Recess Week: Evaluating Intercultural Behaviours

The world today is characterized by an ever growing number of contacts resulting in communication between people with different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. This communication takes place because of contacts within the areas of business, education, entertainment, tourism but also because of immigration brought about by labor shortage or political conflicts.

In all these contacts, there is communication which needs to be as constructive as possible, without misunderstandings and breakdowns. It is our belief that research on the nature of linguistic and cultural similarities and differences can play a positive and constructive role.

I still remember this incident which happened while I was working in some high-end boutiques where I managed to meet lots of tourist coming from different countries. Somehow, i have difficulty communicating with them especially those customers come from Japan and Korea. I need to make lots of hand signals to them so that they know how to claim their tax refund in the airport. I did tried once before. I had been explaining to one of my customers, a Japanese lady, for sometime on how to go about the tax refund, but she still don't quite understand, till i draw out the picture of the airport.

Moreover, there are two groups of customers who will keep asking for discount, they are people from China and India. While they asking for discount, they will speak very loudly. Some of them even demand for a discount. If asking discount of items failed, they will ask for free gifts. They are one group of customers who are hard to entertain. They can just come in and complain about how bad is this bag or that, and just walk off.

However, people who come from USA, Europe and Austraila, they are very friendly and easy-going when purchasing things. Smile will just spread across their faces while they shop and purchase items till they step out of the store. Sometimes, we can even have some small chats with them.

I believe that language is a survival tool that facilitates our adjustment to our surroundings. Different people who come from different country will portray themselves differently. For example, if one Singaporean went overseas, the "kiasu" attitude will be shown out too.

Humans display universal behaviors regardless of their race or cultural heritage. Moreover, parochial behaviors are bound to particular cultures. Thus, human behavior is the result of inherited pre-programmed behavior, and learned behavior from our social and physical environments. It should be no surprise that the interaction of diverse parochial behaviors may lead to misunderstanding or even conflict. From the insights gained in the view of universal and parochial behavior, some practical communication techniques, that enhance and create effective intercultural communication, were used.

Some examples that illustrate parochial language reflects the type of adaptation necessary for survival in the physical and social surroundings of each culture:

- English people: When they speak, they will continually use the words please and thank you in their conversations, and often avoid direct statements. Thus English language and behavior tends to be periphrastic to avoid offending or alienating the other person.

- Japanese: They can speak to another using a selection of many different address forms to indicate explicitly any one of a whole range of relationships - for example: intimate, familiar, polite, authoritative. This illustrates the hierarchy and ceremony of interpersonal relationships in the society.

An analysis of how well prepared are NUS students for the workforce

Research Question
Are Science undergraduates in NUS equipped with the necessary skills to prepare them for the workforce?

Hypothesis
Introducing compulsory social skill workshops in the curriculum could better prepare science undergraduates for the work force

Problem statement
Science students in NUS may be equipped with all the necessary academic skills and knowledge during their course of studies. However, they may not be equipped with the necessary skills needed to prepare them for the workforce.

Audience / Readers
Our targeted readers are student welfare committee for the department of Science Club and the Dean of Undergraduate Studies for Science.

Our potential readers are Science undergraduates in NUS.

Purpose statement
The objective of this report is to find out if the academic system employed by NUS prepares science undergraduates well for the workforce.

Methodology
We will be conducting a survey with 100 NUS students comprising of Year 2-4 students regarding their opinion on how well NUS prepare them for the future workforce.

In addition, we will be interviewing the dean of undergraduate studies on how the curriculum is decided and to obtain employment statistics of science graduates in different sectors of the workforce.

Potential Research Project Topics

Can the young generations of Singaporeans face the upcoming challenges?

This is one of the topics that I will want to find out more for our research project.

As we know that, there are many challenges that Singapore faces in the 21^st century. With the uprising challenges, Singapore is trying to push all its way out from the economic slowdown by making Singapore a financial hub, research hub, medical hub, as well as an entertainment hub, etc. With these rising prospects, there are many job opportunities available. However, there are many opportunities that people do not like to take up due to certain reasons. For an example, jobs that are unstable yet can be highly profiting, such as, sales personals and financial planner, or service line that requires youngster to work long hours.

The question is: Are our youngster willing to take up the challenge and give it a try? Or they just want a stable job to settle down?

The feeling is very ironic. You feel happy and proud to see that Singapore have been improving well and very fast, yet you will feel quite scary that, as a small country like Singapore, it have been improving too fast that most of the Singaporeans cannot take it. The pace has been getting faster and faster, no matter in education times or work times. Can really all Singaporeans take it now or even in the near future? Hence, we must find out, especially from the youngsters, whether they are ready to face the upcoming challenges. I had read a few articles on these types of topics and find out that nowadays, parents have been over concerned with their children’s school work which made these children feel that academic work is more than anything else. And, most parents had spoilt their children by trying to give them anything as long as the children say “I want.”

I am interested in finding out how do the youngsters come about to overcome the challenges if they are to face it? And, how they can maximize the opportunities given to them, if any? Should government and school try to encourage entrepreneurship? If so, how they can do it? The survey is important for us to understand how and what the youngsters, like us feel about this issue. I feel that different people with different background will give different opinions. It will be interesting to know such opinions. I hope by doing this research, we can also raise the awareness for the youngster to be more mentally and physically prepared.

Resolving Interpersonal Conflicts

I heard this story from my friend and hope good solutions may come by. (",)

My friend (A) and her friend (B) went for some exchange for about 5 months with another 3 students. They were rather good friends. When they were there, they shopped together, ate together, cooked together and even solved their own disputes among themselves. But, just one silly incident or comment and everything changed.

When A was packing the house a few days before they fly back, she accidentally saw a piece of paper on the table. Then, she realized that B had been mistaken her for an action. But it was too late, those words on the paper was too hurtful and scary. It was due to just one phone call.

The incident was happened just the night before she saw the paper. As they were coming back soon, they had to cut off the phone lines and internet access, so everyone of them just took turn and called their loved ones. When B was talking on the phone, A was just commenting out softly on some stuffs she saw on the phone. She don't mean anything at all. As the character of A, she is someone who is crazy and cheerful, can talk and smile at anything. To the horror, B thought that A purposely said it loud and indirectly to ask her to put down the phone. And A don't know about it because everything seems so normal.

A felt so disappointed in her friend that she felt of her another way, which she should have know her even better that she don't mean anything when she said that, and also feel regretful for her little actions that she don't mean anything at all. All of a sudden, she just felt a tinge of despondent fell on her. Someone who is so close to her in that few months just turned and become someone who said all kinds of nasty things of A. A still treat B as a friend physically but there is still a barrier between them mentally.

Soon, a few months after they came back, B knew about the whole thing as she feel some distant from A. But she claimed that she forget about those words she mentioned.

If you were A (my friend), what will u do? *She is trying to forget everything but sometimes, is easier said than done.*

Personally, I feel that simple actions or comments can really trigger someone's feelings and thoughts. Moreover, i feel that it is hard to feel the same as what the both party encountered. If two people think and know the exact actions of each other, misunderstandings will be avoided but it will seldom happen in this world.