East, West and the Grand Rajah

Mar 6, 2008 @ 0:20 By 16 Comments

One of my best friends and a colleague is Rajkumar Boaz Johnson. I call him the “Rajah” which means “king”, “Raj” means “prince” and “Kumar” means “son.” Boaz is from India and we talk almost every day about our academic work, our school, our department, our families and much about life in general. (He teaches Old Testament, which I don’t hold against him but it does put limits on things.) I told a story about his wonderful wife, Sarita, in Jesus Creed and we get together as couples as often as we can. And Boaz will be flying off to India this week because his father, an aged man, has taken a turn toward glory. Anyway…
I read this piece in the IHT yesterday morning and got to talk to Boaz about communication styles. The article is not insensitive to stereotypes but knows there are differences that multiculturalism is seeking to illuminate. Sometimes … how should I put this? … well, sometimes, we aren’t tracking. So, the piece about how East and West talks about how we see a picture and how brains work and how culture shapes what we see … all this put things together for us and we chatted and laughed about one another and how we communicate at times.
Here’s an example: when Boaz reports to me about a meeting or an event he can talk and talk and I get more and more impatient and then all of a sudden I’ll say, “Rajah, what was the decision?!” (Argh.) “Oh, Scot, everything turned out great.” Well, I think to myself, why in the world didn’t you just say that? It’s because, as he would put it, he’s East and I’m West (and I’m probably more West than most). I think linear-ly and focus on the logic and the big idea; Boaz doesn’t focus as I do — he paints hues and corners and background of what happened and, doggonit, he might just start with a minor character or an unimportant detail or something rather tangential. Not me — I get right to the point. Which means I don’t give hues and colors and background and atmosphere.
So yesterday we chatted about this and I know we made progress in our communication styles and next time when he asks me what happened … you watch … I’m going to paint something odd and unusual and see if he doesn’t say back to me, “Scot, wow, now I see what happened.” If he says, “What was the decision?,” I’ll say back, “Don’t rush me, Grand Rajah.”
We have to be exceedingly careful about stereotyping folks from East and West, but scientific studies that show Western individualism contrasts with Eastern non-individualism are hardly something new… but just wondering what you are thinking. Experiences like this?

Filed Under: Education 16 Comments
About Scot McKnight

Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. McKnight, author of more than thirty books, is the Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL.

  • http://qbsblog.wordpress.com qb

    LOL!
    That’s the way I get a lot of arguments started with my wife…she elaborates on meetings she had with this person or that, what they talked about, what the conversation was like, and meanwhile, I’m on the edge of my seat waiting for the payoff. When it doesn’t come, I say to her (frustratedly, with gesticulations out the wazoo), “and the outcome was…?” It sends her into orbit – destination Venus, natch – every time.
    But why can’t people just get to the point? They can fill in the colors and textures and shadows afterward, but a good topic sentence oughta tell ya where it’s all headed.
    Laughing,
    qb

  • http://www.reclinerramblings.blogspot.com Michael Cline

    I appreciate your reminder about not stereotyping “east” vs “west” as if the categories are static. There are differences of course, but I always cringe when I hear someone pronounce “Western people are individualistic…Eastern people are collective,” which may be true on some fronts, but certainly needs more unpacking.
    Your post has triggered thoughts in my mind this morning about how many of this typical differences may be changing due to industrial and technological advances in many eastern countries. Generation by generation, I’m wondering if the gap is closing, and maybe not for the better.

  • http://beyondwordsworth.com Beyond Words

    This explains a lot. Two of my closest friends are from India. Maybe we’re so close because we indulge each other by talking for hours, never worrying about getting to the point.

  • Harvey

    I’ve had the opportunity to work with many international students over the years. In an attempt (far from finished yet!!) to understand their cultural/social/religious background better I’ve been helped by scholars such as Jerome Neyrey, Bruce Malina, David Augsburger et. als. They offer insights into a topic that I think is related to communication style differences: shame and honor. While all cultures exhibit guilt/innocence, shame/honor, anxiety/security (pain/pleasure?) characteristics, some exibit one to a greater extent then others. If the New Testament was written from within a dominate shame/honor culture, Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount becomes might seem more radical than we realize.

  • http://homewardbound-cb.blogspot.com/ ChrisB

    I work with a lot of Easterers; I’ll have to keep tht in mind.
    It’s worth remembering that the Bible was written by Easterners.

  • http://www.xanga.com/sherylshearer sheryl

    I’d love to hear that last conversation Scot!
    Michael #2- have you read the book “Namesake”? There is a movie version of the book, but skip it and read the book if you haven’t. The author is an Indian woman. She describes the closing of the gap between the East and West with the generations. I’m not sure they would agree that the closing is a good thing, some maybe.
    Scot, I love topics like these! As Beyond Words #3 writes, maybe it’s more than just East/West. There is some fluidity to our differences. We do want to avoid stereotypes (something I detest), but generally speaking, people from the East/West cultures do share similar characteristics.
    I don’t think we notice our differences until we interact with someone from another culture, like you and Raj. Having just moved from Hawaii and interacting with a lot of Asians and Pacific Islanders, honor/shame, extended family, and community are huge for them. For us, not so much. Being sensitive and knowledgable of their culture changed how I communicated and interacted with them. Where I notice differences are their second and third generations that have been raised in Western culture–they share both cultures. You really have to be on your toes when interacting with them. The last thing I want to do is offend them.
    I agree with Harvey #4. I think about this when I/we read the NT. Malina and the social-scientific scholars have brought this to light and I think it’s an important issue. People from group-oriented cultures read the NT differently than individualistic Westerners. I think they get what Jesus and the NT communities said better than us, simply because they share the same starting point. We miss so many things because of our individualism.

  • Jamie Hollis

    I am a very much “get to the point” kind of person when I communicate. I also live with Asperger’s Syndrome (on the autistic spectrum) so extra words actually make me quite tired and irritable. When in Central Asia I think the language barrier and the fact that I don’t understand every single word helps me there. I have to really focus and the more words they use the more likely I will understand what they’re telling me. From my experiences in Kyrgyzstan most people on the street are rather to the point and abrupt, but if it is a one on one situation, not with a stranger then the focus is relational, instead of time based, and so the more dialogue the better. Here in the states we have a tendency to check our watch a bit much which I definitely think is related to the “get to the point” tendency.

  • http://www.jesustheradicalpastor.com John W Frye

    Scot,
    Richard E. Nesbitt of U of M has a book *The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently… and Why* (Free Press: 2003). It is an astounding read. For example, in the West we begin as children by identifying objects–dog, mama, cat, tree, etc. Asians begin with verbs–speaking, walking, seeing, etc. This shapes a very different way of processing reality. Westerners are put off by this because we’ve been hijacked by the Enlightenment. We are arrogant enough to presume we have the only RIGHT way of processing reality.
    Your conversations with Raj are a case in point.

  • http://www.jesustheradicalpastor.com John W Frye

    Scot,
    Oops, it is Nisbett, not Nesbitt. :(

  • Jamie Hollis

    I read Geography of Thought also-quite good.

  • ESmith

    I’m wondering if this doesn’t also contribute to why you’re an NT scholar and your friend is an OT scholar. I find that I don’t really like reading Paul (although I value it as scripture) because he is so linear in his writing. I greatly prefer reading OT narrative with all its backtrack and overlap and its shading and filling in of colors, etc. I also think much of OT source criticism comes from forcing inherently non-linear literature into a mold of Enlightenment linearism. M. Douglas did good work on this in *Leviticus as Literature* (Oxford, 1999).

  • http://www.jesustheradicalpastor.blogspot.com John Frye

    ESmith (#11),
    What a great question!

  • http://www.xanga.com/ps29v11 Shlomo ben Yaakov

    B”H
    Hey Scot,
    I remember Boaz and his family from the days when he was the Rabbi of B’nai Maccabim in Highland Park. I’m glad to hear that he is still in the area, but a little sad to learn of his father’s ill health. The nature of your comment is a little unclear as to whether his father has passed or is just about to. Either way, I pray that the LORD would be with him as he travels and comfort his entire family during this difficult time.
    Shlomo

  • kent

    Lewis Smedes once said that his wife was constitutionally incabable of telling a short story, that she told as full length novel everytime

  • ESmith

    John (#12),
    Thanks for the positive feedback. I have never posted before so even your quick comment was helpful and affirming.

  • http://xanga.com/papua2001mk Kacie

    Well, this was interesting! I thought about how it related to the culture I absorbed while growing up in Indonesia, and I would say that one of the big differences that sticks out to me is how to debate. As you can see on this blog, Americans (and Brits) love a good discussion. Sometimes things get intense, but that is part of the fun.
    This does NOT go down the same way in Indonesia. If you disagree with someone you do not state this directly, or you have personally insulted them. Disagreement is expressed very subtely, and frustration is never expressed with anger or raised tones, but rather with laughter and irony. This is a big deal when preachers come over from the US, because one can teach or preach, but personal discussions MUST be very different and much more gentle if you’re going to communicate effectively with Indonesians.