A Rather Odd Sub-Culture

On Friday evening I attended the Board of Director's meeting of the Rotary Club of Bangkok. This event was followed by dinner party for the membership of the club. The entire evening seemed to be one big exercise in intercultural communications because the membership of the club is made up of some 20 nationalities and the Board includes about 10 nationalities. Further, the event was held at the home of a past president of the club - an Indian gentleman who has lived in Thailand most of his life. So the dinner was Indian cuisine.

The Board meeting went on and on as different issues were discussed and re-discussed meanwhile various club members arrived as did guests and they were talking in the background. Eventually the evening just morphed into a dinner party.

What I found interesting was that while there were clearly different nationalities, ethnic groups, ages and genders represented - the event was marked more by the similarities within the group than the differences. It seemed that regardless of the nationality or ethnic group the members of the Board share the same style of communications in the formal board meeting setting as well as the same concerns. Thus, one could say that the meeting was not really an exercise in intercultural communications, but rather an example of communications within a particular sub-culture.