Exercise# 8

You are going to watch and create a reflection on the film "Outsourced".

These questions will help you. If you miss watching the film in class, you may get a copy from the library and watch it at home. Here are some clips from "Outsourced"

http://www.outsourcedthemovie.com/Clips/ms_educlips.html

Cultural Dimensions in Outsourced

As you watch the film, answer the questions and write down any examples of different cultural dimensions. This will help you with your reflection.

Cultural Dimension	Character Todd, Puro, Aisha or other	Outsourced Scene or Circumstance
Low-context culture	Dave	Dave Office
High-context culture	Taxi Driver	Outside Airport
Individualism	Todd	Traveled Alone
Collectivism	Indians	Holi festival
Low power distance	Todd & Dave	Dave
High power distance	Puro & Todd	India Office
Uncertainty tolerance	Auntie Ji	Meeting Todd
Uncertainty avoidance	Todd	Auntie Js House
Task orientation	Todd	India Office
Social orientation	Puro	Giving Todd healthy food

1. As soon as they meet, Aunti Ji starts asking very intimate questions that
Americans who have just met would never ask. What kind of things does she ask?
Where does his father work and is he married or not

2 What doesn't Todd understand about the Indians' response to the "cattle brand"?

He was talking about it in an insensitive way without knowing how sensitive and holy cows are in India 

3. What is Todd's reaction to "You need to learn about India"? What stage of culture
shock might it represent?

He was shocked and didn’t understand why Aysha said that. High-context culture

4. He calls home several times. Why? What stage of culture shock might provoke
calls home?

Because he is homesick. 
5. What mistakes in language usage are represented in the recording of the call about
"a rubber"?

Rubber means eraser in English – British accent, as it doesn’t mean the same in the American English
6. Why is he so eager to go to McDonnells?

Because heve been having troubles with food since he arrived plus he’s homesick and craving for a meal that reminds him of home
7. Todd doesn't understand bargaining. How does the Indian respond to this?

 He thought that Todd is barging and started barging back immediately without even paying attention to whats Todd’s actually saying as it’s a very common habit in india 

8. When he gets on the train, he cannot find an empty seat. How is this problem
solved for him? How might this be a cultural solution?

 The young kid offered him his seat and then sat in his lap, because of the high population in india people are used to such a solution such as sharing seats, standing and squeezing in the train cabins.
9. As any exchange student, he has a lot of experiences trying new food. His first
encounter is with an iced drink. What happens?

He got stomach ache, and got sick because of the polluted water used in the iced drink
10. First encounters with a culture can be shocking – Todd sees crowded streets with
cows, noise, and a man urinating in the street. But how does his host describe the
city?
“Bombay is terrible, but here it’s very clean”