Monday, March 13, 2006

Jedi Mind Trick

It turns out that Ang Mohs have harnessed the power of the "Jedi Mind Trick". DS was telling me about the time he and his wife brought an Ang Moh out for some soya bean milk. D's wife ordered cold Soya bean milk for them but was informed by the auntie that they only serve hot ones so take it or leave it. The Ang Moh who was with them turned to the auntie and forcefully said "You will serve us cold soya bean milk". The auntie promptly complied.
Jokes aside... what does it take to get any decent service? Shesh... it takes an Ang Moh before you can get anything done.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's a funny story. I guess that's where us Ang Mo get our reputation from. I feel there's a culture of non-confrontation here in Asia and a more acceptable level of confrontation in the West. For Asians it's not appropriate to outwardly show emotion. When someone does they are taken aback. I'm not saying that either way is the best but the way we as foreigeners look at it is if you don't voice your mind then things never change. If someone complains then a good business person might decided to serve cold soya bean to its customers next time. Honestly one of the most stressful things for me as an Ang Mo in Asia is the lack of outward emotion. In the West we use facial expressions to make a snap decision about whether someone is friendly or not before approaching them. It's impossible to do that here because people walk around expressionless. Blank.

nephos said...

Confrontational borders on aggression and that ticks people off. It does have a negative impact on people as well resulting in them being uncooperative.
The problem with being animated or be emotional is that people have the impression that you are either crazy, not serious or unprofessional. Image and reputation are everything to Asians.