Life in a foreign country can be difficult. There are new foods, unexpected customs, new ways of speaking or even a new language, different ways of dressing and much more. Something that helps a great deal in such a situation is a friend from the new culture who can help you make the adjustment and introduce around.- The NIV Quiet Time Bible (Pg 526)
Sharing experiences:
A Chinese proverb says, 在家靠父母，岀門靠朋友 (zai jia kao fu mu, chu men kao peng you) It means: “It is your parents that you can rely on at home, but it is your friends that you can count on when out in the society.”
How true it is that when we come to a new country to work as an expatriate, surely a local friend who is quite influential in the local society is of great help to show us around the places where to eat and where to shop; what rules and what laws and orders we should observe and what things we should try to avoid. In fact, I feel that the sooner the better for us to get acquainted with more local friends but must be helpful, trustworthy and reliable. Better still if we have some old friends who came before us to guide us with useful tips and to share their experiences with us. Then even though we may be naïve and fresh to the new country, we won’t have to make the wrong move and get into unnecessary troubles.
There are many Malaysian planters working in various places in different provinces in Indonesia, from Sumatra to Kalimantan, and now some even in Sulawesi, Papua and Irian Jaya. I think most of us have gone through the language shock when we find out that the Bahasa Malaysia we speak at home is so much different from Bahasa Indonesia. I believe learning the cross-cultural knowledge and customs in Indonesia is very essential for any expatriate to maintain good and harmony working relationships with the local staff and workers. We certainly need our Indonesian friends and the old timers here to help us make the adjustment and quicken our adaptability in the new working environments here.
In another Chinese proverb, it is known as 入乡随俗 (rù xiāng suí sú ) :“Follow the local custom when you go to a foreign place” or “In Rome do as the Romans do.” As expatriates working abroad, we need our local friends to point out to us that it is in the best interest to learn how to be tolerant and observe the culture of the home country with respect and with some degree of sensibility. Undoubtedly, it takes time and effort to develop cross-culture communication when we first come into interacting with local managers, executives, colleagues and co-workers, bearing in mind that the most effective communication should be two-way. We need to learn from our local friends how to value and enjoy our differences in backgrounds, races, religions, languages, tradition, customs and culture, and then we are able to focus on what we have in common in the context of teamwork and good management practices.
