Managing global assignments
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owner of the restaurant. The first thing he noticed was the owner's full head of
Waiting for his meal to come, Hessler had an opportunity to speak with the
thick black hair. The owner said that local people have been eating rat for more
than 1,000 years. His customers insist on eating rats from the mountains, how-
Hessler that the government hygiene department came by regularly to inspect his
ever, because they are clean; they won't eat city rats, he insisted. He assured
rats and had never found anything wrong. Before walking away, the owner
smiled and said that you couldn't find food like this in America.
When lunch was finally served, Hessler tried to think of this as a new experi-
ence. He tried the beans first, and they tasted fine. Then he poked around at
the rat meat. It was clearly well done and attractively garnished with onions,
leeks, and ginger. Nestled in a light sauce were skinny rat thighs, short strips of
rat flank, and delicate tiny rat ribs. He hesitantly took his first bite, and found
the meat to be lean and white without a hint of gaminess. It didn't taste like
anything he had had previously. It tasted like rat. Fortunately, he had lots of
beer to wash it down with.
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Exhit
Think about it...
a fc
init
1.
(1) What would you do if you were faced with the situation that Peter Hessler
experienced at the Luogang restaurant, especially if an important Chinese
client had invited you to the restaurant?
(2) Have you ever had a similar experience in another culture when you were
pressured to eat or do something that was acceptable - or even required - in
the local culture but that you found uncomfortable? What did you do?
(3) Are there aspects of your own home culture that foreign visitors might find
offensive or uncomfortable for some reason? What might you do to put your
foreign guests at ease in this situation?
(4) Think about your eating habits and food preferences. How easy would it be
for you to live in a foreign country with drastically different cuisine?
Stages of psychological adaptation
and can vary widely depending on individual characteristics, the cultures
The process of psychological adjustment to a new culture can be quite personal
involved, and the particulars of the situation. Nevertheless, knowledge of
common stages in the process of adaptation is helnful in coning and understand-
ing one's feelings while
ah
Finding your way: coping with culture shock
har an
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chosomatic symptoms. Even so, culture shock is not a disease. Rather, it signifies
individual is trying to come to terms with his or her new environment -
ud starting point for psychological adjustment. As such, the question is not how
- avoid culture shock, but how to manage it.
APPLICATION 11.3 Peter Hessler, Luogang
when American journalist Peter Hessler was invited for lunch in the rural Chinese
age of Luogang in Guangdong province he was in for a surprise. After sitting
cown at a table in the Highest Ranking Wild Flavor Restaurant, the waitress asked
him bluntly, "Do you want a big rat or a small rat?" Unsure of what to do, Hessler
osted the waitress what the difference was, and was informed that the big rats
At grass while the small rats eat fruit. Both tasted good, he was assured. As he
contemplated his choice, Hessler looked at the people sitting at the next table.
A young boy was gnawing on a rat drumstick, but he couldn't tell whether it was
from a big rat or a small one. After asking himself how he got into this predicament,
he finally made a decision: a small rat. He chose an item from the menu called
Simmered Mountain Rat with Black Beans. He selected this over other possibilities,
ncluding Mountain Rat Soup, Steamed Mountain Rat, Simmered Mountain Rat,
Roasted Mountain Rat, Mountain Rat Curry, and Spicy and Salty Mountain Rat.
The Chinese say that people in Guangdong will eat anything. Besides rat,
people at the Highest Ranking Wild Flavor Restaurant can order turtle dove, fox,
cat, python, and an assortment of strange-looking local animals whose names
lavor and texture. You order cat not just because you enjoy the taste but also
don't translate into English. Selecting a menu item involves considerations beyond
because cats are believed to impart a lively jingshen (or spirit). You order a snake
because it makes you stronger. You order the private parts of a deer to make you
movie virile. Why would you eat a rat? Because it will keep you from going bald
and make your white hair turn black.
After a few minutes the waitress asked Hessler to come back to the kitchen and
select his rat. In the back of the kitchen, he saw several cages stacked on top
of one another. Each cage contained about thirty rats. "How about this one?" the
waitress asked. "Fine," Hessler replied. The waitress then put on a white glove
presumably for hygiene purposes) and grabbed the chosen rat. "Are you sure this
S the one?" she asked. The rat gazed at Hessler with its little beady eyes. He
vaded his approval. Then the waitress grabbed the rat by its tail and flipped
ter wist, thereby launching the rat through the air until it landed on its head
in the concrete floor with a soft thud. There was little blood. Hessler was told that
ne could return to his table; lunch would arrive shortly.
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