Intercultural competence India – questioning stereotypes
Stereotypes and India
It is sometimes amazing what stereotypes develop. When it comes to a distant country like India and you have not attended intercultural training in India , you mainly get your knowledge from the newspaper, the Internet or television. Iranians tend to be either Islamic extremists or carpet traders. US-Americans are gun nuts and superficial, whereby one or the other is sure to wonder whether their US-American counterpart also voted for Trump. In the case of India, we either hear about rape or the forging of the IT industry. I recently had the opportunity to take a look behind the scenes. At a seminar in the evening, I found myself at the inevitable bar with three Indians who fit the stereotype in that they worked in IT.
Truths and perceptions
The three Indians were all very well educated. They all worked in Germany and spoke very good German. Their clothes were business attire and all three had a fairly dark skin color. In addition, one was married to a German woman and the other two had German girlfriends. In this respect, they were all a very good example of successful integration, which is being discussed so much these days. All three feel very much at home in Germany. Nevertheless, they always have to defend themselves against prejudices. On the one hand, this comes from Germans, who keep asking whether they are asylum seekers. But they also come from refugees who keep asking how they managed to come to Germany. Via Macedonia or Italy? As it was an international event with participants from different nations, English was spoken throughout and it was only after a while that I found out how well the three of them spoke German, which – “stereotypically” – I hadn’t expected, I admit.
Say goodbye to stereotypes – What India is really like
Of course, Indians are human beings like all of us. Their culture is just very different from ours, which is why we like to fall back on stereotypes when we don’t understand Indian behavior. Nothing is more misleading. Anyone who has dealings with Indians or wants to do business in India would therefore do well to discard the stereotypes and get to grips with the very diverse Indian culture. Precisely because India is also a country of sometimes stark contrasts. High-tech meets rural village communities, billion-dollar fortunes meet ragged beggars on the street. If you don’t do this because it costs money, you’re almost guaranteed to shipwreck your business. If you put the cost of intercultural training in India in relation to potential business losses, you don’t have to be Warren Buffet to realize that only a few measures achieve a better return on investment. Intercultural training in India with Global Cultures gives you the know-how you need to succeed in business in India.
