In Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 film Pulp Fiction Vincent Vega tells his partner Jules the funniest thing about Europe is the little differences.

“In Amsterdam, you can buy beer in a movie theatre. In Paris, you can buy beer at McDonald’s. Also, you know what they call a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in Paris?”
“What’d they call it?” Jules asks.
“Royale with Cheese.”
“What’d they call a Big Mac?”
“Big Mac’s a Big Mac, but they call it Le Big Mac.”

There’s more but with a limited amount of space I’d better stop here and explain why two hitmen in a Hollywood movie could teach us a thing or two about cultural differences and how we continue to get things so wrong.

I recently attended a local event where there was a fairly large contingent of international delegates, many of whom were from Asia, and many of whom exited, stage left, even before the entertainment had begun.

On our own travels we’ve all seen the “little differences” Vincent talks about. As Australians I would say that on the whole we particularly enjoy these differences. We might enjoy, for example, trying to use chopsticks in a restaurant in China even if we’ve never used them before. We’re probably more adventurous with what we eat, and we might try things out that we’ve never done before to get into the real spirit of our holiday experience.

But just because we’re like that doesn’t mean that other people from other countries are the same.

So there I was, standing at this event at around 8pm, listening to a great young entertainer who every Australian knew but who meant nothing to the invited international guests. These international VIPs had been busy all day and were tired. They weren’t big drinkers or wine buffs and so didn’t appear interested in tasting many of the wines on display. They woofed down the quite substantial finger food and then were happy to be on their way.

Apparently there was even one group of delegates who made arrangements to miss the event entirely and go and have dinner on their own.

That to me is another difference between us Aussies and many other nationalities. If we had been invited to attend an event that had been organised for us then we would go even if we really didn’t feel up to it. In many countries that really doesn’t seem to be the case.

This is by no means a criticism; it’s simply an observation, and is, in my opinion, one that should be taken into account when organising events for people from other parts of the world.

Coincidentally, in this edition we happen to include an article on running culturally diverse events (pages 30-1). With plenty of thought they can work wonderfully well. Without it, they could be a whole lot better.
Enjoy and until next time... Sayonara!

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