Tip 123: Understanding cultural norms

Speaking the language of a country, do not necessarily mean you would have learnt all the cultural norms pertaining to common lifestyles of the people. This include how ordering tea could differ. It was a fairly hot day in Hong Kong and a tiring one after carrying Haruka around, so I ordered iced chinese tea at a coffee shop. Chinese from Malaysia would relate to this habit since its pretty common to have chinese tea with ice in a hot weather. The waiter frowned and asked me in Cantonese if I wanted iced lemon tea instead. I said, "no, I would like chinese tea with ice." The waiter then begin to get irritated so I relented to stick to the cultural norm, and said hot chinese tea please. This Chinese cultural norm stems from the belief that brewed tea leaves in hot water would lose their antioxidants when chilled. This in fact is proven, but it seems that chilling hot brewed tea is still more healthy than the cultural norm of conveniently buying a cold can/bottle of processed tea from a vending machine. If in Japan, carrying a bottle from home daily would seem silly since you can conveniently buy a drink from a vending machine at any corner of the street or office. Breaking such cultural norms leaves the impression of being less sophisticated. Same goes to deciding how you want your tea served in England. It would be polite to be decisive and eloquently specify whether one prefers Earl Grey as opposed to English Breakfast, as well as the number of sugar cubes and teaspoons of milk you would have in your tea. Hence, why James Bond looks sophisticated by decisively choosing to have his martini shaken, not stirred. I am sure a Malaysian looks sophisticated in front of a foreigner at the mamak when ordering Teh O kosong (no milk, no sugar), Teh O ais (no milk, cold tea with sugar), Teh O ais limau (lime tea - not lemon!), Teh See (Tea no sugar but evaporated milk). Now, let's have a movie where James Bond orders at a Malaysian mamak stall.

This does not stop there. Match the following combinations of breakfast to the right citizenship and see if you get it wrong, the guest would feel offended. (Rice, miso soup, natou, green tea), (Fish ball noodles, milk tea in a glass), (toast, cup of tea), (naan/roti canai, curry), (porridge, hot chinese tea). It would definitely not make sense to a British for having curry during breakfast since it is a food reserved for lunch or dinner, or to a Korean for having porridge when one is not sick. Does following these cultural norms make for more pleasant conversations and better acceptance? As subtle as these examples sound, they could mean something to different people. If we are getting more mindful that we should not serve Muslims pork, then these subtleties count in the coming global age. Paying an extra attention can gain favor and less frowns. I look back to a breakfast interview I had a long while ago with a Vice President of a company at the executive lounge of a hotel. My interviewer filled his cup of coffee, while I conveniently took a glass of orange juice and somehow I could feel later that it would have been more pleasant at this important first meeting to have similar matching cups at the table where we would be spending an hour of close discussion.

Any other ways to order tea? Any other peculiar breakfast habits of countries you have visited? Do enlighten everyone by leaving a comment. I have also compiled a list of blogposts from my blog on Japanese cultural norms.

(Photos show my first week in Hong Kong with my family at the Hong Kong Zoo overlooking the Hong Kong skyline and the cheapest bowl of prawn wonton noodle that I found at Wanchai during breakfast priced at HKD11 or USD1.40)