Post by MargaretAnne on Jul 13, 2005 0:22:14 GMT -5
I am taking an intercultural studies course and we have to discuss a challenging intercultural situation that we have experienced. I was recently travelling in northern Laos with my sister and we ended up offending the driver who had picked us up. I describe the scenario in some detail below and would be interested in a Lao perspective on what may have been going on in the driver's mind.
After already travelling for over 24 hours, we started walking in the direction of the town when a very large, new, expensive, hydraulic truck passed us. As it was a large truck and the hill was very steep, we thought it would be too dangerous for the driver to stop so we didn’t even motion for it to stop but just kept on walking. The truck passed us, slowed down to a stop and the driver motioned for us to hop in. The driver spoke very little English but through gestures and the names of villages, we managed to explain we were going to the next town to catch a songthaew. He gestured that there were no more songthaews leaving that day, but that he could take us where we needed to go. Along the way we stopped at a construction site where some of his friends were. He ate his breakfast and looked over the site. There happened to be a male student working there for the summer who spoke more English and confirmed that our driver would take us to the next major junction town where there were lots of songthaews we could hire.
We continued on this time followed by another truck driven by one of his friends from the construction site. The other driver obviously thought it was quite a sight to see two white girls in the front of the truck with our driver. This was true of most of the villages we passed and our driver seemed to enjoy the added attention. At a shop on the side of the road he bought us raw sugar cane and some fruit. We motioned to pay, but he would not allow it. I was seated in the middle and while Melissa dozed off next to me, he pointed to my nose, said ‘pretty’ and smiled. The fact that he picked out my nose struck me as somewhat peculiar. I assumed it was probably that it was so different from local noses and didn’t think too much more about it.
We finally arrived at the next major junction town and he pointed to where we could get some food. He parked his truck in the centre square where all the songthaews and other transport vehicles were parked. One of his friends who spoke more English came up and told us that our driver just had to drive a short distance in the opposite direction to drop something off but would be back in less than an hour. He would then be able to drive us the rest of the way. We didn’t think that he needed to go in our direction and we were beginning to feel like an imposition. He had declined our offer to take him for lunch, as he had to do something in town first for work before heading out to drop something off. We also knew he would not accept money for the trip (we confirmed this with the English speaking student earlier) and we were not sure what was appropriate or expected under the circumstances.
His friend confirmed that there were lots of vehicles leaving for the 45 min. drive to our final destination that we could get a ride on. When we told his friend to tell our driver that we could do that in order to save him an extra trip he began to get angry. We said how thankful we were and tried to express we were sorry if he was upset with us. His friend was no longer of any help and our driver got even more upset and started to yell. As the situation escalated, we began to get a little worried and were glad that we had decided not to wait for him to take us the rest of the way. All of our experiences with Laotian culture up to this time had been of an easy-going and very relaxed nature. It came as a bit of a shock to see our driver get so animated and upset. We wished we knew more of the language (we only had 3 weeks) so we were left wondering what had gone so wrong. His friend also seemed surprised, but made a quick departure from the scene.
My hypothesis regarding the underlying cultural dynamics of the above situation is that even though at the time I felt we had made the smart and safe decision not to accept a further ride there may be other cultural factors at play, which could account for our driver’s angry response that I hadn’t previously considered. These may be due to a cultural need to protect or help out travellers and his anger developed out of frustration at our rude and inconsiderate behaviour for not accepting his generosity. As well as the belief that we were being foolish by wasting money hiring a vehicle we didn’t need and for which we would likely have to pay more for as foreigners.
Thank you for reading and any insights you have would be much appreciated,
Margaret-Anne
After already travelling for over 24 hours, we started walking in the direction of the town when a very large, new, expensive, hydraulic truck passed us. As it was a large truck and the hill was very steep, we thought it would be too dangerous for the driver to stop so we didn’t even motion for it to stop but just kept on walking. The truck passed us, slowed down to a stop and the driver motioned for us to hop in. The driver spoke very little English but through gestures and the names of villages, we managed to explain we were going to the next town to catch a songthaew. He gestured that there were no more songthaews leaving that day, but that he could take us where we needed to go. Along the way we stopped at a construction site where some of his friends were. He ate his breakfast and looked over the site. There happened to be a male student working there for the summer who spoke more English and confirmed that our driver would take us to the next major junction town where there were lots of songthaews we could hire.
We continued on this time followed by another truck driven by one of his friends from the construction site. The other driver obviously thought it was quite a sight to see two white girls in the front of the truck with our driver. This was true of most of the villages we passed and our driver seemed to enjoy the added attention. At a shop on the side of the road he bought us raw sugar cane and some fruit. We motioned to pay, but he would not allow it. I was seated in the middle and while Melissa dozed off next to me, he pointed to my nose, said ‘pretty’ and smiled. The fact that he picked out my nose struck me as somewhat peculiar. I assumed it was probably that it was so different from local noses and didn’t think too much more about it.
We finally arrived at the next major junction town and he pointed to where we could get some food. He parked his truck in the centre square where all the songthaews and other transport vehicles were parked. One of his friends who spoke more English came up and told us that our driver just had to drive a short distance in the opposite direction to drop something off but would be back in less than an hour. He would then be able to drive us the rest of the way. We didn’t think that he needed to go in our direction and we were beginning to feel like an imposition. He had declined our offer to take him for lunch, as he had to do something in town first for work before heading out to drop something off. We also knew he would not accept money for the trip (we confirmed this with the English speaking student earlier) and we were not sure what was appropriate or expected under the circumstances.
His friend confirmed that there were lots of vehicles leaving for the 45 min. drive to our final destination that we could get a ride on. When we told his friend to tell our driver that we could do that in order to save him an extra trip he began to get angry. We said how thankful we were and tried to express we were sorry if he was upset with us. His friend was no longer of any help and our driver got even more upset and started to yell. As the situation escalated, we began to get a little worried and were glad that we had decided not to wait for him to take us the rest of the way. All of our experiences with Laotian culture up to this time had been of an easy-going and very relaxed nature. It came as a bit of a shock to see our driver get so animated and upset. We wished we knew more of the language (we only had 3 weeks) so we were left wondering what had gone so wrong. His friend also seemed surprised, but made a quick departure from the scene.
My hypothesis regarding the underlying cultural dynamics of the above situation is that even though at the time I felt we had made the smart and safe decision not to accept a further ride there may be other cultural factors at play, which could account for our driver’s angry response that I hadn’t previously considered. These may be due to a cultural need to protect or help out travellers and his anger developed out of frustration at our rude and inconsiderate behaviour for not accepting his generosity. As well as the belief that we were being foolish by wasting money hiring a vehicle we didn’t need and for which we would likely have to pay more for as foreigners.
Thank you for reading and any insights you have would be much appreciated,
Margaret-Anne