I had the opportunity to go to Cebu City, Philippines, during my holidays last year. It was my first time to the Philippines and I was there with a group of friends to help out at an orphanage. It was there at the orphanage where the intercultural misunderstanding occurred.
I was looking for an item down at the storeroom when one of the kids appeared. As I could not find the item I was looking for, I asked the kid if he knew where the item was but he did not reply. I tried asking him again, speaking at a slower pace. However there was still no verbal reply, only the raising of his eyebrow. Getting frustrated, I spoke very slowly, loudly and annunciate every single syllabus clearly, ending my question with “Yes or No?”, accompanying it with a vigorous nodding and shaking of head. Finally, he nodded and I asked him to help me take it out, of which he did.
After the incident, I managed to find out that it was me and not him who misunderstood. In their culture, the raising of eyebrows meant “yes” and this action is practice much more than nodding to agree. So, all the while, the kid was signaling to me that he knew where the item was.
From this incident, I learnt that besides learning as much facts about a culture as possible, one should always be patient when talking to someone of a different culture, especially if a language barrier may exist. Being patient aids the process of effective intercultural communication as it encourages both sides to keep attempting to understand message till it is correctly decoded. Getting frustrated will not help the situation and might even work against it as both sides get angry and tired of trying to understand each other.
So remember, when you are in a foreign land, do be patient and you will find it much easier to communicate.
Hi Jonathan,
ReplyDeleteLuckily you are patient enough to ask the little kid about your item and finally found it. In my country, some people would use their head to point out position. For instance, the person will tilt his head to the left to indicate the location of a particular item. Foreign visitors might not understand the head movement is indeed a showing of direction or location.
Be patient is always a wise step to take when communicating with people from different culture. Observe their body language and try to figure out why they repeat certain movement again and again. That means something!
Hey Jon,
ReplyDeleteI was imagining myself slapping the kid, thinking he was trying to be funny.
You are right that we need to be patient, to experience and understand how other people from different cultures work and behave. With the added patience and tolerance, we will be able to integrate into different societies and cultures with ease.
Thanks Jun Xiong and Wan Ting!
ReplyDeleteFrom your comments I realised that another important component is to be observant. We need to observe their body language to help us to understand what they are trying to tell us.