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If we were to sit and count possible cultural misunderstandings between the USA and India, we’d understand that there is a vast chasm of diverse mindsets and values between us. In this blog, I’d like to explore a few of the common cultural differences between the US and India. I do have a bit of insight into this because in addition to having had lived in India (as a US expat) twice for 10 years, I have constantly been working and living between the US and India since the late 90s.

This article is only a start to spark this ongoing discussion. When we talk about working between cultures, it’s easy to look only for dos and don’ts, but we have to be careful not to take these as “the gospel.” While it may be easy to evolve some of these generalizations into stereotypes, this is exactly what we want to avoid. Minimizing any culture to a set of dos and don’ts robs of us the richness not only of our colleague’s cultures, but our own. So, while some of the common misunderstandings listed here could be typical, they are not hard and fast guidelines, as they may not be applicable to all colleagues from that culture. We can use some of these tips as a way to open the door to talk about cultural differences to learn more about each other, so we can learn to relate to each other in a way that is more authentic to how we and our colleagues are.

9 Tips for Expats Visiting India On Work
Onam Celebrations at Work in Kerala, India

Image – storyset at freepik (I added flags)