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Dealing with cultural misunderstandings

Knowing about the diversity of traditional and cultural backgrounds of guests will not automatically rule out misunderstandings.

Your beliefs, values and customs and those of the people around you have an important influence on the way you work, behave and communicate. Culture is an integral part of your everyday life.

To be culturally aware means:

having a basic knowledge of cultural differences of people
being aware of the traditional and religious beliefs of people
recognising typical misunderstandings and knowing how to effectively deal with them.

Possible misunderstandings
Offering alcohol to customers whose religion doesn't allow them to indulge can create a misunderstanding. Hotels that have mini bars in their rooms may be wise to remove alcoholic beverages from the room prior to the guests' arrival. If customers don't drink alcohol, for any reason, don't offer souvenirs like cork screws, wine pourers or others used for alcoholic beverages. This could apply to people of Muslim or Buddhist faith Jewish people don't eat shellfish or pork dishes. Don't suggest these menu items. Suggest only vegetarian dishes to Hindus. They'll feel uncomfortable if the majority of menu items are meat dishes. Prolonged eye contact with Asian guests creates a tense situation. They'll perceive you as rude and inquisitive. Regardless of nationality or ethnic background, don't address guests by first names, particularly Japanese, other Asian, and German guests. When first meeting Asian guests, never shake hands, bow slightly Jokes can create misunderstandings, usually because the guests didn't understand them. Keep them for your friends! Certain colours or numbers can be offensive to certain cultures. A room number could mean bad luck and your guest may refuse to be accommodated in that room. It's best to allocate them another room.

Possible misunderstandings

Offering alcohol to customers whose religion doesn't allow them to indulge can create a misunderstanding. Hotels that have mini bars in their rooms may be wise to remove alcoholic beverages from the room prior to the guests' arrival. If customers don't drink alcohol, for any reason, don't offer souvenirs like cork screws, wine pourers or others used for alcoholic beverages. This could apply to people of Muslim or Buddhist faith
Jewish people don't eat shellfish or pork dishes. Don't suggest these menu items.
Suggest only vegetarian dishes to Hindus. They'll feel uncomfortable if the majority of menu items are meat dishes.
Prolonged eye contact with Asian guests creates a tense situation. They'll perceive you as rude and inquisitive.
Regardless of nationality or ethnic background, don't address guests by first names, particularly Japanese, other Asian, and German guests.
When first meeting Asian guests, never shake hands, bow slightly
Jokes can create misunderstandings, usually because the guests didn't understand them. Keep them for your friends!
Certain colours or numbers can be offensive to certain cultures.
A room number could mean bad luck and your guest may refuse to be accommodated in that room. It's best to allocate them another room.

Misunderstandings in the workplace

Knowing about the diversity of traditional and cultural backgrounds of your colleagues will not automatically rule out misunderstandings. It will take time and effort to ensure a good workplace culture for successful teamwork.

Typical misunderstandings

English is not always your colleague's first language.
Religious beliefs of our colleagues can vary. This can influence food preferences, the way they dress, and when they can work.
People have different perspectives regarding problem solving.
There are many ways that people organise their work practices.
Stereotyping your colleagues by their background may occur eg all Australians say 'G'day'.
There may be contrasting ways in which people give simple instructions or directions to other colleagues.

Effective strategies

If an embarrassing situation does arise, establish what the problem is, then act to correct the difficulty as quickly as possible.

Basic rules for dealing with misunderstandings include:

sincerely apologise, respect the person's feelings.
don't give excuses. Guests aren't interested in what you can't do they want to know what you can do to rectify the problem.
learn by your mistakes. When an incident has occurred, remember the situation, work out what went wrong, ask colleagues and learn from it.
when very important persons (VIPs) are staying at your hotel, find out about their background, likes and dislikes.
talk to friends and colleagues from different cultures and of different religions to find out what offends and why.

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