Ok so I have been here for 6 weeks and have spent more of that time critically evaluating Indian cultural norms than I have ever spent examining Scottish or British cultural norms. So this entry is probably prejudiced or just rubbish. And the ones based on the NGO I work at are just that, about one organisation , not the whole of India.
meetings- They seem to finish without me knowing it. I will have asked for the meeting to discuss my project proposal. so I give them a day or 2 to read the proposal and then when we meet I ask them what their thoughts are on the proposal and they don't have any. They want to know what I want to do. There is no discussion, no reflection and no sense of critical evaluation. When i have stopped saying my bit the meeting is over. I might possibly be asked " have you anything else that you want to tell us". if I say well what do you think they just say "it's fine". No one then says "thanks oonagh we will discuss this and get back to you" or anything they just look at me and then start talking amonst themselves about something different as if I have just dematerialised. So i just stand up and leave and still they say nothing to me. You get used to it!
Education and schooling - Everyone here seems to really focus on what their education achievements are and so, so many people talk about having a Masters degree. lots of those people are really young and their are hundreds of colleges in Bangalore. Ex pats from lots of countries who are the bosses of or are recruiting Indian nationals talk about Indian school systems ( and to a lesser extent some of the independent Colleges) as being set up to teach rote learning but not the understanding that goes on behind the facts. School children are not taught to reflect, feel or think so much as to learn facts and figures so critical evaluation in the work place is not natural. There is an assumption that you do what you are told without question and that you don't think for yourself until you reach a level where you have to start managing other people. Respect for your manager is an absolute given. I am guilty of making sweeping statments here and this cannot be universal. At the NGO after a sports day a member of staff was nominated to do a speech. She , in very formal ( and old fashioned English) thanked their managers for being Managers.
Use of English. My spelling is poor and my grammar is only fractionally better. It is really interesting to both hear people talk in English and for me to read the newspapers. Spoken English can be very formal, poetic and/or from a different era ( thrice instead of 3 times, specatacles instead of glasses, a health warning that said" smoking is injurous to health") . Lots of people choose to speak English over Hindi or Kannadar. I haven't a clue why that surprises me but is does all the time. I was waiting in line for a ticket for a classical concert and lots of people were talking in English. I think it is because they speak with an accent ( obviously) that I think the language is foreign to them rather than it being their language . I think I am actually being racist about English!!! So much to get my head round. I think it's because I know that the English language was imposed on India that I think they should have rejected it in 1947 not kept it as the language of education and business.
Repeating - When someone tells me something they tend to repeat what they say at least 3 times. I thought that I was not giving the right non verbal or verbal response because even though I think that an arrangement had been made ( meet you here, at what time and we will go off and do this) I would turn to go away and the whole arrangment would be repeated again. I would get a little short and try and rush them through the repitition but that just makes the person stop and start from the beginning again. However more discussionn with other expats and socially or through work it's the same thing and also an observation that 2 folk from Bangalore ( or India in general) will do the same to each other.
