Cross Cultural Hiccups

A few years ago I was in India on a church trip. One of the issues that kept coming up was that I was continually offered more and more food. Each time they would ask if I wanted more and I would say "no" and out would come more food.

As it turns out - saying "no" is being polite, but it really means you DO WANT MORE but don't want to seem greedy or something.  To really say no, you have to cover your plate with your hands and then say no. 

So I thought about the times we have had Indian people visit us in Australia and we have offered them food and they said "no" - so we stopped serving.  I realised that because of this cultural difference these poor Indian people, who were just being polite but were really hungry, actually didn't get anything to eat. 

So in other cultures simple things like saying no may not mean no at all.  To a Japanese, an Australian seems loud and rude.  To an American, Japanese politeness seems deceitful and so on. 

A lot of misunderstanding happens between cultures because of ignorance about values, language, customs, traditions and the way that actions should happen and are interpreted. 

Another interesting event happened a few years ago after I married my wife from California.  We were sitting around our home with some family discussing the "chooks."  My wife Marie had no idea what a chook was a after a whole conversation had not been able to figure it out.  The word chook is not in the Californian dictionary.  The lack of knowledge of one word prevented understanding of a whole conversation. 

Some basic principles to help cross cultural communication are to understand that these issues exist, to be mindful of possible issues and be listening out for what really is being said, and to attempt to communicate in a manner which explains simply what you need to say. 

One way that helps to prevent cross cultural communication difficulties is to acknowledge that such issues exist in the beginning.  This gives room for people to make mistakes and to be able to acknowledge the mistakes of others.  This can lessen the strength of the difficulty when it occurs.

When conflict does arise, if people have already acknowledged that there is a potential for the conflict, then there is an opportunity for it to be rectified.  Questions can be asked, people can talk, new understanding can happen and problems can be worked through.

If these little differences can prevent understanding between people who do speak the same language (English) but of different cultures, then people who have different languages and cultures must face a larger number of obstacles.  Translation can help to a certain degree with these misunderstandings. 

Although translation is never entirely accurate it is better than no translation.  In such circumstances as translation is required then it is absolutely necessary and we must use it.  In the course of time understanding can be built between any two people if they are committed to such a course of action.