Reading Figuring Foreigners Out was a reiteration of different cultural concepts to me because I grew up in the midst of two cultures and experienced two opposite sides. It was comical, almost, to read about the various classifications of time, individualism versus collectivism, and different forms of communications for that reason. My Bengali ethnicity familiarized me to polychronic time, collectivism, and indirect communication, among other things, while growing up in America taught me individualism, direct communication, and monochronic time. I'm glad that I got the best of both worlds...sort of.
In learning new languages, one may learn the speech, but when it comes to practical usage it is imperative to pick up on cultural cues. In Bengali, a person does not always necessarily mean what they say (indirect communication) and their perception of time is way off charts in western standards. While westerners value word of mouth, like promises and favors, Bengalis tend to not follow through with such things. For example, in Bangladesh, if one asks another for a favor and the person agrees, unless the person constantly reminds the person about the favor, it would not be likely that the person would do the favor. It is a social norm to remind the person about it and if not overdone, it is not considered pestering as it would be in the western world. This is where the concept of trust in the culture is skewed; it does not have the same characteristics as in America. While simply learning words, grammar, and being able to directly speak to someone in a new language may be great, it may not be helpful if the typical speakers of that language are not "direct" speakers as in Bengali.
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