Ever take the time to ask, “How does an immigrant see us/the USA?”.

Check out this comedy presentation by Joe Wong at the Radio and Television Correspondent’s Dinner in Washington DC  (click HERE).

The Joe-Man is brilliant, in my view, and funny.

Imagine flipping this … you/us know enough about China (or India), speaking Mandarin (or Hindi) well enough, and know Chinese (Indian) culture, history, its jokes and humor well enough to stand before a room of Chinese (Indian) press correspondents and high ranking CCP officials and do what Joe Wong did at this dinner.

And his joke about the how the President should be fluent two languages … (1) English to sign legislation; and (2) Mandarin to be able to work with Chinese debt collectors?   Priceless …..

Here is Joe Wong’s website if you want to learn more about him - click HERE.

Joe is the man ….

- Chris Carr

Americans feel entitled to excellent customer service. With any customer service lines being handled by Indian representatives, complications with communication and understanding often times exacerbate the frustration customers feel when they call for help. Most, if not all, of us, have had the experience of being frustrated with some product or service, then trying to explain it to someone on the other line (who you know is reading a script prepared for your cookie-cutter problem), then struggling with trying to understand what they’re saying (and vice versa), leading you to completely lose your cool and take it out on the customer service representative on the other side. I know what you think, but have you ever wondered what they think? How do our short-comings in composure and good manners come across to foreigners? Does it matter? Why should we care?

Take a look at this video by ABC News from 2008: Click Here

(If you’re in a hurry, start at the 5:30-minute mark.)

ABC’s interview with Chetan Bhagat, author of One Night at the Call Center, gives some insight as to how those call center reps manage to keep their cool, even with the worst customers. The first tool of a customer service rep is the mute button. Bhagat reveals, “What you don’t hear are the curses back.” Bhagat also discloses another simple training tool used by call center agents referred to as 35 = 10. (I had to chuckle when I heard this one.) This tactic translates as follows: dealing with a 35-year-old American is like speaking to a 10-year-old Indian child. Bhagat explains that you wouldn’t lose your cool with a 10-year-old because they just don’t understand, and that is what they teach call center agents. So that’s how they do it!

Another segment profiles Swati Chopra, a 24-year-old tutor for a grade-school American boy. Swati tutors via the internet and a webcam. She explains that if she wants to tutor Americans, she has to be “very sweet” (implying that failing to be overly sensitive to students’ feelings could lead to her losing business). She goes on to explain that “there’s a gap of at least three grades between [Indian and American students].” Tutoring a seventh grade American equates to tutoring an Indian fourth-grader, and so Indian tutors need to adjust their teaching style to accommodate them.

I have to admit that I’m a little embarrassed by American short-comings with regard to manners and the message that it sends to the rest of the world. I think this segment really highlights some of the worst perceptions of Americans (overly entitled, rude, infantile, and dumb). Despite these perceptions (and acknowledging that a few rude customers don’t accurately reflect the population as a whole) foreigners still want to do business with us. Regardless of whether they’re motivated to make a buck or to just be a part of the modern world, it’s important that we consider how our behavior affects our image and reputation as Americans. Why is it important for us to improve our image, even if we don’t have to? What incentives does America have to improve other’s perceptions of it? What are some of the little things American individuals can do to improve that image? Will this affect how you prioritize use of good behavior and manners abroad?

-Erika Bylund

As the topic of real estate — and by extension, real estate law — is of great interest to me, I investigated real estate practices in India for our trip. One of the defining features, I learned, of the real estate market in India is the widespread use of rent control. This in turn led me to a paper analyzing the effects of rent control in India.

Satvik Dev, a member of the Centre for Civil Society, describes in his paper “Rent Control Laws in India a Critical Analysis,” the history, benefits, and costs of rent control. <http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=926512> Dev’s paper begins with a general introduction to rent control, which is the legal enforcement of a maximum amount of rent that can be charged for a particular building. Each of the arguments for and against rent control are presented and analyzed in turn. He concludes with an appendix detailing the rent control laws in 25 of India’s states.

Rather than immediately banish all rent control laws, Dev recommends reforming existing laws as they have “gross inconsistencies.” For example, not all Indian states provide exemptions for new constructions “which would encourage fresh supply in the rental housing markets.” Many states also do not allow any increase in rent unless improvements are made to the premises. As Dev suggests, provisions like these should be standardized across India’s various states.

Even more troubling than inconsistent laws, Dev states, “In absence of the price rationing system, as in the case of rent controls, landlords often adapt discriminatory and crude preferential measures in rationing out the scarce supply of rentable housing among the many buyers.” In other words, rent control laws encourage landlords to use discrimination when selecting potential renters.

For example, let us say a bigoted landlord of the Feline-Faith religion would like to rent out an apartment. A renter of the Canine-Conviction is willing to pay $800 per month to rent from the landlord, while another renter of the Feline-Faith is only willing to pay $600 per month for the same apartment. If the landlord discriminates against the Canine-Conviction renter based on religion, the landlord essentially pays a penalty of $200.

Now let us suppose the government intervenes and decides “$800 a month is outrageous.” Rent control is imposed, and $500 per month is the maximum rent allowed.

With rent control, the landlord no longer has a financial incentive to choose one renter over the other; all renters pay $500. The bigoted landlord must still discriminate (economically) between buyers and will select the fellow member of the Feline-Faith. In essence, rent control has subsidized discrimination (the bad kind).

In India, rent control could easily subsidize discrimination between peoples of various religions, castes, or even genders. Discrimination under this system would also be very difficult to prove in a court of law. It would thus be very easy for prejudiced landlords to escape detection.

What do you think? Should India repeal its rent control laws? Have you ever experienced or heard of cases of landlord discrimination?

—Alex Thornton

As we prepare to embark on our journey to India, we are focused on the businesses that we are going to visit, the presentations we will give, and the suits we will have to wear in the hot sun. We have learned about India as an emerging global leader and world’s largest democracy. We will learn about the cultural norms and standards to greet our new friends with respect. But one thing that very few of us have written or read about are the traditions of India that no one wants to talk about. The traditions of human rights violations and practices so horrific that as Americans in a developed country, we can’t even imagine.

I was recently visiting my friend in Los Angeles when she asked me if I had heard of bride burning. “Bride Stealing?” I responded. Bride stealing is a tradition from Kyrgyzstan where men kidnap women off the street and make them get married that day. 85% of marriages in the 1990s were a result of Bride theft, and of those 55% were anonymous. “No, I mean bride burning in India.” She proceeded to describe to me a book she had read which detailed the Indian tradition. “Bride-burning is a form of domestic violence practiced in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and other countries located on or around the Indian subcontinent. A category of dowry death, bride burning occurs when a young woman is murdered by her husband or his family for her family’s refusal to pay additional dowry. The wife is typically doused with kerosene, gasoline, or other flammable liquid, and set alight, leading to death by fire” (wikipedia). Kerosene is cheap and easy to find, saris are flammable, and when the burning is complete, there is no evidence left behind. No knife, gun, body, nothing. It is a perfect way to dispose of evidence and make it look like a suicide, accident, or make it look like it didn’t happen at all.

According to CNN, 2500 women were victims of bride burning in 2008 (read article here http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9608/18/bride.burn/). My friend was under the impression that it was much higher than that and gave me the name of a book she read that details many women’s rights violations all over the world called Half the Sky. If you are interested in reading more about this please visit www.halftheskymovement.org.

The reason I bring this up is that there is a whole side of India that we haven’t discussed in class, and probably won’t get to. The dichotomy of the wealth that is being generated and the innovation that is coming from India, mixed with the traditions that keep it locked in the past are astounding and sobering. I was really disturbed by hearing about this and have been thinking about it for days. Anyone else’s feelings??

-Lindsay Leaver

For those of us embarking on the trip to India in less than 8 weeks, the excitement should be building. So far, we have had a decent exposure to the cultural and business practices in India through our sessions or assignments. There still remain a lot of questions that would be best answered by experiences of westerners living in India. Following are some good posts you may want to explore to remove some of the anxiety regarding the working and living conditions in India from a westerner’s perspective.

1. An American engineer’s experiences and observations while working in Bangalore (I am unable to find the original blog but have found his comments on a Chinese blog site) : Click Here

2. An American-Indian woman reporter’s thoughts after a year and a half in India: Click Here

3. An American academic woman’s experiences in India: Click Here

4. An Expat mom’s experiences in India: Click Here

5. A Non Resident Indian’s take on expenses and salary requirements for living in Mumbai: Click Here

These unique perspectives of living and work related experiences should help us be better prepared for our excursion to India shortly. Do not think, though, that this is all that would be needed to be prepared for India. Having lived in India for 22 years and consistently returning there for short periods still does not prepare me for the dynamic nature of the Indian diversity.

- Jay Singh