Me In Chinkyland - Cross Cultural Sensitivity

In my organization, individuals traveling on assignments to client locations are advised to undergo a soft skills training of Cross Cultural Sensitivity. This is to ensure that we are adequately sensitized about the general etiquettes and mannerisms of people spread across a vast geographical canvas.

Some behavior I noticed among the few Chinese I met is as follows:
(Donno if this is applicable to the entire populace of China :D)

1) Extremely inquisitive. I was a foreigner in their land and they wanted to know about my land. Whenever I wore a salwar kameez, they were deeply interested to know about the fabric, the styles etc. The embroidery on my kameez and the bindi on my forehead used to be crowd pullers :D. They used to ask me the significance of the bindi. Based on my little “naalej” of Yoga, I cooked it up quite well and said that there is one prominent Chakra of the human body on the forehead where the bindi is placed :D Unfortunately, these were followed by more questions on Yoga where my little “naalej” dint help :D

2) Youngsters used to feel very fascinated to see a foreigner in a small town of China. They used to run around me to catch a second glimpse (Yep!). Some of them trying to practice the little English they knew. There was one instance where I met a young school girl at a local restaurant. She chatted with me for few minutes and then was emotional enough to kiss on my cheeks!!

3) They are always smiling. They greet you with a broad smile and bow. Extremely courteous and kind to strangers. How I miss this courtesy from people of current “Namma Bengaluru”. People are always in a hurry here with no time for any courtesy :-(

4) The official work hours are pretty long there, around 12 hours (In India unofficially most of us work around 12 hours :-() . After lunch, they used to have an hour break for sleeping!! They used to have small bed under their cubicles on which they used to couch. I remembered my days at the nursery school, where we used to have a sleeping period after the 10am snacks break!!! Good ol’ days :D

5) Very Chivalrous. They would always open the car door for me. Pull the chair at the dinner table. Carry my things wherever I went. But then, I used to feel suffocated and more importantly dependent. How would you feel if your client manager carried your laptop wherever you went!!!!

I can go on and on about the ‘n’ number of memorable instances I have had and ‘m’ number of people I have met. But then, a post on my blog is just not enough to put those wonderful memories in words.

Signing off!!

Question of the Moment: “Do you see elephants on the roads of India?” – In our cross cultural sensitivity program, we were told this is the question most of the Indians face very often in a foreign land. I dismissed thinking the facilitator of the session is just hyping it. But believe me I was really asked this question!!!

Next to Come: Fruits of Labor