BELONG ANYWHERE 

The Chinese traveller Hiuen Tsang visited India in AD 637 and wrote about his observation in his book “Si-yu-ki” (Record of the Western Countries). According to him the caste system was rigid but women would get an education and there was no purdah system, the common people were simple and honest. Though it had many religions, there was complete tolerance among people of all religious faiths. 

Such cultural accounts are very important in today’s globalized world.

As Chief travelling Officers of our own life, we must take account and respect other cultures, especially when in other countries. Being in IT Industry, I have been privileged to travel across the world and meet people from different cultures and spheres of life. In this series, I am sharing a few stories based on my experiences while working with people across the world.

What is your story?

click here to read all stories of BELONG ANYWHERE https://www.storyberrys.com/category/series/belong-anywhere/

Story 3: What’s in a name ? Monkey, Donkey, Elephant, Dragon…..

In year 2000, we were working with a customer team located in the USA as well as their subsidiary in China. Customer used to setup a weekly review with the teams from all the locations i.e. USA, China, and India.

In the first meeting, customer’s project manager Chris David asked everyone to introduce one by one. When it was the turn of the China team, their leader Chi Lian alias James started speaking. He first introduced himself, his introduction was for 2 minutes. There was a silence after that. We could not understood even a single word.

Chris called out James again and asked who else is there in his team. James said something. This time I could make out that there are three more people, but could not figure out more than that. I was not sure if Chris understood.

Meeting ended in an hour. Throughout the meeting, we could hear James’ voice only 2-3 times and that too only “Yes” in response to Chris’ question.

One week later, my team was supposed to have a meeting with James. Vidya, who was leading from my team in the meeting, informed me that she tried her best but they could not go beyond the first line of conversation, the meeting ended in 15 minutes.. She wanted me to join the meeting. I was tensed too. How we are going to work together, if we are not able to even communicate ?

We again got into the meeting and I introduced myself, with an adopted US English accent. I could hear James on another side with Hello. I was relieved. I assumed that just like us, not every Asian culture will be well versed with English, as it is not primary language.

I asked him simple 2-3 words questions, like telling the name of one team member working on the so and so module. He said “Monkey”. Everyone in the room was shocked. We thought, he called one of us “Monkey”. Giving him a benefit of doubt, I thought it could be a misinterpretation. So, I asked him to repeat it.

He again said “Monkey”.

I tried to keep my cool, and said, “OK, who is next?” He said “Donkey”.

I was getting upset but holding my nerves, I said “Ok and who else”?

He said, “Elephant and Dragon”.

I asked if there is a reason behind these names. He said “Yes”.

He explained but I could not get it. I asked him to clarify again and could understand that they kept it easy to interact as their Chinese names were difficult to pronounce. Later they would come out with better names. Their system account has been created by these animal names, so they are using that to connect.

My team was all in laughter. Luckily we had muted the phone and asked them to keep quiet. This simple interaction had already lasted for 45 mins.

James told that his English interpreter will join us in the next meeting. I was relieved to know that. I encouraged him by agreeing to that and told him that the meeting was good as we could know each other. He said thank you multiple times.

Post the meeting, I told the team that it’s not about people from a particular country, but it’s challenges faced by many when they try to conversate in a foreign language that is not ours. We need to respect this difference and find ways to learn and move ahead. This not only helps us to strengthen our position but we are also regarded as leaders because of our behaviour. Team agreed.

I could not participate in the subsequent meeting. Vidya did not come to me either. After a couple of days when I met her in the corridor and asked about the meeting, she was happy. She said that she had a good meeting with James team, and this time they have shared their different names such as Ron, Robert, Maria, etc. Their system users are still like earlier, but they would phase out those too later. I was happy that both the teams have built an understanding of each other’s culture and challenges and will be able to move forward as one team.

In an intercultural environment, communication is key and we should not look at the differences as difficulties, but opportunities to learn something new. This is what I am exploring in my learning at Culture Tip-Off sessions.

So, if you are beginning to work on a new project or new to the organization, then please do explore the cultural aspects of that region or organization. It will help prepare you well.

Dinesh Kumar Singh