[Reader-list] Reverse Gear

[Praja Foundation]

Nice joke about cultural misconceptions
-yazad



One day I met a friend of mine. He was a salesman for a Cola company, 
posted in the Middle East. Seeing him back home, I got surprised and 
asked, "Weren't you supposed to be in Arabia ?" 
 
He gave his account thus. 
 
"I got posted in the Middle East. I was very confident that I would 
make a good sales pitch as Cola is virtually unknown there. But, I had a 
problem. I didn't know any Arabic. 
 
So, I planned to convey the message through pictures. I made 3 posters 
First, A man crawling through the hot desert sand.. totally exhausted 
and panting. Second, The man is drinking our Cola. Third, Our man is now 
totally refreshed." 
 
"Thats a very good ad", I said, "what can be a problem with that?" 
 
He replied, "Well, I didn't know Arabic, neither did I realize that 
Arabs read from right to left..."