That is Culture Difference, Right?

Author: Chris Lui
Project: Be Well | Data Driven Healthcare
Year: 2014
Chennai, India

Being in India for 7 weeks, I feel I am pretty comfortable with India now and actually did not experience many culture difference or shock as I expected. People might argue India is such different country from USA or my own country – China. Why I did not experience many culture differences? Honestly, I did not know actually but I guess there must be related to the fact: I was an International student in the states for two years and I know people will think and act differently when I come to a new country. However, something in India might prove me wrong about this. 1. Shaking their heads does not mean disagreement When Indian people shake their heads, I did not decipher that code and always tried to confirm whether they are ok with something. In fact, shaking heads in India basically means, “Yes”, which is nodding in other countries. At the first place, I told myself that is a culture difference and subconsciously refused to accept that body signal. The reason is simple: that is wired to me and I am not comfortable. However, My refusal gradually turned into ignorance about this signal. When talking with colleagues at Be Well, I tried to add more and more verbal expressions even though they already express agreement by using shaking heads. These verbal expressions are actually unnecessary because I ignored what I saw on my Indian colleagues. Finally, I used to this body language and even begin to use it to express my agreement sometimes. Therefore, I was wondering whether all of these are just culture differences or it is my arrogance or something? When I think less about difference between me and other Indian professionals, I realize I begin to shake heads. 2. That’s just a different perspective I like a lot of new technologies and I believe new technologies are better. However, that might not true in India or even in the states. I still remember an interesting project at Microsoft Research, which is using specially designed paper to track patients’ adherence to TB medication. That’s a very innovative and brilliant idea even though they did not use any NEW technologies. That’s just a different perspective, which focuses on low-cost and process improvement. And this is also happening everyday when I work with my Indian colleagues. For example, Be Well is using Dropbox to share data reporting and automation, which is pretty low-cost. In the states, most people will think about creating a website or even creating an app for that reporting purpose. More importantly, this thinking style deeply rooted into their daily work and was misleading me to believe that is a culture difference. Actually, doing more with less is a new and different perspective instead of culture difference. 3. Auto drivers rip foreigners off for hidden tips I believe 100% foreigners are experience this India: Auto drivers always try to rip people off unless they use meters. My teammates are always upset about it and believed that is a culture difference. I was also believing that is true until a day when my Indian colleague told about tip in India. There is no tipping culture in India no matter whether you just dine in a very fancy restaurant or not. Indian government does not encourage tipping. That policy actually influences auto drivers. They know foreigners like to tip and that will significantly increase their income. If they got chances, they just want to add that tipping money into a flat price. However, language barriers and the lack of price transparency only cause arguing and a culture shock. Finally, something might not be real culture difference and something is. If they are not, thinking less about difference is always helpful to understand a person, a culture, and even a country.