They arrived at the entrance and a male Indian waiter was there to greet them. He brought them to a table and they sat down. The waiter spoke to them in heavily accented English and with their limited understanding of the language, they did not know what he was saying. He kept asking them ‘what do you want to eat’ but they were still clueless especially with his heavy Indian accent. Exasperated, the waiter decided to use hand gestures to bring across his point. He kept using his hand to show this:
When they saw his hand gestures, the Italian couple became infuriated and their faces turned red. They got so angry that they said something in Italian and though it was not clear what they said, it was definitely something not good. They immediately stood up and walked away in a huff, ignoring the poor waiter who was chasing after them and asking them what was wrong. They were gone in a jiffy and the helpless waiter walked back looking confused and scratching his head, trying to figure out what he did wrong.
I was shocked to see that the Italian couple walked off agitated and angry as I felt the waiter did nothing wrong. In Indian culture, using the hand gesture as seen in the picture above was common practice and meant a sign of eating. Therefore, it seemed that there was nothing offensive about this gesture and the Italian couple was just being ridiculous and petty. However, after much research, it was known that showing this hand gesture meant ‘what the f***’ in Italian. Now it is more understandable why the Italian couple was offended. Here is a video explaining the numerous Italian hand gestures which I found useful and entertaining:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVCuyrPk7P4
To sum it off, we must always be careful in using hand gestures or any kind of body language when interacting with people of different cultural backgrounds. Similar gestures can hold dissimilar meanings in different cultures. It is thus important and handy to do some research first before communicating with others of different cultures. In this way, intercultural conflict can be avoided. Here is some useful information about the various hand gestures and their interpretation:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_gesture
P.S. The above scenario was hypothetical, as I haven’t actually seen or been in an intercultural conflict myself. I was inspired by Russell Peters who is an Indian American comedian and loves to joke about people of different cultural groups especially his own ethnic group. Here is a video of him talking about the hand gesture mentioned above and the different meanings it has in the Indian and Italian culture:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbNkuK6X1i4
4 comments:
Thanks, Joyce, for presenting this interesting hypothetical scenario and augmenting it with the videos. Did you create the whole thing?
Of course, it might have been better to actually do an observation as the assignment requested. Still, I appreciate your creativity and analysis!
Hi Joyce,
I have seen another one, though this is in a mini-series movie of sorts.
There was this tourist who walked into a British inn and asked the innkeeper how much per night a stay was. Because of language barrier, the innkeeper gestured the price via his fingers in the "victory sign" to symbolize two.
Said tourist wanted to confirm the price, so he gestured in the same sign as well, only with his palm facing himself.
This was in actual fact an obscene gesture to the British, and thus stunning the innkeeper with shock.
I think these are good if humorous examples that show cultural conflict.
Hey Joyce!
This brings us back to the point about non-verbal cues! Indeed there is a great need to be aware of certain 'taboos' when travelling or receiving guests from other countries.
I for one, will do some extensive research on cultural no-nos before going to Finland for my SEP next year!
To Brad: Yes I created the whole thing but with the help of Russell Peters! He's mostly the inspiration of my work.
Anyway I can't think of a real scenario or at least recall to memory probably because I grew up mostly in a Chinese-dominated community. My schools from primary to secondary are chinese-dominated so I don't get to interact much with people from other cultures. So is really an eye-opener for me when I get to interact with such people.
Even when I went into Junior College and get to interact with people from other cultures, I don't have much problems communicating with them. Probably because I see them like any normal people instead of differentiating them into races or classes. In fact I made several good friends from other races and I really enjoy hanging out with them. I even tease my muslim friend how she can get the benefit of slimming down while fasting and I want to try that too! Hah..
Sometimes I'll try to be tactful while interacting with them, other than that I guess they're just any normal, fun people to hang out with!
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