This is something that I have been thinking about for quite some time now. In this post I shall pen down some of the experiences on communication problems of Indians in a foreign land, mostly United States. But I also have one interesting incident from UK as well.
I have been in the United States for just over a year now. Prior to that I was working in Cadence Design Systems, India Center. It is an American company and the work culture is very American (That is what I was told. I haven't worked in a commercial organization here). Over the period that I worked there I became aware with some of the American terms e.g.
- "My two cents on this"
- "I really appreciate it"
- "Take it easy"
- "Hi, how's it hanging?"
Moreover, American movies are very popular in India. Therefore, I never thought that i would have problems communicating with people here. Even then, it took me some time to get comfortable here. Very often I used to have the "Microsoft Internet Explorer Not Responding" look on my face.
The first experience happened even before I set foot on the United States soil. When my flight was close to Chicago airport, the pilots announced "...we'll land in twenty past the hour". I had two threads - logical reasoning ("what could this mean?") and the situational facts ("what time is it now?") - run in my brain to resolve what seemed like a profound conundrum. It took me that much effort to understand that he was indicating that he meant "twenty minutes past the hour of the day then, which was eleven" - 11:20am!
A week later, I went down to the post office to send a package to a friend of mine in Chicago. It was after I spoiled a countless number of envelopes that I finally got the position of the "To Address" and the "Return Address" correctly on the envelope. Finally, when I asked him "How much?", he said "Dollar six". I was not too surprised because I had the notion that except for electronic goods, everything was overpriced in this country. So, six bucks might have been normal for sending a packet to Chicago. It was only after I read the cash register display that I realized I was wrong. It meant $1.06, i.e. "one dollar and six cents".
OK, this one is certainly one of my favorites. This happened with a former apartment-mate of mine. It was during his first days here and he went to McDonalds and ordered a burger. The person at the counter asked him, "Here or To go?". My friend did not understand what it meant. However, instead of clarifying it, he tried to pretend as if he knew what to say and answered "whatever"!! The person at the counter gave him this completely baffled look and elaborated on the question to which he finally replied that he wanted to eat his burger at the restaurant.
I think Subway is certainly one of the places which makes any international student really nervous. They ask you so many questions whose answers are not even boolean (Boolean answer is YES/NO or TRUE/FALSE). So, new international students mess up things very often at Subway. Sample this account. This may have been over-exaggerated but as they say, "There's no smoke without fire". Therefore, I think that there's some amount of authenticity associated to this. So, this guy - first time at subway, is asking the person at the counter for the vegetables that he wants in his sub. He goes, "Lettyoos"(Lettuce), "Tomaetow"(Tomato)...(with an Indian accent)... "Al Pacino"(Jalapeno). The background to this is you don't get "jalapeno" peppers in India. And, therefore, the first few times you listen to the word you have like 5-6 different pronunciations of the same word going on in your head. And, give us a break, "Al Pacino" is very well-known in India.
Finally, this one takes the cake, I guess. This happened to a friend of mine in Sheffield University in UK. Let me set up the context by saying that most of the Indian students in graduate programs in US or Europe enroll in Engineering programs. The economy back in India is flourishing with the market developing for Engineering jobs. Of course, Sheffield is a multidisciplinary university with departments in Arts and Sciences, Engineering and even Business. Therefore, it is fair for anybody to assume that a student there is for any of these disciplines, right? Getting back to the funny incident, one evening my friend was partying out with his friends till late and when they were coming back they passed a bunch of hookers who were just looking for clients at that hour. So, one of them asked one of these guys, "You here for business, love?". And that guy nervously answered, "No, I am here for Engineering". Anybody's got anything to beat this?
If anyone of you has funny accounts of communication disasters, share them with us. I'd really appreciate it.
-Quantum Teleporter
posted by Quantum Teleporter @ 10:47 PM
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