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Chapter 1. Who is this book for?
Chapter 2. Who are you here?
Chapter 3. Basics of communication
Chapter 4. Employment
Chapter 5 Running your own business
Chapter 6. Self-employment and horizontal communication
Chapter 7. If you want “just to live in Asia”
Chapter 8. Miscellaneous advice
Afterword
Every book has its reader. It doesn’t matter whether the author was aiming at them in the first place or whether some specific type of people becomes the recipients of the writer’s message, but every book has its niche. It’s different with this book. Anyone who can imagine for a moment that they are going to live in Asia for a considerable amount of time might get interested in this book, and it will be helpful.
When you think of living somewhere else, you inevitably think about the money you need. Well, if you’re not some kind of a beneficiary enjoying your life with no need for working hard to earn daily bread. I think it is clear for everyone now that we’re going to talk about Asia. It’s the part of the world that, in fact, is a parallel universe for “westerners”. Why do I call it so? Come here and stay for a few years, you will have your own perfect idea of everything, if only you’re not too lazy to analyze things. I label Asia like this because Southeast Asian countries have a very long history of social development, and, until quite recently, all of them were closed for any mutual interference of not only the “western” culture, but, mostly, the neighbouring cultures as well. Believe me, underneath this thin ice of familiarity on the surface that seemingly resembles of our culture concepts, there is an ancient civilization with thousands years behind. “Western values” are a parallel universe for this civilization too. Despite the cross-cultural interaction of our worlds, it doesn’t go any further than the economic cooperation yet. But even this kind of cooperation only concerns macroeconomics without deeper effect. These days the universe of SEA, with its unimaginable pace of economic development, becomes more attractive for individuals who, due to different reasons, try to build their life and career there, or, at least, have started to seriously consider it. There are many people like this, but they can be easily divided in a few categories.
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Another very important thing is that you can’t be real friends with your boss or your subordinate employee. It doesn’t conform to local hierarchical models so it doesn’t exist. Well, it can exist just for show, in order to take advantage of this behaviour pattern (because you are a resource). Please do remember, if someone has much higher or much lower job position than you do, or they are much older or younger than you are, or they have different marital status, don’t even dream about sincere informal communication and friendship on equal terms. You will never have it from “the opposite side”. If you are the one who has a “higher position” you won’t be rejected out of pure politeness but they will try to take advantage of you in any possible way. If you are “lower” it’s much worse because they’re going to manipulate you. Some exceptions are possible in romantic relationships, but I guess I might be mistaken because I don’t have such experience. My personal observations rather indicate that even love affairs here should be subject to “civilization of status” rules.
There is one more aspect you should be aware about. Foreigners often feel perplexed and even offended because of not knowing it. Traditionally, Asians never say a firm “no”. When during the conversation you hear “yes” from time to time it doesn’t necessarily mean that they agree with you. It just means they are listening. Never rely on such “yes” even if it seemed very definite to you. Any “yes” from an Asian person is, first of all, a sign of politeness and attention. It’s neither consent nor a decision. Don’t ever forget that.
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