Apparently Indians don’t get sexual harassment training at IIT. The Washington Times reports on this growing public concern:
For example, we have many Indians who say, “Can I make a move?” when they mean they would like to take leave of someone. But if that is uttered in the US, to a lady, it could be taken for a sexual request,” says Dholakia.
That’s not funny. When I use that line women usually just walk away from me. I have always wondered why.
Savitha Nayak and Sunil Dholakia, who train employees of multinational corporations in soft skills such as dealing with conflict, negotiating and communicating, say they have added the basic dos and don’ts of interacting with the opposite sex to their curriculum.
Someone sign me up.
I hope they teach them to say “May I bust a move” instead, since I was always a fan of MC Young (He went to my high school just 2 or 3 years ahead of me)
The funny thing is that if they simply say, “I gotta move on” that’s OK, but saying “can I make a move” leads people to a very different conclusion. Part of it is “moving on” versus “making a move”, but part of it is also asking for permission …