Malayalee By Choice - Foreigners at Home In Kerala
Excerpt from Malayali By Choice by Sujit Chandra Kumar
Jennifer Kumar who is from Rochester in the US but with her roots in Hungary, now runs her own firm called Authentic Journeys, with an office in Infopark, Kakkanad. An executive coach, she specialises in cross-cultural training. Her first Indian stint was in Chennai when she came down to do a course in social work in that city. Later, she moved to Kochi after getting married to Krishna Kumar, a Malayali from Mattancherry.
She describes Kerala as a ‘good place’ but hastens to add that it takes some effort to get adjusted to any new place. Jennifer likes spicy dishes, so food is not a problem.
She admits that Malayalam is tough to master but what she finds more difficult to understand is the thinking behind the words. “Suppose you are having a meeting with someone. In America, people would not normally interrupt. Here it is done freely which takes time adjusting to.
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