Learning Culture...

Imagine something with me. Imagine your company has a new intern. This intern is working for free because he is so excited about the work your office does.

He is a young single guy from India. This doesn’t really matter except that his accent is so thick it is pretty difficult to talk to him. Some people in the office even need you to translate his English. He is trying to learn American slang but keeps saying “yes sir,” to the janitor and “Yea dude,” to the CEO.

He cannot drive anywhere so if he needs anything you either have to drive him, or find someone else to drive him. When you do drive him you notice he is clutching the side of the seat because he has never seen someone drive as “crazy” as they do in the states. Thankfully public transport is pretty good so you are hoping he learns to use that.

Sometimes your work takes the both of you out of town. Now, although excited this man has never traveled like a normal person. See in his country he only rode in BMW and Lexus Suv’s, never (literally) in a Honda or a Toyota. His choice of hotels is only the best. Your company obviously cannot afford that so you stay at the Hampton Inn. Although he is perfectly content, you know that he has only slept on memory foam mattresses his whole life. Even though the hotel beds are comfortable to you, he is going to wake up every hour in the night because he wont be comfortable at all. Again, he doesn’t complain but you also know that he will be exhausted the next day and probably won’t be as productive as you. He does his best to fit in, but he isn’t used to the temperature in the states. He is used to it being warm so when you are perfectly comfortable you will see him shivering, sometimes his fingers even turn blue.

Also in his country he only ate at 4 or 5 star restaurants. Now you would love to have him over to your home for dinner, but many of your friends have told you that your cooking will make him sick if he can even eat it at all. Your boss even said that you couldn’t go to any restaurant of lower class than Outback (although you and him often would eat at “normal” places). Everywhere he goes though he carries a bottle of water because he can’t drink American water. He hasn’t ever even eaten with a fork before. Now although he tries to use a fork every single meal, you can always tell where he sat because there is food everywhere. He is so different that whenever you go in public with him you know everyone will stare at you (some people even judge you for being with him at all).

Although this is your imagination, it’s my reality- I’m that guy. Now my point in that is to call your attention to the generosity of my hosts. See although they are not paying me, there is certainly still a great cost to them. I am so blessed by the ways they have sought to ease me into their culture. They have made a huge front-end investment in me and I am thankful for them. I love it here, I love the adventure and everything I am learning, and I am very thankful for their patience.