Dealing with difference

Time and patience needed to overcome culture shock

While Andrew Gatera was on an internship with a Chinese construction company in Ghana last year, he sometimes wanted to laugh when interpreting for the Chinese and Ghanaians.

"I want to laugh, but instead I get frustrated when I see the two sides bang heads over tiny issues simply because they did not understand each other," he says. "The misunderstandings between the Chinese and Africans are mostly based on cultural differences."

Gatera is from Uganda and is finishing his bachelor's and master's degrees in Chinese at the Communication University of China in Beijing. He says that however much his university course taught him about the many cultural differences, he never experienced as much cultural shock as he did when working and living with a Chinese team in Ghana.

"But with that experience, I learned that culture shock is real and it needs an open mind, patience and tolerance to overcome it. So, I am glad I passed that test," he says.

For example, in the workplace, the Chinese tend to pay more attention to relationships - guanxi - and they do not like open conflict. So they use indirect ways to work out problems to avoid losing face - mianzi - or damaging guanxi, Gatera says.

On the other hand, Africans directly address problems and bring them out in the open. Many Africans, regardless of their position, tend to demand explanations and reasons from their bosses, he says.

"The Chinese take this one cultural difference as laziness, and showing a lack of culture and respect. Whereas the Africans see their counterparts as hypocrites who have no respect for their juniors or those they employ. So the lack of understanding around the cultures of guanxi and mianzi affects communication, it leads to mistrust and confusion between the two sides in a project."

When he started the second year of his master's degree program and was looking for somewhere to do an internship, there was a Chinese company with an information technology project in Ghana that needed an interpreter. He accepted the internship since the project was in Africa and he thought it offered a good environment for practicing his Chinese.

But he found that working on site with a large Chinese team was challenging. For safety reasons he was rarely allowed to go out after dark and the Chinese did not offer a post with clearly defined roles, so he handled clerical issues in addition to daily translation work.

He tried to leave twice but the person who hired him refused to let him go. Gatera was reminded that learning and understanding a different culture and work ethic was a long process.

"But after one month of analyzing the challenges, I decided to stay and learn from them," he says. "And eventually it turned out to be a precious experience.

Now I'm very happy and really grateful for the lessons learned from the team, and the support I received from my boss throughout and beyond my contract period."

Gatera's experience of studying in China has been different from that of other African students who receive enough financial support from both governments. He made the decision to come to China, using his own funds, at a huge cost to him and his family.

He used to work with one of the biggest telecom companies in Africa - Airtel - but found there was a surge in competition between companies. He began to analyze the economic environment around him.

"I remember when I was distributing the promotional ZTE phones at around $8 per piece, I started realizing China's manufacturing power. And thereafter, the idea of coming to China developed," he says.

He was meeting Chinese people on the streets in Uganda and got to know some small business owners and big investors. Media reports and personal experience made him realize there was a language barrier and cultural differences, so he saved money for a trip to China and a Chinese language course. He also sold his car to raise money.

His family had mixed feelings the first time he mentioned the Middle Kingdom.

"My family has always been supportive and believes in my decisions, but my father had a few questions initially. Luckily at the end, he was very understanding and I'm really very grateful to my family for all their support," he says.

He paid for his undergraduate study in China and then applied for a government scholarship for his master's program.

Although Gatera had met Chinese people in Uganda before starting his studies, he says he did not understand this big, faraway country until he arrived in China. Nor could he go beyond the stereotypes until he saw the place for himself.

"On my arrival in Beijing, I couldn't believe that those humble and hardworking Chinese men I had left back home were actually part of such a big modern city," he says. "I immediately realized that China was not just mountains at the Great Wall, kung fu or big villages full of factories and noodle restaurants as I had previously thought."

As time passed, and as he studied China's language and culture, he came to understand that China has a long history of over 5,000 years and very strong traditions.

He is currently finishing his master's degree thesis and looking forward to playing a role in Uganda's development.

However, he says finding jobs has never been easy, especially for new graduates, and for that reason he has to make the best of his language skills and China experience to get ahead. He strongly believes in the future relationship between China and Africa.

"With good China-Africa relations, project partnerships and high trade volumes on both sides, I plan to return home to use my China experience to find a niche. I'm also very happy to play an ambassadorial role between my country and China," he says.

lilianxing@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily Africa Weekly 04/24/2015 page29)