Rock & Jen In India: May 2006
One of my professors in graduate school taught me one of the most profoundly useful lessons I have ever learned: all problems are a function of expectations. Enter culture shock. I don't think culture shock has been as bad for me as it might be for someone who had never lived in a developing country or in a different culture. Different bathrooms, often without toilet paper—no big deal. Not any worse than elsewhere. I can carry TP around. Differently dressed women, different smells and sounds and sites—no big deal, I was expecting differences, even if I didn't know what they would be exactly. That excites me.
Different television—fascinating. I love about India that it has its own culture, perpetuated by its own media. Very little (relatively) seems to come from outside, although India is not isolated by any means. Bollywood is live and well. In Peru and Guatemala, much of the novelas and TV shows came from the wealthy in Mexico or Brazil, some were translated from the US. In India, it is mostly Indian, and many different varieties at that, although still focused more on the wealthy. Many of the shows are unique, things I have never seen before in US or Latin television, and I find that fascinating. Television is a fascinating way to study culture.
But culture shock does sneak up on me without me knowing it. I usually know I've been hit when I have a feeling of intense frustration even when everyone around me is treating me well. It happens when I am not consciously expecting the rules to be different-- largely because I didn't realize they were “rules” until they were “violated.” This is exacerbated for me in India more than it was in Latin America, for two reasons, I think: 1) I was familiar with the broader Latin culture because of my background, even if I didn't know the specific nuances of the countries I was visiting. 2) I knew the primary language of the countries I was visiting. If I started recognizing that the rules might be different, I could ask anyone what the new rules were and they could easily understand and tell me.
In India, I am working primarily in two different states who have two very different languages, Hindi and Tamil. Tamil is much older than Hindi. They have different alphabets from each other and from English, so not much is transferable. Most people who grew up speaking Hindi don't know Tamil and consider it a very different from Hindi and a difficult language to learn. Educated people speak English, but I am still learning to understand the thick Indian accent and different word usages. And I can't just go up to the average person on the street, ask for directions or clarification about “what are the rules?” and expect him or her to understand me. Not that they should. I am the one visiting, after all. I am somewhat lucky, though. Despite the fact that not everyone speaks it well, English is the binding language, and people from different regions speak to each other in English because they often do not know each other's languages. (There are at least 16 official languages in India.)
One of my professors in graduate school taught me one of the most profoundly useful lessons I have ever learned: all problems are a function of expectations. Enter culture shock. I don't think culture shock has been as bad for me as it might be for someone who had never lived in a developing country or in a different culture. Different bathrooms, often without toilet paper—no big deal. Not any worse than elsewhere. I can carry TP around. Differently dressed women, different smells and sounds and sites—no big deal, I was expecting differences, even if I didn't know what they would be exactly. That excites me.
Different television—fascinating. I love about India that it has its own culture, perpetuated by its own media. Very little (relatively) seems to come from outside, although India is not isolated by any means. Bollywood is live and well. In Peru and Guatemala, much of the novelas and TV shows came from the wealthy in Mexico or Brazil, some were translated from the US. In India, it is mostly Indian, and many different varieties at that, although still focused more on the wealthy. Many of the shows are unique, things I have never seen before in US or Latin television, and I find that fascinating. Television is a fascinating way to study culture.
But culture shock does sneak up on me without me knowing it. I usually know I've been hit when I have a feeling of intense frustration even when everyone around me is treating me well. It happens when I am not consciously expecting the rules to be different-- largely because I didn't realize they were “rules” until they were “violated.” This is exacerbated for me in India more than it was in Latin America, for two reasons, I think: 1) I was familiar with the broader Latin culture because of my background, even if I didn't know the specific nuances of the countries I was visiting. 2) I knew the primary language of the countries I was visiting. If I started recognizing that the rules might be different, I could ask anyone what the new rules were and they could easily understand and tell me.
In India, I am working primarily in two different states who have two very different languages, Hindi and Tamil. Tamil is much older than Hindi. They have different alphabets from each other and from English, so not much is transferable. Most people who grew up speaking Hindi don't know Tamil and consider it a very different from Hindi and a difficult language to learn. Educated people speak English, but I am still learning to understand the thick Indian accent and different word usages. And I can't just go up to the average person on the street, ask for directions or clarification about “what are the rules?” and expect him or her to understand me. Not that they should. I am the one visiting, after all. I am somewhat lucky, though. Despite the fact that not everyone speaks it well, English is the binding language, and people from different regions speak to each other in English because they often do not know each other's languages. (There are at least 16 official languages in India.)
posted by Jen at 6:54 AM
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