TRANSACTIONS OF SYMBOLS: A FREQUENT FLIER STORY
I
just had a wonderful trip on Etihad Airways, very content, despite it being 15
hours in length.
It
was good to observe that a good percentage of passengers were Asians, Chinese
and Indians. The pilot had the expected Australian accent, the purser was from
South Africa and the crew was a mélange; Korea, Portugal to give two examples, equally
divided between the east and the west.
Only
recently had I begun to fly Etihad Airways, I have been and still am partial to
Qatar Airways. The service on the USA based airlines have deteriorated to such
a degree, add to that their insipid food offerings, I had to find an
alternative. The three Gulf Airlines, Emirates, Etihad and Qatar, offer good
connections ( Miami to Cochin with one stop in Doha, for example) and a variety
of destinations ( on a recent trip, I could include Johannesburg in South Africa,
Abu Dhabi in the Gulf as well as Sao Paulo in Bresil!) and most importantly the
friendliness of the staff and particularly the crew. These long flights afford
time and a chance to get to know some of them well, I love to hear their
stories. Qatar Cabin Attendants are mostly Filipinas and from the Subcontinent,
whereas at Etihad there is much more of a cultural and racial spread. I have to
be honest, I have never heard any one complaint about the working conditions,
whether at Etihad or Qatar, most of them are excited about the possibility of
seeing the world, and take advantage of their free time and chance to fly to go
to various countries which they otherwise wouldn’t have had a chance to visit.
On
one such a flight, I had a chance to explain to a lovely lady from Seoul, about
transactions of symbols, an anthropological method of looking at social
interactions.
She
asked me, how to deal with the problem when you see Asians treating each other
badly?
I
asked her
What
are you?
Korean,
she answered
Are
you proud of being Korean?
Yes,
of course, she said with a smile.
Then
don’t worry, what others think of you, associate some characteristic to being a
Korean. But in this world of socially stratified visions, we can help foster
communication by keeping an open mind ourselves.
I
gave her a recent example in my travels.
I
arrived at the reception desk at Aloft hotel in Abu Dhabi. Balas from
Trivandrum was manning the desk and he offered a warm welcome.
Even
before he could begin, I asked him where he was from and we talked pleasantly
about the land of his origin. There was no room for grittiness, he was happy we
talked about Kerala his land and so was I. This reaffirmed to me that I do like
Malayalees.
He
was surprised to realize that I was not from Cochin even though I showed an
interest in Cochin. What he thinks of me, whether he presumed me to be from
Cochin or assigned some characteristic to me, based on my appearance is of no
concern to me. It is I who has to make sure that the social interaction,
between a guest and a receptionist in this case, but this could well have one
of the many short interactions we have in our lives. It is our responsibility
to make sure that in the short time allotted to us, we don’t make the other
person uncomfortable.
In
Asia, I am always asked, are you from..?
India,
Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka? In Malaysia, Singapore and Myanmar I am
mistaken for a local, at times even in Cambodia. In Latin America, I am thought
of as Brazilian, so I have to put the
other person at ease long before he has a chance to find out that I am not from
Bresil!
Koreans,
like the Japanese, have a great burden of history to bear. Their reputations
(which they do not deserve) goes back to the memory of other Asians from the
period of World War II.
So,
to avoid any bad interaction, especially in brief encounters learn to transact
the symbolism. Compliment the other person about something they deeply care
about. (Whenever I meet a Filipino, I say Selamat which brings a smile to their
faces)
Why
do we say Omanis are the best people in the Gulf region? They have a long
history, millennial, of contact with foreigners; they have mixed with foreigners,
literally for centuries. This has had an effect on THEIR personalities and YOUR
perception of them.
It
is YOUR perception that has to be modified, not THEIR characteristic.
Asians
have a very short history of contact
with each other and other foreigners, with the exceptions of pockets of people,
such as Malayalees of Malabar Coast who have contact with foreigners for
thousands of years, and it shows in their character of tolerance and acceptance
and friendliness.
Fifty
years ago Korea was not a rich country, poorer than Philippines and now of
course they have become an awesome economic powerhouse. This was not achieved
easily, a lot of sacrifice was necessary, not only in the perception of
themselves, and how others saw them.
We
have to be proud of our cultural identities and sometimes carry the burden of
caricature the world burdens you with. But we get our revenge by doing well- in
our chosen fields of study or endeavor, be it science or hospitality or social
discourse.
I
am a Jew and yo comprendo…
(sweetness beyond belief: lunch at Koder House in Fort Cochin)
