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Intercultural Hospitality in Our Mixed Home

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

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A commenter at this site, Lurker Frequent (aka LF), has once again asked a really interesting set of related questions in the comments section of a recent post that I'd like to address as a proper post, since I have plenty to say on the topic. Here's his questions: I am very curious to know about relationship dynamics in your Indian American Household, with regards to the cultural differences in customs in India and America. More specifically, in India, people invite each other over and unexpectedly drop in and hang out and do things together. In the US it's more planned, and “khatirdari” is less common in this DIY land. How does it work in your family? How do you handle all the social obligations of an Indian wife? ... the Indian bahu is “supposed” to do a bunch of stuff like cook, clean, wash, entertain the guests, manage social life etc. etc etc. It's all voluntary though, no pressures in modern day families. How's your “Bahurani” experience been like? Do you guys do all of that? I think I'll shelve the "chores" section of the question for a later date to focus on the hospitality portion of LF's question. So what follows here are my thoughts on hospitality generally in intercultural households, the interculturalness (or lack thereof) of our household hosting , and some general tips that might be of use to others.

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Friday Connections – 13-11-09

Friday, November 13, 2009

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Oh yeah, I dated this international style! So, I''ve decided to start linking some of my favorite reads at the end of the week - there's a million and one things I run across that seem like they'd be of interest to the readers of this blog, but I never have time to write a whole blog post about each one. Thus, Friday Connections. I'll try to group links each week into subjects. Let me know what you guys think!

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Cross-Cultural Connections in your Community

Monday, January 26, 2009

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I share my office with a Chinese-American man. My team at work consists of said office mate, an Indian-American (Gujarati) guy, a Turkish fellow, a white dude from the Midwest, my Taiwanese female boss, and three Indians in our Delhi office (two Mr.'s and a Ms.). The offices closest to mine include said Turkish fellow, a Bangladeshi bloke, an Indian (Bengali) lady, a Ghanaian-American gent, a French woman, and a Nepalese chap. Really. For those of you keeping count, that's two Caucasian Americans (including myself) out of fourteen folk. With numbers like those, as you may guess, I don't talk to white Americans all that much while at work. (Or women, either - but that's what you get for working in a field dominated by economists and engineers.) However, even when I step outside the office, I've found that I don't interact with a many people - or, really, more than a handful of people - who appear to be from the same general cultural & racial background as my own. Frankly, it's a little odd now that I think about it.

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