M for 'Multicultural'

I was in a dial-in training today where the presenter- a Danish guy mentioned how Indians have a peculiar way of shaking their head to signify a "Yes" or a "No" which is mighty confusing!. He mentioned this in the context of working in a multi cultural team. This is indeed true, working on a team with folks from diverse cultures often presents some amusing moments. I worked with Brazilians on a project and trying to understand their heavily accented English was quite a challenge. I think it was difficult for them too, one of the guys mentioned that for some reason he found it much easier to understand me on the phone than in person. In time though I found that it got better. Also being exposed to varied regional undertones in which English is spoken in India was a big help because it meant I was not so much used to a particular accent. The case was entirely different with Americans on my team. For them it was nearly impossible to get what the Brazilians were speaking though.

Talking of accents, as is the standard practice on the phone, you spell out a password with an example for each alphabet- You would go "A for apple, C for Cat and so on and so forth". Have heard some interesting ones there- "X for whatever, K for King Kong"!!!

Though the cultural diversity across the world is the cause for unrest in many cases, its never lost on me that however different we may perceive ourselves from other societies and vice versa, the universal constants of family,friends,work - things we worry about and live for remain the same. We are not that different after all.