Written by Abby Kellett
Planning on going overseas? It may be crucial you know to let the host sit closest to the door at a meal in China or to use a knife and fork while eating fruit in Brazil. Maybe you plan to visit Germany. If so, and you decide to give flowers to a romantic interest, it may be even more crucial you know to never choose lilies; they are associated with funerals.
All these different etiquettes came to the attention of Gabby Marcellini nearly two years ago, inspiring the AMA (American Marketing Association) and MSAC (Multicultural Student Action Committee) International Etiquette Dinner Nov. 5th. Marcellini is a Spanish major minoring in leadership studies at Harding, and she headed a committee that founded the newest way to teach students just a few of the numerous cultural differences that exist in the world.
“I think it caught my interest when I went to China on a course trip two summers ago,” Marcellini said. “We kept making all these blunders, and so I guess, just with personal experience, I just wanted to help other people know that there are many differences out there.”
In the Heritage Center more than 30 people experienced something similar to Marcellini’s Chinese encounter. A variety of food, drinks and speakers represented five different countries: China, Brazil, Germany, India and the United States.
One of the speakers was quite literally international. Harding Bible professor Dr. Eddie Cloer, had his son-in-law currently living as a full-time missionary living just north of Delhi, call and record a speech about India’s culture for the dinner.
Other events that evening included a buffet featuring curry chicken to represent India, sweet and sour pork to represent China and white rice to represent the two countries as well. Roasted vegetables and pineapple were also served, which is a key side dish in Brazil. On the dessert menu: American cheesecake and German chocolate cake.
Marcellini’s idea for the dinner grew under the Multicultural Student Action Committee, but not much time passed before MSAC realized they needed quite a bit more help to pull off the event.
“I’m a Spanish major,” Marcellini said. “I’m also half Argentine, so I have the cultural background, but I don’t know anything about business at all. I don’t think I’ve ever even been in the Mabee building!”
MSAC teamed up with AMA in October to begin planning what would soon lead to a new way to host the Business Department’s etiquette dinner. Under the eye of Dr. Lori Sloan, the two groups submitted recipes to Aramark to begin preparing, and then they got to work on the guest list.
“AMA has been so helpful,” Marcellini said. “They ran all of the booths to get ticket sales for us, they were amazing with advertising, and the posters they made are beautiful. The people on the committee have been at every meeting, and they’ve been very punctual.”
The purpose of MSAC is to help educate the students on Harding’s campus about the richness that other cultures have to offer both American and international students.
“[The purpose of MSAC] is basically what I want out of this dinner: to help them learn the cultural dos and don’ts and to help them be respectful of other cultures and to realize that there are other ways of life other than our own.”
For more information on the organizations, visit the MSAC Faceebook group or contact AMA sponsor Lori Sloan in the Business Department.
