Is Bullying an essential part of maintaining cultures that put a high importance on hierarchies, saving face and respecting 'powers that be'? - Is it bullying? Perhaps it's just something cultural that should be off limits for discussion?
Every year we see horrific pictures and hear horrendous stories of how young people are abused, tortured and sometimes even killed during their orientation weeks. It seems that each year, those who were once the 'receivers' turn the heat up for the next generation coming in under them, creating a perpetual culture of teaching people to submit and stay in their place. What about in the workplace? Schools? Families? ... Online?
In this episode of South by Southeast (#SXSE), Wimintra and Stuart discuss the issue of bullying through a cultural and practical perspective and look at ways to not get drawn down into the 'bullying' trenches. #thaiculture #bullying #cyberbully
The first step to reducing 'bullying' is through bring a degree of mutual understanding and empathy in from all sides. This is part of the reason why I put my cross cultural training together the way I do, as well as how I've covered a broad range of topics in my Cracking Thai Fundamentals programme and Thai Bites series that go way beyond just language and a list of 'do's' and 'don'ts'. It's important to realise the dynamics that are actually in play both in personal life and in the workplace - only then can you start to steer away from it.
The links that were used in the clip can be found here:
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