Cross Cultural differences between US and India

 “When in Rome, do as the Romans” is an old adage which holds good in every transition phase of our life. So, we should be flexible in our thoughts about our transitions to attain substantial results. In my two weeks stay at Boulder, Colorado, I found significant differences in the life styles of the people in the United States and my home country, India. Apart from the superficial differences in clothing, food and accent, there are various other differences which are not quite vivid but play a major role in our success. Out of such, the adhering paragraphs point out three major differences in the perception of the people in the United States and India, which are time, individualism and communication style. At last, I shall explain how the change to new ideologies shall help me succeed.

First, in regards to the differences in the perception of time, Americans value time more than money (1) and they are punctual. In India, I used to take a cushion of ten minutes in the meetings schedule and it never created problem to me. Whereas in the US, I observed people get frustrated when things don’t go as per the schedule. I feel that adapting to the US perception of time will definitely help us to succeed, as it encourages us to be punctual. One more striking difference is that Americans are monochronic in nature contrary to the polychronic attitude of many Indians. This is because Americans believe interpersonal relations are subordinate to present schedule (2). I feel that becoming monochronic shall help us to focus one thing at a time and achieve success.

Second, in case of the concept of individualism, there exist lots of differences in the way people of these countries believe in it. Americans tend to be more individualistic in nature. It is evident in the way many Americans come out of their families when they are 18 (3). Whereas, in India we tend to be more dependent on our parents and always put their decision above our own decision. I strongly feel that we should enjoy every moment of our life and do what we wish. It gives us immense pleasure in our work even we fail in it.  

Third, the difference in the communication style between the US and India is quite a common issue. In India, we tend to be wordy in our communications, whether it be praising someone or raising a concern. For suppose, we have a problem with a person, we try to be indirect in our expression of concern just to maintain good relations with the person in future. In the united states, I observed that people tend to express a problem with an another person in a concise and direct manner though with a smile. This is certainly an issue which we can imbibe in us. The simple thumb rule is, you are not paid for your words.

 In conclusion, no culture is supreme. However, we can observe that the transition to the American ideologies from a few of Indian ones pertaining to the perception of time, individualism and communication style shall definitely help us to be punctual, focused and achieve success. Just to reiterate, we should be flexible in our thought process in adapting to a particular culture when you are there. I am supremely confident that the transition shall help me to achieve success in the next two years at University of Colorado, Boulder.

References:

1.      Baca, Matt., Dieter Bruhn“The ITP graduate preparatory session” university of Colorado-boulder. Boulder. CO.  20 Aug.2012

2.      Hahn, Harley. “Time sense: Polychronicity versus Monochronicity” http://www.harley.com/writing/time-sense.html.  Web. 22 Aug.2012

3.      Huq, Hasina, “Three in ten young adults live with their parents” http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2012/0315/Three-in-10-young-adults-live-with-parents-highest-level-since-1950s . Web. 22 Aug.2012