INTRODUCTORY NARRATION

Throughout Gunther's tenure, he had an insider's perspective of Indian corporate life, including
how coworkers collaborated, how they ate meals together, how they traveled for work, and how
managers addressed their employees. He got an inside perspective of the personal life as well as
the professional life since he lived with one of the workers' families, which is very distinct from
the everyday lives of Germans.

LANGUAGE ISSUES

Understanding the culture of the nation is the most important factor for good communication.
Culture offers a context for acceptable behavior, and variations in ideas must be acknowledged,
accepted, and appreciated before any genuine dialogue can occur. Gestures and speaking styles
may differ between your nation and Germany. Topics and gestures that you may consider typical
and acceptable may be considered taboo here. Such communication blunders may have a major
influence on the negotiating process's success. While Germany is a culturally conscious country,
they also have expectations of others when it comes to identifying their culture as an autonomous
state.

Since Gunther worked at a multi-national corporation, he did not face language barriers at the
workplace as everyone knew English and was well versed with the workings of a professional
relationship. However, whenever he had to look for transport or went to a restaurant, he would
find it difficult to converse with the driver and/or the waiter.

1. TIME MANAGEMENT

Germans like to start their day earlier, and their first appointment or phone contact might begin
as early as 8 a.m. Reasons might include reduced traffic in Germany and a desire to return home
early and have the opportunity to do activities other than work. Indians would begin their day
between 9.30 and 10.30 a.m. since that is when they would arrive at work and beat traffic. Prior
to that, Indians would prefer not to arrange any calls or appointments. Indians work evenings and
often respond to messages in the wee hours or have conferences over the weekends, which
Germans detest.

Gunther was up extremely early in the morning. Hence, he had to freshen up and wait for the rest
of the family to wake up. After which they started their day with a prayer. Following that, they
all ate breakfast together. Then they had a lengthy drive to the workplace in Chakan in very
congested and chaotic traffic. They nearly took an hour because of the congestion in this town.
They began working at 10 a.m. As a result, they had to depart our houses by 9 a.m.

Everyone was accustomed to the mayhem on the roads and the lengthy commuting hours, which
surprised him. In fact, he was taken aback when he discovered that his colleague commuted to
and from the workplace for two hours every day.

2. CROSS CULTURAL ASPECTS

During the lunch hour, everyone sat together and brought home cooked food. However,
everybody ate from everyone else's plate and split their lunch. He was first perplexed when
someone grabbed his sandwich and ate it, but he soon discovered the arrangement. During lunch,
the department head and the manager sat together, while the other coworkers ate in another
room. If someone from outside arrived for a meeting, they proceeded to a neighboring diner to
eat. The Sari was the institution's uniform policy.

If Germans do not agree with a business strategy, a concept, or the conference arrangements,
they will express their displeasure bluntly and without equivocation. This conduct will not be
well received by Indians. Even if Indians do not want to collaborate with you or do not agree
with your business concepts, they will be far more polite about it. If their opinions are
unfavorable, they will take their time to express them. As a result, Indians should not see
Germans as impolite when they express their opinions directly, and Germans should pause
before assuming what Indians feel about their proposal.

Everyone had their own assignment, and there was little teamwork. When someone had a
question, they could ask it, but the majority of the time everyone performed for themselves. As
he sat in the office with the two women who were the department's heads, he saw that they were
clearly treated differently. Everyone was courteous and only referred to them by their titles. The
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institution's supervisor is a guy who is widely regarded across the workplace, and he saw that
workers spoke to him in a very nice manner. Employees were also quite polite.

When he traveled to Lonavala, he lodged with some other office workers, and he had a different
life experience this time. There was no such thing as respect between them. They joked with one
other and addressed each other like friends, but they never discussed their private lives or
personal concerns.

3. DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED (Minimum 3 Difficulties and Maximum 5)

a. Understanding the caste system.
 They didn't even discuss their castes or religions, but when he brought it up, they
all recognized who was from a higher caste based on their names. When I asked
about the class system, they said it didn't exist anymore. He noticed something
odd as he had a personal talk with one of staff members about her wedding, and
she decided to tell him that she does not love the man she was forced to marry,
but the other individual she is truly in love with wasn't of her caste, making a
relationship or even wedding unimaginable.
b. Linguistic barrier.
c. Knowledge of the work at hand. There may be disagreements between two persons
about what precisely the work at hand is at times.
d. Experiences with long-term sustainability. The term "sustainability" has various
meanings in each of these three societies. For example, separating household garbage
might be a significant sustainable move for Indians, but Germans are currently doing
so. Likewise, renewable energy for Germans and Indians may vary significantly.
Every nation may encounter unique challenges. Being sustainable, for example, is a
problem that Indians face on a daily basis, but it is something that Germans are born
with.

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 4. HOW HE/SHE OVERCAME THEM?

A. To overcome the linguistic barrier, Gunther sought for Hindi lessons on Google. He went
to the courses four times a week to get a handle on it as quickly as practicable.
B. To minimize overload, it would be convenient to arrange afternoon/lunch appointments
and mid-week programs.
C. This is a situation in which one must be properly prepared. Germans are timely and may
be offended if they are forced to wait. Indians, on the other hand, are more patient and do
not mind waiting if the other individual is late for an appointment, and they want the
same patience if they are late. They really aren't attempting to offend anybody by being
late. Secondly, Germans arrange their calendars well in advance and seldom cancel
appointments, but Indians operate in a more flexible manner, arranging and rearranging
appointments even a day before the meeting. Therefore, if organizing a meeting with a
German, Indians should strive to arrange ahead of time, whereas Germans should be
more flexible to postponing when in India. Advice for Germans in India: Check in more
regularly to see if the conference is still on, for example, a day before the meeting. That is
beneficial. Indian tip: if a conference has been scheduled, don't anticipate or wait for
notifications. Put it in your schedule, journal, etc., otherwise you may find yourselves off
to a bad start.
D. In the years 967-1030, Al Biruni visited India. He viewed the class structure of India as
not exceptional in that social distinctions existed on other countries as well, thus he
supported the caste system. throwing light on this, even someone in those days agreed
that the idnian culture, like any other, is distinctive to itself. Gunther had to do the same
thing. He just had to accept that and move on from the fact that it is something peculiar to
the nation he is in.

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