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Visiting a foreign country can be a memorable experience in cultural exploration. It can also offer moments of temporary embarrassment as you navigate your way around an unfamiliar landscape, and stress you out from worrying about whether or not you’re committing some blatant cultural faux pas. Are you making yourself understood, saying the right things? Did you inadvertently tell the taxi driver (in your best broken Spanish) to come back later, when you meant to say you’d be right back? While we can’t begin to explain all the complexities of Dominican culture and society here, we can provide a few tips to help you move around with confidence and enhance your stay in the country.
There’s no getting around it – names in the DR can be confusing. For one thing, just about everyone – and everything – has a nickname. If a man’s name is José, he might just as easily be called Pancho. A Santo Domingo bar named La Parada is almost always called La Cenisa. Similarly, a club named Terraza Olimpico is known by the landmark it sits next to: Teleoferta. If you ask for someone or something by his/her/its “real” name, you might get a puzzled expression in reply.
WARDING OFF EVIL In part, some Dominicans have nicknames – or odd variations in name spelling – to ward off evil spirits that might be cast upon them by a witch doctor. (A name like Michael, for instance, might be spelled “Mycul; a girl might be named “Niurcanis.”) Dominicans who believe in witch doctors think that if the evildoer doesn’t know the correct spelling of a name, then the spell can’t be successfully cast. |
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- Language
- Greetings & Manners
- Dress
- Music
- Society
- Responsible Tourism
