Yesterday, I happen to learn a very interesting cultural difference between western and eastern people. One colleague of mine had done a small mistake and he hails from my country India. Our manager was really angry about the mistake. And he was really vocal in making his assertion.
To this reaction, my colleague in a true Indian way started to explain why he did and it looked like he was justifying his mistake. But in reality Indians whenever they commit the mistake they try to explain why he made that mistake and what happened but my manager being from western culture was not at all interested in listening to all that crap. He was making his point that, I am saying this and you are supposed to do it. And my manger from the western culture interpreted in totally different way. He felt my colleague was trying to defend this action and going to repeat it again. So he got more aggravated and said it has to be the way and I say it.
After this incident, I was thinking about Indian culture and western culture. Indian culturally always accepts the boss/master/elders irrespective of the instruction. They will be 100% committed. And I was wondering where is the difference ? After carefully thought process I concluded.
Many times Indians like to talk about the mistake, explain in detail and also sometime justify that it happened because of something else. By doing this Indians feel they might escape the greater trouble and pacify the master/boss/Manager.
On Contrary in western culture the attitude is bolder and straight forward. They accept the mistake and say I would not do it and move on from there. This main difference some time leads to misunderstandings and western people might feel this guy wants to justify the act and repeat it going forward. Thus leading to different opinion and misunderstanding.
Why do Indians talk about the mistake?
Historically Indians were ruled by different people and many times Indians had to explain each and every act to their masters. In those time masters liked to listen the explanation of one’s mistake. I guess this must have resulted in explanations.
As I remember from my childhood, I too have done lots of explanations to different people because I was asked many times about the same mistake committed by me. The questions were simply like why did you do it? How did you do it? When did you do it? Personally I feel we Indians waste lot of time in explaining the mistake.
More and more you explain, the more it gets registered in your brains and probability of repeating it might be higher. Many times people expect to come up with some kind of explanations for the mistake committed by you. I feel this kind of up brining makes the kid to make up stories and also some kind of justification about the wrong.
Since we all live in a world where western culture dominates over the world. I think it would be better to follow the below.
- In case if you make a mistake, never ever justify. Accept the mistake and say you are not going to do it and move on. Minor mistake would get pardoned and you move on. Major mistake any case will not help you either you give great explanation or not. It would depend upon one's manager it can be like make or break condition. Leave the decision to the manager and move on.
- In case if you have not done the mistake, then what would you do? It is really tricky situation because you must think what your boss thinks about the mistake. Is it committed or not? Try to learn that? Ask directly? Say to your manager that, you did this what do you think? Is it a mistake?
If he says yes, then follow the above steps. If your manager thinks it is not a mistake, then you get an opportunity to explain. Then 'only' explain. But it has to be very brief. Never ever exaggerate.
Moral of the story is, western people do not like to waste time on something which is not required. They like to finish the things as quickly as possible and move on.
Whereas Indians like to talk about different things, come with explanations, justifications and most often "The Time" takes second precedence over other things.
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