Xenophile is not your average everyday word, but it is one that should be added to our repertoire.

Xenophile from Greek, from xeno- + -phile
Xeno: relating to a foreigner or foreigners, other; different in origin.
Phile: denoting fondness for a specified thing.

So, a Xenophile is a person who is attracted to foreign peoples, cultures, or customs.

Photo via Visual Hunt

You might be a Xenophile if:

10. Your favorite restaurant is whatever ethnic restaurant you haven’t eaten at yet this week. When you get there, you order off the menu in their language.

9. You spend months learning everything you can about a new place you plan to visit for a week.

8. You own and have watched every Rick Steve’s video ever produced and his travel guides line your bookshelves.

7. When you travel, you book the Airbnb furthest from all the tourist destinations.

6. You know enough other languages you can speak Spanish to the Kurdish street vendor in Turkey and make a new friend.

5. You know items called Boubou, Chamanto, Dirndl, Gele, Keffiyeh, Kimono, Lederhosen, Pashmina, Sari, Thawb, Ushanka and Welly and know when and where to wear each one.

4. A group of young men tell a joke and you laugh, not because you understand the joke (you don’t even speak their language) but because their camaraderie and their good nature infects you.

3. You embrace the customs and the rituals of the place you are visiting, by eating dinner at 10pm, showing up 15 minutes late, or slurping your noodles.

2. You value and respect the different people, cultures and traditions you learn about and experience.

1. You don’t understand hate because no matter how different we are, common threads connect us and bind us together.

__________________________________________

Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer