Whenever I travel, I like to observe the differences in cultures. I like to talk to people who actually live in the place I am visiting and ask questions. If I am in a place with a great mix of diversity it is especially interesting for me to observe the way different cultures interact and behave in different situations.

I just got back from Cozumel, Mexico. I was at a resort that had people from all over the world as guests, but the majority of employees were from Mexico. Following are just a few of the observations and points of interest from the trip regarding the difference in people and cultures.

Heading out of the country right after a major, controversial election is what probably led to my first observation. I overhead a lot of political talk. I noticed that other countries paid a lot of attention to the politics of the United States, but that Americans knew very little (virtually nothing) about the politics of other countries. Our recent election was a very common topic of conversation around the pool and restaurants.

It was also common for the staff (tour guides, entertainers, etc.) to make jokes about our recent election and our political system. I also heard conversations where the English speaking participant knew nothing about the non-English speaker’s country. It was almost as if some people expected every other country to be like the United States — a constitutional republic (a democracy) and didn’t bother to remember that there are many different kinds of government.

Another frequent observation I witnessed was the expectation for the employees of the resort to speak English. I don’t speak much Spanish but tried to learn as much as possible, and to use Spanish whenever I could to communicate. What surprised me about this observation wasn’t that there was an expectation for the most common language to be English, it was the way some people treated the employees when they were having difficulty communicating.

It was very apparent that different job roles had different levels of bilingual capabilities. The resort front desk staff, for example, spoke excellent English, while the beach towel staff spoke very little English (just enough to take down your room number). More than once I observed an English-speaking person get frustrated and become rude toward an employee when they weren’t able to communicate well.

It seemed that the expectation was for the English speaking guest to be able to communicate in his or her own language (English) in a foreign country where the common language was not English. I observed this happen at the pool, the gym, the front lobby, with the bell person and at the airport.

One final observation was that when it came to kids, no matter what age, gender, race, or culture, there seemed to be universality. A friendly person to them looks the same — a smile, wave, silly face — and they respond. No matter the differences in the person doing the communicating, the kids seemed to see everyone as human first, and any differences second. They wanted to play and run and build sandcastles. The kids I observed all seemed to have parents who protected them with a hand hold, sunscreen, sun hats, or a foot chase if the kid wandered a little too far.

After witnessing the differences between adults of different cultures it was refreshing to see the similarities between the children. It was a great reminder that even though we are all very different in so many ways, at our most basic we are the same — human.

All of this being said, and understanding that my observations belong to me and aren’t a scientific study by any means, it makes me feel like we are a relatively selfish culture. We want to be the greatest country in the world, and perhaps we are, yet we somehow seem to act in a way that makes us selfish. To be the greatest, does that mean we shouldn’t learn the culture or ways of the places we visit? Does it mean we shouldn’t have knowledge of the world politics? Does it mean we should be rude to people, when we are in their country, when they can’t communicate with us because of the language barrier?

I love this country but I don’t love the entitlement and selfishness we seem to portray at times. Gracias poor leer, tener un gran dia.

Jackie Krawczak is president/CEO of the Alpena Area Chamber of Commerce. Her column runs bi-weekly on Thursdays. Follow Jackie on Twitter @jkrawczak.