It's our traditional courteousness
It's our traditional courteousness
On the second day of a Language Seminar held by Lembaga Bahasa
of American Indonesian Institution (LIA), from July 1 through
July 3, I joined a presentation conducted by Mr. Paul Hudson cs.,
titled East vs West: Cross-cultural communication and examination
of cultural differences for the purpose of enhancing EFL
education.
Basically, this topic is not something new being discussed
within the LIA educational service circle. Its predecessors used
to discuss this subject, i.e. the cultural differences between
East and West in a more humorous way, rather than inflicting
prejudice. As an example, one advisor wrote in the LIA internal
Contact periodical: "The Americans eat pizza using their fingers,
while the Indonesians eat pizza using a fork and knife. On the
other hand, the Americans eat rice with a fork while the
Indonesians eat rice using their fingers". Another advisor talked
about how funny it was for him to find a way out of a
miscommunication problem between him and his local wife.
The main point of Mr. Hudson's presentation was about an
Indonesian addressing an American with "Hello, Mister, I want to
practice my English with you", which, for him, aroused
astonishment. Further in conversation sentences, "Are you
married?" or "Do you have children?" to the best of my memory,
according to him, implicitly meant "You are too old to get
married" (or, Why aren't you married yet?) and "You should have
already had children", which is something unpleasant, worse
annoying.
Referring to the video program in an LIA class titled Living
and working in America, there is an episode showing a
conversation between two employees, i.e. "Are you married?"
without any pretense. Hence the ending goes smoothly following
the context. Is there any difference between an Indonesian and an
American that the question "Are you married" triggers prejudice?
If Mr. Hudson's presentation were sophistically packed
following his predecessors' style, to be presented to the
Indonesian audience, it probably might not have aroused a kind of
strange feeling of what he was up to. But his reciting
"unpleasantness" or "not to talk to strangers" incites
uneasiness.
Last but not least, Mr. Paul Hudson is our guest. It is our
moral duty to make him feel safe and secure in our country
without him having to teach us how to behave toward his American
colleagues. To my fellow Indonesian countrymen, please do treat
our guests politely as wished by them owing to our ancestor's
traditional courteousness.
RH USMAN
Jakarta