 I just got one question. Yeah. Why this Kodavari D? Why does this Kodavari D? Yeah, I mean just that's... You know what I think the answer is? He told the question. I think the answer might be... Bernard. I'm a little bit late on that in any trend. Hey! Hey, welcome back to our Student Directions Deed. It's Abkorba. I'm Rick. Instagram, Twitter, Ah! It is so cheesy.�� It's a little informational video. It's called eight things you should never do public in India, intercourse, or I guess you could. I don't have a problem with it. You've been there so I'm assuming this is probably gonna have like a lot of like PDA and probably that so you've been like with Andrani out what would you say it would be in this list? Well it depends on where you are because I know in there's not one general thing. No yeah I know like for example in I asked her before my first trip to Kolkata or Kolkata I had asked her like when I showed up at the airport it was really cute I saw her for the first time and I said to her I said can I give you a kiss and she got up on her toes and gave me a quick little kiss but that was really that's really all you can get away with as far as PDA. Even as a foreigner? Yeah I think she's like I remember we were walking down the street. Fuck out of my wife. We were walking down the street in Kolkata after having eaten and I was filming this was on one of my videos and we were holding hands and then at the end of the video I gave her a kiss. The number of comments I got from people who said don't do that in our city that is so inappropriate we don't want to see that was astonishing. In Mumbai nobody cared. Yeah so I'm guessing it's gonna be stuff like that. If I'm ever in India with my wife you can shut the fuck up. Same thing with the tire there's things that Andrani can wear in Mumbai and not get looks but in Kolkata she'll get looks. Same thing in Delhi. I guess someone wants to watch prime video right now. Sorry I don't know why that changed guys but here we go. You have a ghost? I think so. There we go. I've already been. That was a silly question. Keeping in line the country's diversity in terms of culture and food loads of people flock to India every year. Just a white person narrating this. Because the country travels to everyone from luxury travelers to backpackers to people looking for spiritual solace. Even though India is ideal for your much needed getaway you might experience a cultural shock especially if you're a Westerner. Don't drink the water. But you're prone to making some cultural. Don't do that publicly. Now the good news is that Indians are forgiving towards foreigners but a little knowledge about the norms would save you unnecessary embarrassment. Number one don't be offended by intrusive things. That's accurate. We experienced it. Or not just verbalized but when you're looked at. Income, relationship. And even just this look all the time. Are not intended to offend you but are the Indian way of bonding. Inquiries about your income, job, or family matters may be seen as intrusive to the west but for Indians these are random conversations. That's back here. You can ask as free as you want to answering them. You can lie or give a vague answer. Don't lie. Always lie. But don't be offended. That just wasn't their intention. Number two don't strike a religious or political. No! That's true. That should have been number one. But I guess that's true here as well. Yeah but. Yeah I guess it is a little different. All my stars. Yeah a little different. Yeah. We'll mention that. They're almost connected. Yeah. We'll mention why I think it's even more with that. You bet. Indians have a opinion. And if you're not Indian. You don't need to stick your nose in that. Yeah. And while a lot of them would be open for debate. But you might receive heavy propaganda from some people when you beg to differ. Number three don't address elders by their name. All right now this is going to be a real cultural shock for the Westerners who have been addressing elders by their name. You do not do that in India. Any attempt from your side to keep your Western way of addressing elders by their first name will be met with a disgusted look if you're lucky or may even get you beaten up black and blue. The last bit was a bit of a stretch. But ask Indian kids. It holds true for them though. Anyway the point is such a way of addressing is seen as insulting. And even though this isn't your intent you will be punished for it. A better alternative would be to use sir ma'am or add a G after their name to stay on the safe side. Number four don't display affection publicly. This does not apply to big cities. Stop me. It doesn't see it doesn't apply to big cities. And voila. You have officially opened yourself for some bashing. India is a lot more. You guys come in LA you're gonna be astonished at what you see. For an occasion in the streets. It will earn you a lot more disgusted looks. Though the country is gradually opening up to this most people are not comfortable. Yeah I think we talk to people in Mumbai and how different it is. Even from Delhi. Delhi to Mumbai. Even though they're both big cities and it's not really the ones you have to worry about. Number five don't question anyone's sexuality. India is more or less homophobic. Which never lets people come out of the closet. If you find two guys holding hands. People will differ from that. But I understand what they're saying. Will you ask them about their relationship with each other. Calling someone gay is seen more like an insult than a general inquiry. That's an insult here. Community, think what's before you make your deviant sexuality evident in the country. Because you may not receive the same respect. It depends on where you are. Again. Had you not revealed your true self. It all depends on where you are. The LGBTQ community is a personal choice. But it is still a taboo in India. It's a long fight before acceptance seats in. You know what. I think you told me something about this when we were there. Yeah there's certain certain things. The level. Yeah. I remember the kid came up to our window. Yeah. The level of persistence. It was nice to have Indrani with me because she doesn't take anything from anybody. She was like. But they're beyond aggressive. Oh yeah. Especially come into here. Yeah. Here you just get verbal barrages from a distance. Yeah. Probably good actors. But if you really want to do something for them, hand them some food. But money is a complete no-no. Number seven. Don't expect everyone to speak English. If you're planning to jet off to India, you probably know that. You should expect anybody anywhere to speak English. No. Even in America. And the dialects vary from place to place. Most Americans are shocked that as many Indians speak English as they do. Second most English speaking nation. Yeah. But a lot of Americans don't realize how many Indians speak English. I don't think Americans expect Indians to speak English. Yeah. Conversing would be a problem. Well, so don't expect one universal language to out India. That's a ton. Hey, we've been there. Yeah. Learning some words of their language will make them respect their culture, provide them with more learning, and then using curse words in their language. That's just what I remember you saying. Number eight. Don't think about beef. That depends on where you are. In South, you're feeding the South or if you're in Kolkata, it's not a big deal. Yeah. It depends on where you are. It's more of a Hindu thing, right? Yeah. Yeah. Once again, there's no universal thing. There's over 200 million Muslims. Yeah. Depending on where you go. Depending on where you're going. I think we're Indian. I think we're Indian now. But in case you do find this delicacy, check it out. Because we're like, no, that's not true. Like, we know, like, we've been in it now. We're like, yeah, like, no, no, that's not true. What film is that? What was that? Yeah, what film is that? That was a weird clip to have in there. Yeah, so some of them were very accurate. Some of them were accurate depending on where you are. And I think I was almost understood what they were saying about the LGBTQ, but also they made some misstatements there as well. Because obviously gay marriage is still not legal in India. And it just became decriminalized not too long ago, even though they have a long history and it probably came from the British in terms of the current view of it. Yeah. And I'm glad you pointed out the wording they put there because it's still really prevalent around the world. It's like, so, Courtney, when did you choose to be heterosexual? Yeah, it was when I was three. You knew you had all the options on your plate. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so what made you choose to be heterosexual? Well, I came out as straight when I was 12. Okay. Yeah. But prior to that, you attracted the boy. It was a shock to my parents. Was it? Yeah. But then my brother was the game. News alert, somebody who's attracted to the same gender, that's an attraction. It's not a selection. In the same way that some people like the taste of mustard over ketchup, they didn't make the choice to do it. It's just that's their natural inclination toward that thing. I think what they were saying is, since obviously it's still taboo, especially the older generations, some of them, and the fact that it's still not legal in terms of marriage. And it depends, again, where you are. Of course. And then the political part. We know that. We know that. But here's the thing where there's a difference in the two. So in American politics, I have found when Indians wanted to talk like during the election, when Indians wanted to talk about what's going on in American politics, for me, even if they were in a position where it's opposite or even now, if they say something that's in opposition to what I feel, I like the engagement and I like talking about it. And I'm actually impressed when they know a lot about American politics and they want to talk about American politics. I have found the opposite to be true. That if you talk to an Indian about Indian politics, they will tell you, shut your mouth, you're not Indian. That's true. Yeah. So that's, that's accurate. But they also, they will say that about a lot of things, about movies, about almost anything that if you disagree on, it's almost like shut up. You don't live here. It happens with movies and all that videos, music, all that kind of stuff, but it always happens with politics. Yeah. You will like, just you will all the time. Yeah. And it doesn't even have to be, I mean, the most obvious is anything that's Indian or American, but even if it's an international story, it begins to hinge upon the rights of India in some way. Yeah. And you're not Indian. At least that's been my, that's what I've gotten from folks is don't talk about that. You're not Indian. Yeah. Yeah. I've gotten that as well. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, I think most of it was, I think some of it was, I don't know that that's how I would have said it, but obviously a lot of it was. Most of it, that's pretty accurate. I would like to know what you do call like elders and obviously depends on the elder. Do you just call, I mean, it's not very difficult for me because I come from the South and so anybody older, I usually call sir or ma'am. Me too. And then it's just, it's a common courtesy thing here of respect. Yeah. Southern, especially in the South, because obviously manners are ingrained if you are come from the South. I mean, other places as well, but especially the South, they really care about manners. Yeah. Thank you, sir, ma'am. One of the differences though is that in both the new menolas in Hindi as well as in Bengali, and it's probably true in the majority of the Indian languages that it's inherently part of the language to have your words and sentences altered based on respect for elders or the way you talk to someone younger than you. All of, there's different words and even the way you choose words in a sentence, like if you were to say to somebody, this is just an example off about my head. If you were to say, this bowl of soup is for him, if it was for your little brother, it would be said one way. If it was for your twin brother, it'd be said another way. If it was for grandpa, it would be said another way. In English, we would translate it, this is for him. Yeah. But in Bengali or Hindi, it's going to be changed dramatically to offer the respect to whomever it is. Even if it's a group, if it's a group of elders, they, that they sentence will be different to show the respect to them. So I think the whole, even the thing of like it's anticipated if you're with someone that's elder and you go to their house, the touching of the feet, things of that nature where, but I think I don't agree with what they said there in that regard. My experience has been that whenever you do something like that, like when we were first learning what that Zikir Hussain was. Most Indians were incredibly gracious about, by the way, you fucking asshole. But I think, I think there's a lot of grace that if you were to show up, for example, at the house and grandpa was there, they're pretty gracious. And they said, this is my grandpa and you said his name, they would probably tell you privately, by the way, you don't know this, you're not going to like shame you right there. No, no, no. Yeah, it made it seem like if you call him that you're ousted from the country. No, not at all. Not at all. It's not the vibe I get. But obviously you need to be conscious of the culture and how much respect they'd give to elders. Yeah, for sure. And the other aspects too. Yeah, for sure. So overall, I think good video. If seeing the information was incorrect, blame the video, not us. We didn't make this video and being gay is not a choice. Thank you so much.