In this week’s post, I would like to share with you an incident which involved my uncle back in my hometown in Malaysia. Before I proceed to my story, allow me to share with you some details about my uncle. My uncle’s name is Theodore and I always call him Uncle Ted. He is an American who has just married with my aunt not long ago. After their marriage, he decided to move and settle in Ipoh with my aunt although he has not been to Malaysia prior to this. As such, he has very little knowledge regarding the multiracial and multicultural society of this foreign land.
This scenario occurred a month ago in a hawker centre located in my hometown, Ipoh. One morning, Uncle Ted wanted to order a plate of his favourite local cuisine, nasi lemak, from a Malay stall. As he could not speak Malay and the Malay lady had a poor command of English, he pointed to the word ‘nasi lemak’ in the menu as a way to place his order. Then, he made a hand gesture of touching his thumb and index finger together while holding the rest of his fingers straight up as a signal to ask the seller if she had gotten his order. The Malay lady nodded and repeated the hand gesture made by my uncle as an indication that she had understood his message.
Five minutes later, the Malay lady came to Uncle Ted’s table to serve the nasi lemak. To his surprise, she placed 3 plates of nasi lemak on the table instead of one. By using simple English, Uncle Ted tried his best to explain that he had just ordered one plate of nasi lemak and ask her to take the extra 2 plates away. The Malay lady got agitated and refused to take the extra 2 plates away. She insisted that he had ordered 3 plates and kept doing the hand gesture made by him earlier as a confirmation that he had ordered 3 plates of nasi lemak just now. In order to get out from this unpleasant situation, Uncle Ted apologized to the Malay lady and paid for the 3 plates of nasi lemak.
Language barrier was the main cause of this miscommunication between Uncle Ted and the Malay lady. Uncle Ted’s inability to speak in Malay and the Malay lady’s poor command in English had caused him to use non-verbal language as a mean to convey his message. However, little did he know that different cultures have different meanings for the same body language. For the locals in Malaysia, the hand gesture of touching the thumb and index finger together while holding the rest of the fingers straight up is referring to the number three. On the other hand, this hand gesture is used as an indication of ‘okay’ or ‘alright’ by most people in the West. As such, Uncle Ted’s initial intention of asking the Malay lady whether she had understood his order turned out to be another meaning to her, resulting in miscommunication and misunderstanding between them. As such, it is very important for us to acquire some knowledge about the various cultures especially in a multiracial country in order to avoid such situations in the future.
This scenario occurred a month ago in a hawker centre located in my hometown, Ipoh. One morning, Uncle Ted wanted to order a plate of his favourite local cuisine, nasi lemak, from a Malay stall. As he could not speak Malay and the Malay lady had a poor command of English, he pointed to the word ‘nasi lemak’ in the menu as a way to place his order. Then, he made a hand gesture of touching his thumb and index finger together while holding the rest of his fingers straight up as a signal to ask the seller if she had gotten his order. The Malay lady nodded and repeated the hand gesture made by my uncle as an indication that she had understood his message.
Five minutes later, the Malay lady came to Uncle Ted’s table to serve the nasi lemak. To his surprise, she placed 3 plates of nasi lemak on the table instead of one. By using simple English, Uncle Ted tried his best to explain that he had just ordered one plate of nasi lemak and ask her to take the extra 2 plates away. The Malay lady got agitated and refused to take the extra 2 plates away. She insisted that he had ordered 3 plates and kept doing the hand gesture made by him earlier as a confirmation that he had ordered 3 plates of nasi lemak just now. In order to get out from this unpleasant situation, Uncle Ted apologized to the Malay lady and paid for the 3 plates of nasi lemak.
Language barrier was the main cause of this miscommunication between Uncle Ted and the Malay lady. Uncle Ted’s inability to speak in Malay and the Malay lady’s poor command in English had caused him to use non-verbal language as a mean to convey his message. However, little did he know that different cultures have different meanings for the same body language. For the locals in Malaysia, the hand gesture of touching the thumb and index finger together while holding the rest of the fingers straight up is referring to the number three. On the other hand, this hand gesture is used as an indication of ‘okay’ or ‘alright’ by most people in the West. As such, Uncle Ted’s initial intention of asking the Malay lady whether she had understood his order turned out to be another meaning to her, resulting in miscommunication and misunderstanding between them. As such, it is very important for us to acquire some knowledge about the various cultures especially in a multiracial country in order to avoid such situations in the future.
Dear Sauyeen,
ReplyDeleteThis is an excellent post, illustrating the potential hazard of cultural miscommunication with a clearly articulated (and amusing) example. You do a fine job of analyzing the encounter as well.
I also learned something here. With all my years in SEA, I didn't realize that the gesture you mention actually can indicate "three." I admit that your Uncle Ted is not alone in his ignorance!
Dear Brad,
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting on my post. From that day onwards, Uncle Ted doesn't dare to use that hand signal as a sign of 'okay' or 'alright' when he wants to buy nasi lemak. He has also learned some Malay words in order to avoid confusion.:)
Hi Sau Yeen,
ReplyDeleteThis post really brings us back to our earlier tutorial session on non-verbal communications.
I now realize that there is yet another indicator which signifies that a person is now immersed in a different culture, apart from the obvious language and religious differences. I think your Uncle Ted discovered the hard way that some hand gestures are not as universal as they seem! As I read your blog post, I turned to a couple of friends who were in the same computer room as I was, made the gesture mentioned in your post and asked them what it meant. To my surprise, the responses were equally divided between "three" and "okay"!
I'm glad that your uncle learned some Malay words in order to avoid confusion. I guess that if any person is going to settle down in a country which is culturally very different from his or her own, it would be prudent to learn some of the language. That way if non-verbal communication fails, at least there is some degree of verbal communication to fall back on, however limited it may be.
Mark
Hi Sau Yeen,
ReplyDeleteNice post you have here, girl. :) Mark certainly got it right when he said that we could relate this post to our earlier topic on non-verbal communications. Different countries/cultures have distinctive non-verbal communications and we certainly do not want to use a rude gesture when trying to communicate with the people of the country we are in.
Well, I certainly could understand why the Malay auntie was agitated when your uncle tried to return the two extra plate of rice. She most probably was afraid that a foreigner was trying to be funny or not pay up for the ordered food.
These are just my thoughts regarding this post. :)
ws
Hello Sau Yeen,
ReplyDeleteI would have done the same OK sign to that Malay lady if I were in a similar situation. I think when a particular gesture is commonly recognised by a few countries, in this case the OK sign, people tend to see it as a universal gesture. Naturally, they subconsciously "expect" that people from another country will be familiar with that gesture.
The question of universality is predominant, especially from the past comments made in this entry. Having universality in certain gestures and phrases can faciliate cross-cultural communication. However, we also need to take note that we should not take universality for granted because there ARE cases where a gesture can be interpreted in a totally different way. Looking from another angle, the difference in interpretation is what makes people special. The differences in our cultures allow us to possess unique traits and qualities. It will be boring if a monoculturalistic society only exists in this world.
Hello Sau Yeen!
ReplyDeleteThe incident you have described above reminded me of a similar encounter I once had as well when I was in Cambodia. The people there spoke minimal English, and most of the time we were communicating via exaggerating hand gesture, half praying the other party will understand the message we are trying to get through.
So there was once we were eating at this pizza place and I was craving for fries, which was not on the menu. After I got the attention of the waiter, I asked him if they serve fries. He didn’t understand, so the few of us were frantically trying to shape out the appearance of potato in air. Finally he exclaimed in delight, so he did a hand gesture of a flatten palm and the action of cutting it into strips. We thought he got it, but to my horror, when my fries were served it turn out to be some fried plain pizza base. You wouldn’t want to imagine my disappointment at that point of time.
Therefore, I guess it is only through all these small silly blunders we make then we can realize how language barrier can be of such hindrance to communicate with others!
Shihui
Dear Wee Siong,
ReplyDeleteYou might be right as to why the auntie was agitated. I think the auntie thought that my uncle was fooling around or joking with her.
Cheers,
SY
Dear Yuka,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your wonderful comment. You gave a nice explanation on the reason for the existence of different gestures interpretations. The culture that we adopt affects the way we communicate with each other to some extent. I do agree with you that the difference in us is the thing that makes each of us unique. In my opinion, it’s interesting to know these intercultural differences.
Cheers,
SY
Dear Shi Hui,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your interesting and funny experience. Maybe when you plan to visit to a foreign land where you are not familiar with the native language, you can consider buying a dictionary or some dual-language book which you may search for the word of the thing that you wish to convey to the native. This will facilitate your communication during your visit in that country.
Cheers,
SY
Dear Mark,
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting on my blog. The hand gesture of “three” or “okay” is very confusing and misleading sometimes. I guess we have to beware when we wish to use this hand gesture next time to avoid any misinterpretation of message.
Cheers,
SY