For this post, return to the skill builder for Fostering Intercultural Communication. Describe in writing the intercultural scenario that you observed for that task and present an interpretation in light of your understanding of cultural norms and values and the fundamentals of effective communication.
This scenario occurred a couple of months ago in a tim sum restaurant in Chinatown. An English man wanted to order fried dumplings but the menu only offered steamed ones, so he spoke to the Chinese waitress. However, she did not seem to understand English very well. He tried pointing to the picture of the steamed dumplings in the menu and said ‘fry’ several times when placing the order. She seemed to understand what he wanted and made a hand gesture of touching five fingers together a couple of times.
After about fifteen minutes, the dish had not been served and the English customer appeared quite agitated, he asked for the waitress again to ensure the order had gotten to the kitchen. Ten minutes later, the food finally arrived. To the customer’s alarm, five plates of steamed dumplings were served. Apparantly, the waitress had mistaken ‘fry’ as ‘five’; this, of course, displeased the customer and he called for the manager to lodge a complaint. The waitress was indignant.
In this episode, language barrier was the main problem. The waitress did not understand what the customer was trying to tell her. Body language was also a problem; she tried confirming her interpretation of what he said by making the hand gesture of touching five fingers together, which meant ‘five’ to most locals. The customer, being a foreigner, did not know what the gesture meant of course. The waiting time for the food to arrive was also too long for the customer, seeing how he wanted the waitress to ensure the order had been placed. Perhaps it was due to the different concept of time that the customer had, he could be very time conscious and wanted things to be done quickly.
In such a situation, where people of different cultures are involved, parties involved must develop cultural self-awareness. The waitress had to be more versatile in responding to the situation; she could have requested for an English-speaking waitress to help take the order instead. She could have been more empathetic towards the customer’s frustration as well, instead of being indignant at his complaint. Patience is also required when dealing with such scenarios.
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5 comments:
This conflict could well be avoided if the employer has hired the right people for the right job.
In life, when we do not get to choose the people that we come across, overcoming language barriers and understanding non-verbal cues of other cultures are skills that we need to slowly acquire with time and experience.
Yes, such an incident is quite a common sight in Singapore especially with more foreign workers (PRCs, Bangladesh, Indonesia etc) being employed.
In addition to hiring the right people, workers should also upgrade themselves now and then to keep up with the times. Overcoming language barriers is definitely hard to be achieved in a short time span since it is reasonable for people not being able to pick up and interprete the different gestures internationally.
We cannot blame the employer as it is only natural to find Chniese nationals working in a Chinese restaurant. The management should probably organise Basic English Courses to train their employees so that they can communicate and understand their customers next time.
On the other hand, the English man should have been more understanding. Knowing how his thoughts may not be conveyed correctly, he should have requested to speak to another waitress with a better grasp of the English language.
Well, very interesting situation. I have to agree that in the first place the waitress should not have taken the order from the customer. She could approach her manager or a English speaking colleague to serve the English Man. This way, such an event would not likely occur.
To Huiping: Yes, maybe the employer should have hired only waitresses who can speak basic English to prevent such a situation from happening again. Or alternatively, the waitress can go for language courses to better equip herself at her workplace.
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