Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Culture and Communication

Therapist and pop-culture phenomenon John Gray has built quite a career (and bank account) by insisting that "Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus." In Gray's bipolar cosmos, communication issues are inextricably bound up with anatomy, or biology, or hormones, or something. (I have to admit I've only read more than a few pages of one of his books, but I have heard him lecture and despite the fact that he seems like a personable and well-meaning man, I always come away feeling sort of alien. I don't fit into his paradigm, perhaps because I'm not from Venus; I'm from New Jersey.)

Anyway, what I think Gray is getting at is emotional intelligence. And I do agree with him that different people hear and react to things in different ways. But many factors influence this, beyond (or perhaps in addition to) hormones.  Culture, for one, is a major component of social awareness and relationship management. Take someone who is completely in synch with the dominant forms of behavior in his or her native country and plop them in a culture with different expectations and his or her EQ can drop like a stone.

I recently interviewed an executive, an Indian gentleman who grew up and has spent his whole career in India.  At the end of our conversation, I asked him the same closing question I use in every interview: "Is there anything I haven't asked you that I should have?" 

When I'm talking with Americans, that open-ended query often yields the most interesting answers about things I never would have thought to ask.  But this Indian executive read the question differently. "Oh," he stammered, "I would never presume to tell you what you should do. You know the information you need much better than I do."

In that instant I felt like "Speechwriter from Mars."  Perhaps I should have thought about potential cultural differences between us before I opened my mouth, but at least I was able to hear and recognize them once he responded.  I reassured him that if he answered, I would not feel criticized - that, in fact, he may have some knowledge to share that I know nothing about, so his answer could be a great help to me. 

Now he's an intelligent man, with advanced degrees from India's finest universities, but plop him in an American classroom and he's not going to get much out of the experience...unless the teacher identifies and addresses how his expectations may differ from those of his classmates.  


Or unless he gives some thought to cultural differences himself.  Communication, after all, is a two-way street.  But I do think in that situation it's more the responsibility of the person native to the culture to lead or guide, just as you would make sure a houseguest visiting for the first time knows where in your house you keep the towels.

Have any of you had experiences where your emotional intelligence seemed to desert you, or where it was seriously out of whack with the people you were dealing with? How did you handle it?

3 comments:

Kiki Mulliner said...

In what ways will this experience impact your approach to questioning in the classroom?

Elaine Bennett @BizSpeechwriter said...

I think the introductory exercise can be very helpful in giving one a sense of the students' personalities. That said, with this particular man i'd had 45 minutes of "introduction," as this incident occurred at the end of our interview. Thinking back on it, there were a number of clues that I could have picked up on - and maybe I did, but I didn't know what to do about them.

I think in the classroom, some version of Brookfield's "it's okay to talk or not to talk" speech might make learners from different cultural backgrounds feel more comfortable. Something about how we're all learners on a journey together. And if I still got a student who was afraid of "criticizing" the teacher, perhaps a well-placed, "That's an interesting response...why do you feel that way?"

babydramatic said...

I continue to be stumped by people from other parts of the country, for example Southerners, who use certain kinds of euphemisms. To me there's a difference between being diplomatic (which I try to do) and euphemistic, which can often go way over other people's heads. For example, the phrase "you don't have to" . To me that means, "it would be nice if you did, but you don't have to". To my partner it means "please don't". Who knew? Or people who ask "are you hungry" and expect you to know that it means they're hungry. And another of my favorites "would you like to vacuum the rug?" which of course means "vacuum the rug!!". I'm fooled every time and I say "no. not really"!