is closed! They look at me as if I am a social idiot and I look at them with hunger in my face to no avail. My money not welcome after 2 pm nor pity because I hunger.

The most annoying French meme I shall not get accustomed to is the amount of personal space in a line at the supermarket or anywhere else. At times it is so unnerving I turn and say, “Back up just a little, you’re not Justin Timberlake!” Maybe if they were cute, sexy, and a fabulous dancer, it wouldn’t matter. I doubt it. I’m from the land of “don’t fence me in.”

Learning and adapting to all these different behaviors and finding ways to incorporate them without losing your identity is the challenge. It is one of the key reasons expatriates need to network with other expats and globally minded locals.

Perhaps this is why you find expat expos springing up all over the world.  They are little islands within a place where an expat can relax and celebrate being themselves, different than the host country. Most expats don’t want to live in nativeland ghettos. Many are open to being infected with expat friendly memes of a welcoming host.

Next time in line maybe I’ll turn and say, “Wanna dance? I’m bringing sexyback!”