Test your cultural expertise with our weekly quiz question.
Last week we talked about celebrating personal accomplishments in Australia. Thanks to everyone who joined in the discussion on last week’s question. Here’s the answer:
False, Australians have a dislike for “tall poppies” who appear to boast of their achievements and prefer the more modest “team player.”
What do you think? Is that what you expected?
The new question is from India:
As part of your work you talk to Sanjay Mehta, an Indian person who is junior to you in rank but older than you. You should address him as “Sanjay” because your status is higher.
True or False?
Check next week’s post for the answer.
Thanks to GSI for providing the quiz questions. ©2011 GSI. For more information about diversophy® games, click www.diversophy.com
Umm, is this a serious question? Clearly the answer is no – you show some him some respect since he is older…
Well it seems obvious… but for example within the PocketCultures team we use first names with everyone, regardless of age. So am I committing a faux pas?
I do not work in a conventional office setting, but in my place of work we use first names with everyone. It does not matter rank or age. Our cultural priorities lean more towards inclusion, or a feeling of relaxed comfort at work. So, to me, it is not a obvious answer.
Thanks for that Kelly! This question is a bit off the topic but are there people from many different backgrounds in your place of work? Because I always read how Canada is very multicultural. I’m curious to know more about what that means in practise.
I’ll have to do a whole ‘multiculturalism in Canada’ post, but as far as my work goes, we have staff from French-speaking areas, international students, people who immigrated as children, and people of various ethnic backgrounds who were born here. I work in a variety of homes and often a second language is spoken and is possibly the only language of older generations in the house.
Definitely worth a whole post!