Singapore is an island of miscellaneous cultures. When such diverse cultures come together, fostering inter-cultural skills, behavior and communication becomes quite essential to live in harmony and avoid miscommunication and conflicts.
I witnessed an intercultural conflict between two men, one Indian and one Japanese while sitting in a restaurant at Little India.
It was a weekend and the restaurant was bustling with people coming in to cherish the famous food. I was sitting with my group of friends having a great time eating the delicacies.Soon, two people came in, one was an Indian guy and another was Japanese. Since all the tables but one were occupied these guys decided to sit together at the last table remaining. Their table was near mine and I could clearly see their actions and hear their conversations. Both of them kept staring at each other, looking at the clothes, each other’s faces and other things and avoided communication for some time. The waiter came in to ask for their order. They placed their respective orders.
While they were waiting for their food to come, they started a small conversation by introducing themselves. However, they had a hard time trying to pronounce each other’s names. After much struggle they succeeded. The Japanese guy was named Daichi and the Indian guy was named Ravi.
Each had trouble understanding the accent and pronunciation of the other one while talking in English and were basically communicating only through hand gestures which made conversation all the more difficult .Soon the food came in and they were saved from their awkward situation.
While eating, Daichi lifted the soup bowl to his mouth and started making weird loud noises of sipping the soup. Ravi couldn’t understand what was happening so he just continued eating silently. He soon realized that Daichi was making those weird noises while hiding his face behind the bowl and then smiling at him. Ravi misinterpreted the situation and thought that Daichi was mocking or being rude to him. He first requested Daichi not to make the sound but Daichi was unable to understand what Ravi was saying because of his speed, so he continued making those noises while nodding in assertion to what Ravi was saying without understanding it.
Ravi got very agitated and suddenly got up from the table to leave. Sensing trouble, the waiter came in to enquire about the situation. Ravi explained to the waiter about the situation; meanwhile, Daichi couldn’t understand what had frustrated Ravi so much. The waiter on realizing the situation told Ravi to calm down and further explained him about the Japanese culture that they lifted the bowls to not spill or waste food and made those slurping noises to praise the chef/cook for their good food .Ravi realized his mistake and immediately apologized to Daichi and things were back to normal again.
After this small incident, the atmosphere at their table completely changed and became quite lively and vibrant. Both the men were suddenly very interested to know more about each other’s cultures, traditions and practices. They had a long discussion ranging from food, language, accent, clothes to art and literature.
This small incident just tells me how important it is to be good at communication. It requires patience, being an active listener and an efficient speaker to communicate your message across to the other person successfully. If both Ravi and Daichi had been a little more patient and had good communication skills, they wouldn’t have faced difficulties due to speed, accent or pronunciation.
This situation also tells us about the different cultures we have in this world and how each is different in its own way .The way of praising a chef for someone might be rude for another one. It is thus very essential to have respect for each other’s cultures and religions.
