A picture speaks a thousand words, and hence I believe a video speaks volumes more. As such, I have done my observation for this post based on a Youtube video I have found. Please follow the following link for the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUVSgcDWgsg
In the scenario depicted in the video, several Americans and two Indians (Gopi and Shobee) were sitting together over food and drinks as part of a teambuilding activity. However, it did not take long before several conflicts took place, which was a result both parties' lack of knowledge about each other’s culture .
Mike (an American) started off by mispronouncing Gopi’s name. Gopi was visibly disturbed by this, as he has apparently corrected the Americans repeatedly. The situation was then further exacerbated when Mike insisted that they order chicken despite Gopi’s objection. In doing so, Mike has failed to understand that Gopi cannot consume meat because of his religion, Hinduism. A third conflict then occurred when Gopi and Shobee were offered alcohol when they were not supposed to drink (presumably because of their religion).
In the post-event reflections that followed, it was clear that the event has driven a chasm between the Americans and Indians. Mike reflected that he was not comfortable with hanging out with his Indian colleagues, and remarked that he would not trust them. Shobee was also unhappy at the Americans' repeated mispronunciation of Gopi’s and her name, and that she was forced to take meat and alcohol. Gopi too commented that the Americans are weird, and were not trustworthy.
In my opinion, both the Indians and Americans would probably have done better to research a little about each other’s culture before the event, so as to avoid severely offending the other side. This was illustrated in the video when Mike insisted on ordering chicken, failing to realise that most Indians were Hindu, and hence were most likely vegetarian.
Both parties could also have been more understanding and accepting towards the other’s culture. In this scenario, Mike should have taken the hint and ordered something else, or made a compromise when he was reminded that Gopi was a vegetarian. The Indians could also have tried to understand that eating meat and consuming alcohol is not taboo for the Americans, and hence not be offended so much.
Therefore, I feel that the video clearly highlights the importance of understanding and resolving intercultural differences, so as to better facilitate communications and ties between people from different backgrounds.
P.S Here is another interesting video about outsourcing, which might not relate directly to intercultural behavior, but I guess pertains to it in a way: http://www.youtube.com/watch#v=bNCMep3wGMg&feature=related
Dear Clement,
ReplyDeleteIndeed, the video does highlight the divide even if it is slightly hard to hear the dialogs. Hence, your summary of the situation was a great help.
At the end of the post, I am left with a feeling that I missed seeing your personal point of view about the situation. Or maybe a more personal example of when a situation like this happened with you.
Just my 2 cents!
Cheers
Rohan
Hi Clement,
ReplyDeleteI liked the way you wrote the introduction of this blog post by including a quote! Also, a good choice of video clip which serves as a good example to the theme of this post!
It's true that both parties should exercise more understanding towards each other, however I feel that both parties have to shoulder some of the blame too for causing a dinner appointment to end in such a way. At the start of the video, it seemed to me that Mr Gopi's tone was a tad too harsh when trying to correct the American gentlemen who mispronounced the name. In addition, 20 seconds into the video clip, the Indian couple should not have come to such a quick conclusion that the American gentleman was self-centred and even used a vulgarity to describe him (which starts with the letter A). Although the couple conversed in a foreign language when they were sharing their opinion of the American gentlemen, it was pretty much an uncalled gesture nevertheless.
The American gentleman on the other hand should not have judged that the Indian couple could not be trusted based on a simple misunderstanding like this. Also, the other American gentleman would probably fare better if he did not pass the cup of beer to his Indian friend when the latter refused the first time.
Of course, it is important to know more about each other's culture, but how many of us actually research on the culture of a particular race / religion before we meet a person of that race / religion? In this respect, one may not know everything about a particular race / religion, but perhaps one can be more observant to the body language of the other party and to act accordingly. For example, if a person rejects a beer for the first time, one should not try a second time to get the other party to drink.
Good post on the importantance of inter-cultural understanding!
Regards,
Wei Ying
Hi Rohan,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your suggestion. Indeed, I could have done this observation based on a situation I have experienced personally.
However, I am afraid that I cannot remember my personal intercultural exchanges with any degrees of accuracy. Hence, instead of risking a vague description of a personal recollection, I have opted to do my post on a video I found on Youtube. In doing so, I had hoped that this would provide a clearer picture of what I was talking about.
Hi Wei Ying,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment, which I felt have managed to add value to my observation of the exchange. For example, if you had not pointed it out, I would not have noted Mr Gopi's harsh tone in correction of Mike's mispronunciation.
I too agree with your point that when we may not be able to be knowledgeable enough about other's culture, we need to be more aware about the non-verbal responses we get when we are dealing with people from other cultures.
Thanks, Clement, for sharing the video and your thoughts on it. While watching it, I couldn't help but feel it was a spoof. It's hard for me to imagine that the Americans could be so openly ignorant about the Indians' background and hostile to any notion of sensitivity---especially when being filmed.
ReplyDeleteYou describe what takes place in the video well and break it down from a more enlightened perspective. I appreciate your effort with that.
Of course, we can't extrapolate from a video like this that all Americans are X and all Indians are Y. That would be the most dangerous sort of stereotyping. And again, I have a hard time believing that this is real. Can people be so stupid?
Hi Brad,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment.
To put to rest what seems to be your priority concern, I understand from the owner's description that this video has been contrived for a MBA class. As such, I suppose you are right: people are indeed not so stupid.
Nevertheless, I hope that you, as well as other readers of my blog, have found this video to be insightful in highlighting the importance of understanding and resolving intercultural differences.