Schwetzingen: I'm back!

This is the fake mosque built in Schwetzingen Garten. The brief history: The king built different types of garten in his castle area including English, Turkish and Greek Garten. You will need a minimum of 2 hrs to walk around his garten. Imagine that!

Act Global, Think Locally

HSBC: Local Knowledge is Important

These are HSBC ads shown during my Management class last Friday. I would just like to share since I am very interested in cultural differences issues. it is always important to learn about a specific country's culture first before flying there to where you want to do business or study :)



Being nice may sometimes mean a different thing. In China or for Chinese in general, emptying your plate is not a polite thing to do. It means the food is not enough and you want more. In Brunei, UK or elsewhere, it is just the opposite. Hence, never leave your food untouched or your plate/bowl empty because for Chinese this is considered impolite. Even if the food is not delicious, just eat some and always leave some.



Germans are very cautious about almost everything and they take things quite seriously. In France, it is just the opposite. lol. I doubt hit-and-run accidents crime rate is higher in Germany than in France. So don't drive fancy cars in France. haha.



In Japanese culture, exchanging gift is normal and often expected. In the above case, for every hole you score when playing golf, you will have to present a gift to everyone you play with. In America (i think), you will just have to treat them a drink. Quite Expensive eh? ;)

Funny DHL Ad in Korea



Incase you don't understand the commercial: the gf basically delivered a kiss instead of normal package and the postman finally delivered it to the bf! They deliver everything and everywhere! LMAO!

Disturbing Incident at Sungai Wang Plaza

My brother gave me this link an hour ago. It's really disturbing to see these videos which happened at one of the major shopping complex in Kuala Lumpur: Sungai Wang. This guy is apparently the third victim and based on the viewers comments, this case already hits the news headline in Malaysia. I believe the buyer is an Indonesian or another foreigner of Malay origin. He was bargaining the price but when he said "No, no thanks", the seller immediately slapped his face and continued hitting him. Hopefully the seller already lost his job. I was also informed such behaviour is normal in Petaling Street especially when dealing with Chinese sellers. Never bargain or even ask about the prices if you have no intention to buy. The least that could happen to you is being yelled at by the sellers or shop attendants.



if you wish to watch more, type in "sg wang hp" at youtube. I tried to google this but the news article has been deleted. erksss.

Many believed these Chinese are not born Malaysians as you can normally differentiate the way they behave. However, the most important thing is that this type of sick behaviour or unacceptable business practise should stop before it becomes a big political or social issue! This is definitely not the way to treat customers no matter if they are locals or foreigners. No one has the right to hit or slap others as they wish. This could not only damage the image of Sungai Wang Mall or DiGi - one of the leading mobile service provider in Malaysia, it could also lead to increase in racism and hatred towards the Chinese. The Government will then have to improve the relationships between all races all over again.

People say, Indians and Chinese cannot do business together. Why? Chinese want to save and Indians love to bargain! Based on this video, I cannot doubt this statement. No matter what race, traders have to be well-educated. To do business means to have patience. We are not kings in the world we live in.

Guidelines for business etiquette

I found this site to be very useful especially for government or business negotiators. Many of us forget the importance of getting to know the cultural background of our friends or clients/business partners before dealing with them overseas.

In this site, you will find guidelines for business (or general) etiquettes abroad for many different countries. Ofcourse, Brunei is not listed. Maybe not yet ;)

Go to this site: http://www.executiveplanet.com/index.php?title=Main_Page

Click on each country for guidelines.

Changing our mindset

Students, parents throng careers fair PARENTS were especially anxious to help their children find employment at the the Careers & Higher Education Expo 2007 at the Yayasan Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Complex yesterday. At a section of the fair Royal Brunei Airlines personal assistant, Adib, remarked that some of the parents "registered for their children" as recruits for traffic assistants and cabin crew. (Quoted from Brunei Times)

More info about Brunei's state of economy can be found at this link: BruneiResources
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I can't really say if the statement above is just news or has a little bit of "read between the lines" criticisms. In my opinion, young bruneians should stand up n change! Ok, maybe change is not easy. IF I were an employer, I would prefer my candidates to have full confidence of themselves. Could this be one of the reasons why there is still a high rate of unemployment in the country? Now now, please do not put the entire blame on foreigners (ok maybe up to a certain extent, since their salaries are lower, so blame the private sector too lol. If only minimum wage level is introduced in Brunei.)

Let me digress a bit.

This reminds me of Saudi Arabia (SA) which also has a high percentage of foreign workers in the country. In the early 1970s, a SA diplomat showed photos of goats rummaging among piles of refuse to John Perkins, an american economist who was put incharge to construct a development plan for SA. Mr Perkins asked "Why goats?" and the diplomat argued "No self-respecting Saudi would ever collect trash," he said. The goats were later replaced by american garbage disposal companies to clean up the waste (included in the development plan).

His statement somehow made me reflect back at our Bruneian community, whom many years ago would have preferred not to do any "low standard" jobs. Some still do but alhamdulillah, this has changed a bit. Unemployment is a serious economic disease. Government's involvement is therefore crucial to make those unemployed to acquire the skills needed in a specific industry (for e.g. in construction). You won't get a manager position with a PMB qualification straight away. So change your mindset and think.

Worldculturenet.com

My article was chosen!

Please click for bigger image.

Thank you to WorlcultureNet.com. I really appreciate it. :)

As the author mentioned, pls check out the articles at the following links: Why Asians Don't Speak Up? Part 1 & Part 2

Why Asian Don't Speak Up? (Part 2)

Continuation... Why Asians Don't Speak Up? (Part 1)

• We normally do not say no directly. This is considered rude. If a person says "I'll think about it." or "Yes, but...", this normally means NO. So be prepared to get a rejection by email, phone call or sms. As we are indirect, you could even receive a long email but if you read again and again, you know it only means no. We do this because we do not want the other person to lose face.

• We usually make friends, do project or business together ONLY if we have the trust, good relationship and we believe that we can work together as an in-group. Without these elements, the result would be negative red. So relationships come first and once we trust, it's hard to break it. Remember this when you want to invest/negotiate in Asia.
  
  
• This also explains "why you won't be left alone" if you live in Asia. Employers would even treat you like a family member. They will invite you to meals, bring you out, play sport together, call you just to know how you are doing etc
  

• If you invite your friends for dinner/lunch and they are quiet, it is okay. This is not a bad thing or insult especially if you cannot stand silence. For us, you being there is enough and hence, talking is not so important.

The above only explains one aspect of cutural dimensions. Maybe i will write more next time. Hopefully, you can understand more now. Thanks for reading.

Why Asians Don't Speak Up? (Part 1)

Back in Brunei, i never noticed this as an issue because everyone acts the same way. You usually do not know how to describe your own culture and values until you see what other people do and have the chance to compare. Being in Germany, we all have encountered some problems when dealing with the locals and other foreigners. Hence, it is always crucial to understand. Cultural differences should not lead you to make false judgements.

I once had an experience where an American lecturer tried to encourage students to speak up. She said, if we don't... it will badly influence our grades. Ofcourse, this method was not very effective. She was also very prejudice where she favored only those who were very outspoken. We usually felt uncomfortable in her class because keeping quiet was a serious crime.

If you haven't read any books about international cultures, here is a summary on why we behave such way:

• We are born and raised with one principle: Speaking up or talking back to parents, family, teachers, manager etc is considered to be impolite. Where parents in the western countries encourage their kids to express their opinions, it is not normally the case in East.
  
• To speak up, be direct and express opinions straight to the face is considered to be good and honest in most western countries. In Asia, however, bad statements will make the listener lose face. The impact is a lot worse if you do it in public.
  

An Iranian student was very upset after she received an email from her professor asking her "why did you ask silly questions in the class?". It's not surprising if she stops asking questions altogether. In general, we all need to be very careful when working with people especially those who do not have the same cultural background.

One way to encourage your students/subordinates to speak up is to put them into smaller groups and have one person as the group's representative. This is one effective way to have results. It does not matter where you are - whether you work locally or sent to one of the Asian countries.

To be continued... Why Asians don't Speak Up? (Part 2)