Evaluating Intercultural Behavior
I pondered for awhile, thinking what made her ask this question before answering her, "Yes, she is still together with her boyfriend. Why is it regarding?”
She then told me that she was out with her friends at Lucky Plaza & they saw my sister's boyfriend kissing another woman. I was very shocked and I was thinking what I should do at that time. Well, my fellow readers, you must be wondering how this scenario has got anything to do with inter-cultural behavior. Fret not, I am not writing my journal :p
So let me cut the story short, it was a misunderstanding after all. What happen was my sister's boyfriend is an Indonesian and he was having dinner with his family that Sunday. The woman he kissed was actually his brother's wife. I was told by my sister that it is his family culture to greet each other with two kisses on the cheeks. Thus, it is very common and normal for him to be kissing her as a form of greeting. In the end, I was made the villain.
Back to the point when I was told of this incident, I had mixed feelings about it. I tried to keep calm and tell myself that I should only do my job as an effective messenger to convey the information to my sister. However, it was really difficult to not judge the situation at first. To me, kissing another girl in the public is a very clear signal for me to make a judgment. I fail to consider the cultural differences we may have. From this experience, it makes me realize that we should always try to give others a benefit of doubt. Things may not turn out to be actually what we perceived as. We should always try to be open-minded about matters. Furthermore, in order to communicate effectively, we should be more aware of our audience and be receptive to their behaviors due to the cultural differences we may have.
Here are some pictures depicting inter-cultural misunderstandings. Hope you like it!
Thanks for your time reading :)
