Tuesday, July 31, 2012

A microcosm of cross-cultural communication

For the final leg of our trip, we flew Lufthansa Airlines from Frankfurt, Germany to Bangalore, India.  At the gate for boarding the plane, the counter staff person thanked me in German.  I noticed this particularly because the people immediately in front of me were thanked in English, but based on their appearance, I would have assumed the people in front of me were Indian.  Based on my appearance, the counter staff may have assumed I was German.

During the flight, all of the announcements were made in German first and then repeated in both English and Hindi.  I am actually assuming it was Hindi, but after only two days in Bangalore, I became less assured about that assumption--but that's for another post.  The meals on this flight began a pattern that continued until I landed in Newark on July 20--veg or non-veg?  The non-veg option for the first meal seemed more German to me in its spices and food selection.  The non-veg option for the second meal reminded me more of Indian food.  I always find these cultural transitions aboard a plane interesting.  Which language gets preference in the order?  Which languages are included in the announcements?  What foods are selected as bland enough, generic enough, and yet stereotypical enough to be used in an on-plane meal?

Our in-flight entertainment was equally thought-provoking.  The feature film shown was "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel," which I had seen already.  I enjoyed the film, again, but it presents a very narrowly focused view of India, one that is not particularly messy.  The one line that stands out, particularly since it was used in the advertising of the film, is the young man's comment that everything will be all right in the end, and so if everything is not all right, then it is not the end.  This comment struck me because of its mystical/spiritual nature and the common conception of India as a very spiritual country, a very narrow understanding of the country and its people.  The other part that stood out was the very American ending, in which love overcomes all obstacles and everyone lives happily ever after.  It is a very pleasant movie that shows some of the best parts of India.

I found the last part of the in-flight entertainment distasteful.  It was an episode of "Desperate Housewives" in which Teri Hatcher's character video tapes herself doing housework in lingerie and in a suggestive manner.  I don't know what she was doing exactly because I was not listening to the audio, but I know that I was cringing everytime she was on-screen.  Instead, I was reading a book Travellers' Tales India (editted by James O'Reilly and Larry Habegger) and ironically was reading a selection by Bridget McCoy on the sexual harassment she experienced on a trip to India, because she was an American woman.  It was the easiest thing in the world to understand why Indian men may have misconceptions about American women when everytime I looked up from my book, there was Teri Hatcher in her lingerie, posing for the video camera.

I find it amazing how just that one flight could embody so many examples of cross-cultural communication, and it reminded me of how easy it is for that communication to be misunderstood or misinterpreted.

What's in a place?

What is the nature of a place and of a people?  These are questions that I ponder quite often, although usually in the context of teaching World History.  They have also been with me this summer as I prepared for my trip to India, both in regards to my understanding of India and in my representation of Iowa. 

Flying out of Des Moines on June 30, we had clear skies and I was able to take this picture of Iowa.  I had the thought that Iowa may not be flat, but it is straight, at least in some places.  Yet, is this representative of Iowa?  In some ways, yes, and in other ways, no. 
I kept this lesson in mind as I did my reading in preparation for India this summer, and please keep it in mind while reading my posts about India.

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Shanty or satellite TV?

I have been in India for two weeks, and despite good intentions, I was not able to post during my trip.  So I will be reflecting on my experience over the next week or so.  I am currently in Mumbai, staying with Naina and her family.  When I arrived 16 years ago for Naina's wedding, she worked at Citibank in an office across the street from where she currently lives.  Sixteen years ago, she said that she never would have imagined living here.  The neighborhood today is a mix of high rise apartment complexes and old textile mills that were closed down years ago.  Most of the mill land has been taken over by squatters who have set up homes and shops.  As we drove back from dinner last night, I could see TVs inside and satellite dishes on top of what most Americans would call a shanty.  But time is probably not in the squatters' favor, due to the high value of land in Mumbai.  While vote bank politics may hold off development for a time, in twenty years, will they still be living in these homes or will they have been moved further out from the city center and replaced with all high rise apartments?  Naina said that even in the few years that she has lived here, she has seen the local shops shift from a middle-class focus to a more upscale focus, due to the change in housing.

This conversation highlights for me the value of international travel and of personal interaction.  I know that as an outsider, I may never understand enough to be able to make a fair judgment, but in trying to understand another culture, another country, I may be better able to educate my students about the world in which they live.

For a previous trip, the participants had to select 10 photographs from the trip which highlighted the themes of the trip or were examples of important take-aways from the trip.  I am going to organize my reflections on India in a similar fashion.  I tried to be a good observer and listener, but remember that these are my thoughts on what I saw and understood.  Someone else may have seen something very different--would you have seen the shanty or the satellite TV?