Office LifeJan 30, 2020
ForresterTsGv28

Is “rudeness” different across cultures?

I’m genuinely trying to understand. I give tons of internal trainings and education to my peers, across regions and seniority and job function. Without fail, every time I’m training anyone in our APAC teams, I find them to be disruptive, kind of rude, and seemingly trying to be class clowns instead of professionals learning about something *they* requested. Is there a cultural thing at play? Or are my APAC colleagues just rude?

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Bloomberg FIRE<GO> Jan 30, 2020

Most of them are from mega cities in Asia, just imagine training a bunch of New Yorkers.

LinkedIn alpaca🦙 Jan 30, 2020

so APAC teams = asians?

Forrester TsGv28 OP Jan 30, 2020

Not necessarily. Our singapore office has expats and australia is part of APAC as well.

LinkedIn alpaca🦙 Jan 30, 2020

i see. what content do you teach?

This comment was deleted by the original commenter.
Forrester TsGv28 OP Jan 30, 2020

India is one of the regions, yes

Noodle.ai oUdj28 Jan 30, 2020

@Zimmer - hard to believe you're an American with that kind of grammar. Did your parents send you to college back in India to save money?

Adobe fngstained Jan 30, 2020

Indian here. Yep, it's a cultural thing. We have this concept of "jugaad", which essentially involves moving up in life via any side/back door which is available, i.e. via any route except the "right" one. Which also leads to a culture of being dismissive/disruptive to anyone who's trying to teach us the right way of doing things.

Zimmer Biomet BFaY80 Jan 30, 2020

Sounds about right lol

New
JacofAll Jan 30, 2020

Yes. Maybe you should take a cultural competency training. It might be a good idea do a survey ahead of time and research possible cultural norms for your audience. Or ask people first thing to identify what culture they identify with so you can call out something happening that you don't understand that is out of the norm for your culture.

Amazon msdce Jan 30, 2020

IMHO, yes. Definition of rudeness is definitely different when I compare India to US. In US i have seen mostly all people are so well mannered, polite and friendly. In India, we dont give much importance to these small things. We are never taught that you have to hold the door for other person, you have to smile and greet other person. In our mind we think that we are not rude, but, people from other cultures might think us as rude. One other thing i have observed is we Indians are very self centred. We want to be the first in line, we do not care if we our violating other person's personal space. We will try to fit-in in an overcrowded elevator instead of waiting for a less crowded one. We will jump to the treadmill as soon as it gets vacant without caring for there are other people who came before us and have been waiting longer than us. Again, I dont speak for all Indians, this is my personal opinion only.

Bloomberg FIRE<GO> Jan 30, 2020

Like I said, New Yorkers don’t do these either. It’s all abt available resources.

Amazon msdce Jan 30, 2020

available resources is one factor, but not the only factor. I have heard that Japanese people are very well mannered. Japan is not a country with over abundance of resources and less population.

Amazon bejeezos Jan 30, 2020

Don't you just love threads where Indians are shitting on Indians. lol

Forrester TsGv28 OP Jan 30, 2020

I’m actually finding it helpful to learn about cultural norms from them, rather than others speaking on behalf of them. Genuinely trying to learn here 🤷‍♀️

LinkedIn okboomerr Jan 30, 2020

Would you rather prefer the opposite? To be dismissive and denial of what is happening? Im not indian but i dont prefer dismissive attitude of some culture

Juniper Allout! Jan 30, 2020

Most probably they know the subject and are being forced by their managers to attend the training to be in the good books of the management. I had to attend some trainings like that when I was in India. In the US, I feel comfortable telling my manager that the training is not relevant for me.

Forrester TsGv28 OP Jan 30, 2020

No these people are part of a selective pilot program who asked to be part of it. Each individual had to ask.

Google kool_aider Jan 30, 2020

Of course it is different in every culture. I found that when I feel someone is being rude, usually they don’t mean it and are not aware of it. Just be nice to everyone and assume the best intentions, and you will most likely be right most of the time.

Bloomberg FIRE<GO> Jan 30, 2020

If you don’t let them know, they will repeat the rude activities

Google kool_aider Jan 30, 2020

Sure they will. But it is hard if not impossible to change everyone in that culture. For example, if I find that most Americans are rude, then I need to change my perspective of them, and not try to change all Americans.

Cisco sirblargal Jan 30, 2020

Have you ever studied a sinitic language? Even linguistically there are common phrases that come across as unintentionally rude when translated literally back into English. These can sometimes bleed out in common English parlance from non native speakers. Population density plays a role too in what is acceptable behaviorally. But they're also still grown ass adults. If you tell them to sit down and shut up they should.