Outsourced (2006) is an American romantic comedy film directed by John Jeffcoat.

It all
started when a call center manager named Todd Anderson was outsourced and sent to India, has
experienced and discovered a lot of unfamiliar yet surprisingly interesting culture and practices.
It is a realistic approach that highlights the diversity of our culture like the portrayal of beliefs,
American versus Indian language, social classes, and adjustment of Todd in the film. As the film
continues, Todd was able to find comfort and understand Indian culture through the help of his
subordinates in his new workplace in India. The development of Todd throughout the film is a
message for cultural relativism.

The movie was relevant to our current lesson in Purposive Communication. The concept of
ethnocentrism is directly shown as Todd mention this statement to his co-workers, “Learn about
America”. It used Todd’s story to align or link the effect of cultural diversity on beliefs,
language, family, work, and economy. Todd, being an American has no background or a piece of
prior knowledge of Indian’s culture shown as he first landed in Bombay he had a culture-shock
from how the Indian’s system works like calling for a taxi to ride, catching up the train, and even
making a mistake of eating street food rendered by a sales talk. During that time, he was
fascinated by the Indian culture, as he was ignorant and lost throughout his first day at the place.
Another one is when Todd learned that Indians does not use their left hand when eating because
for Indians the left hand I considered as dirty.  I also saw in the film the difficulty of Indians in
speaking English and vice versa, because of their unique accent and different vocabulary. One
instance in the film is when Todd teaches his co-workers on how to pronounce Chicago in the
American way, and when Asha, one of the character, even said this, “But we are native English.
English is the official language of our government”. Ignoring the fact that the workers speaks
native English with a different accent. In this part, ethnocentrism is seen in where Todd told his
subordinates that they should only be the ones to learn English and just follow the American
way. Todd still lacks cultural flexibility as he only sees his own culture as superior to Indians.
Despite these events, Todd was able to learn little by little the different beliefs that the Indian
culture has like the Holi Festival, a celebration of color and changing of the season. This was the
time where he was able to accept the reality he has by participating and enjoying this colored-
powder celebration, and taking a bath in the river as a form of acceptance or cleansing his old
perspective of Indian culture to a new one.

Outsourced also reflects social issues, particularly poverty that creates many economic
downfalls. I believe that it showed the immense difference in developmental levels, both in
America and India. A scene from the film, when Todd was invited by a random Indian worker in
their house to return the kind gesture of Todd in giving meals to them secretly. It showed one
social issue in India, which is poverty. Todd was fascinated while he was walking in a small-
hallways that are surrounded by small houses that do not even have doors, and how cooking a
food works for them. I also felt fascinated and privileged like Todd because luckily, I was not
able to experience the hardships of these Indian families in the movie. It was seen how advance
is America when it comes to technology on appliances for cooking, even the call center itself
looks like a warehouse with old-style computer equipment. Nations that are advanced and well-
developed like America are more authorized or superiors. On the other hand, nations that are less
developed like India as portrayed in the movie, is more likely to be left behind from the growing
fast-economy, and powerless Thus, I believe communication systems are also influenced by this
issue as I noticed that high and low context was communication systems are shown. How Todd
can freely say whatever he wanted to say as the boss, but his Indian co-workers like Puru never
argued Todd despite he was scolded. This film shows how powerless one nation can be without
development in the global economy, which makes other ‘high class’ nation like Todd
overpowering his frame reference, but he finally let this behavior go as one of his co-worker,
Asha, told him “You need to learn about India”. It is an eye-opener on the importance of
listening and understanding other people’s perspectives or point-of-view. As soon as Todd took
seriously advice from an American guy, “Once I gave in, I did much better”, high and low
communication systems were never seen again in the film because Todd was able to learn to
adapt entirely to the differences through cultural pluralism. In our current situation, as a
community, we are also obliged to adapt to the new normal implemented by the government’s
protocols during the pandemic despite the many hindrances that our country has like poverty,
lack of budget, and special-treatment only for the authorized personnel.

           As soon as Todd was able to adapt, he was able to deeply understand the differences
between his culture and India. Despite the language barrier, social status and issues, and cultural
backgrounds, the movie evokes a lesson to educate viewers that cultural misunderstanding is
normal and there are solutions to address it. For example, in Todd’s situation, he accommodated
Indian culture by maintaining his own identity while adapting to establish relationships with his
co-workers. From having an interracial communication with his co-workers since Todd is an
American, and he was assigned to India down to having cultural pluralism wherein Todd respect
the uniqueness and natural accent of Indians when speaking in English. It brightened up my
experience in real life, having a group of friends with different backgrounds like our religion,
gender (male, female, and LGBTQ+ community), but despite these differences, we genuinely
respect each other. Outsourced is a must watch as it gives a deeper meaning of intercultural
communication. It is educative for viewers as it gives a new whole perspective on how an
individual should develop his ignorance in cultural diversity influenced by globalization. Also, it
keeps the audience interested as there is a progression or transition on Todd’s personality and
behavior as the plot continues.

           When moving to another country, except that it is completely a different world having
different cultures from yours.  These differences are influenced by a lot of phenomena like the
presence of ethnocentrism, high and low communication systems, and language barrier.
However, through an effective communication it can bring cultural relativism and pluralism. To
survive from a culture-shock, adaptability is the key.

Javier, Alysandra A.
BSN -1B
PURCOM