This is a very interesting one. How does a person feel at home when they are only 'a guest'? At what point does one become not a guest anymore? Local passport? Is your opinion then suddenly of worth (assuming it contains absolutely no criticism whatsoever)? Is charging 'guests' 30 times the going rate for an entry ticket to a tourist site good manners, in any country or situation, even if done with a lovely smile? Like it or lump it and go home back to your country Mister?
I'm very surprised that one sentence sparked such a response. I would hope that a reply would deal with the totality of a post and not just a fragment of it, but I'm happy to respond on these terms. When I say that I'm a guest in this country, I mean that I don't have the legal rights of a citizen, which I don't. I work here, pay tax here and live here precisely because the Indonesian government and people allow me to. The rest of what you said here is your own and not attributable to the sentence fragment that you have decided to over-emphasize.
I think if you live, work and pay taxes in Country Z then you ought to have a right to contribute to local debate and that your voice should be no less important than someone who was born in Country Z. Same in the UK, US or anywhere else. The free exchange of ideas - that's for the benefit of all. There are plenty of people with very different ideas and this is good - let the ideas prove their value (or not). But some cultures are generally more accepting of useful criticism or challenging ideas than others - even ideas that seem completely obvious. What use is education if all you do is give or get A grades / smiles for clearly shoddy work / treatment because you / they worry about upsetting you / them or feel that as a guest your / their input is somehow of less value? The student can't learn or improve!
Again, not sure how all this is attributable, but I work as a teacher so will try to add some thoughts on the education system. I too value the open market-place of ideas. However, with cancel culture and other such phenomena emerging in the West, I'm not sure that everywhere else is as open to critique as you think (see:
https://www.nas.org/blogs/article/tracking-cancel-culture-in-higher-education and
https://www.nas.org/blogs/article/tracking-cancel-culture-in-higher-education).
It is illegal to blaspheme here. Meaning that I can lose my freedom for somebody else's perceptions of my religious opinions. When I lived in Thailand, I could have gone to prison according to somebody else's assessment of my commentary on the monarchy too. This means that I need to be extra careful about where and how I express my opinions, precisely because it is illegal. I don't like these laws, but denial of their existence won't stop me going to prison if I break them. So I do need to accept their existence and behave accordingly.
Regarding the education system, I cannot comment directly on the state system but I can on the private system. We operate the international baccalaureate system and use what are called 'criterion-referenced' assessments. In a given term, usually between nine and eleven weeks, I will assess students in accordance with a set of course objectives. Learning goals are aligned with objective strands. These strands are used to give instructions and provide feedback. Student work is then measured against these strands in the middle and at the end of the term. Each school year has four terms and we invite feedback with students on a daily basis and with parents on a termly basis via open days and at any time via email. Skills development and positive learning traits are also aligned with these goals (see:
https://ibo.org/contentassets/901d3...001e0/approaches-to-learning-claremont-en.pdf and
https://www.ibo.org/contentassets/fd82f70643ef4086b7d3f292cc214962/learner-profile-en.pdf). Critiques of student work are provided within the context of these strands to keep it as objective as possible.
Indonesian state education is present in the areas of civics and religion. Meaning that it is a legal requirement for students to attend these classes. My feelings aren't a barometer valued by the government, so I choose to respect their wishes and implement the subjects of English literature and social studies that I am qualified to teach in the context of the international baccalaureate curriculum.
I actively encourage criticism of my own work because it tests your viewpoint or work or theory or policy, so you can improve it. I'm not sure how anyone could genuinely argue that being given the wrong change is to be encouraged or accepted because you're only a 'guest' or worry about upsetting someone's extremely delicate constitution by asking for the right amount back. Fair is fair. Or maybe not - maybe out here fair is foul and foul is fair.
I'm not encouraging anything besides the development of coping strategies to operate within a foreign culture, in reference to this specific kind of situation. I am a guest here, as outlined above. While I have reservations and disagreements about the legal system here, I need to accept it for what it is because I choose to live here. Ranting and raving won't change that. Being cautious about how I express my reservations is something that I try to adhere to.
I remember once at Manado airport I couldn't help myself when a local guy pushed in the queue and put his bag in front of several of us who had been patiently waiting. So I grabbed his bag and told him there was a queue. He sheepishly moved to the end of the line. Actually, people were very glad I did this, because they were feeling exactly the same as me but were too scared to contemplate breaking the 'saving face' that is such an enabler of daily skulduggery. Sometimes people appreciate you standing up for what is obvious unfairness.
This is fair. However, I remember when a Thai man put his hands on my girlfriend due to similar reservations and I had to politely ask him not to touch her. People behind us were pushing at Siam BTS station on a Saturday afternoon. Sometimes, the ebb and flow of the crowd is something that you just have to roll with. This man was wrong for touching my girlfriend and I reminded him so. Luckily, I was calm and didn't lose my cool.
I'm not sure how I feel about this, invading the personal space of another person in order to remind them to behave orderly in public feels a little counter-intuitive. I hate queue jumping and experience this regularly. Sometimes, I stay quiet. Other times, a simple "permisi, ada antrean ya" is enough to suffice and they move to the back of the line. I think that face is more likely to be preserved when we are less confrontational. Sometimes, I'm ignored... such is life.
All that said, I am also guilty of becoming a bule galak at times too. So, while I can't escape the social conditioning that the UK has bestowed on me from my 24 years living there, I try to accept the fact that this conditioning is not standard operating procedure here, because it isn't. When I lose my cool, which can happen, I'm also out of line and feel that it is necessary to accept responsibility for my own actions... I sometimes struggle to follow my own advice, I am human after all. However, developing coping strategies generally helps. Winding myself up over small events on a daily basis doesn't help...
Thanks,
Lee