Evaluating Intercultural Behaviour

Cultural norms are behaviour patterns that are typical of a specific group. The following scenario took place when I was on board the MRT on my way home from school one day.

I happen to be near two friends, a local and a caucasian and I overheard them complaining about a friend who was doing a project together with them. Let's call the local Michael and the caucasian Jeffrey. Apparently, this friend had hardly contributed to the team's effort and appeared disinterested in helping out at all. Unevitably, they were unhappy with his attitude and they were complaining about him. Amid their complainings, a particular comment made by one of them caught my attention.

" Of course you know he will be like that one la.. The culture in his race is like that one mah.. Really buay tar han him. Sian sia.." Michael said.

"What is 'buay tar han'?" Jeffrey replied.

"Oh it means cannot stand him la.." said Michael.

"Stand? Do you all always so much of these 'la', 'mah'?" replied Jeffrey.

This particular scenario caught my attention as it is an intercultural situation and also recalling that I need to take note of one for my ES2007S module, I made a mental to note observe what was happening. The culture involved in this context is not that of between races or ethnic groups but rather one that is between countries. Singlish is a local cultural language as it involves a blend of the numerous ethnic groups that reside in Singapore. As such, it has become common for our spoken language to include terms from other languages. While we as Singaporeans may understand this language, our friends from overseas may not be able to do so. This cultural difference can lead to difficulties when communicating with others from other countries and it could serve as a communication barrier.

Another point is regarding Michael's comment. "The culture in his race is like that one ma." I think this is an interesting point as Michael has already built up his own perception of another based on his perceived understanding of their culture and his assumption that this race would have this particular culture. He believes their culture to be such and this understanding could be flawed or inadequate as he does not know the entire culture but rather based his judgement only on the few individuals which he may have met. While those that he have met may exhibit trends he has perceived, it is important to note that it is not a reflection that the entire race share this culture. Cultural differences can exist within races as well and while it could be minute, cultural differences can exist within smaller sub units such as families. This form of prejudice could serve to impede communications as he already has a prejudice against them by assuming something to be their culture and that this culture is inherent to people from his race.

Project Topic

After studying three years in NUS and being fully enrolled into the Modular Credits system, I am increasingly having some reservations on how realistic this system is. In NUS, modular credits (MCs) are assigned to modules to indicate the work load of that module and also the expected numbers of hours to be spent on that particular module per week in a ratio of one MC to two and a half hours per week. Therefore, a module like Professional Communications (ES2007s) which is a four MCs module would requires us to spend an average of ten hours per week. To ensure that students are within a predefined "manageable" level and also for students to have a study and rest balance, the university discourages students from taking more than 25 MCs per semester. Any student who wishes to do more than 25 MCs would be evaluated on a case by case basis. However, in this system where we are further bounded by the Cumulative Point System (CAP), students tend to be grades orientated and as such, usually the number of study hours exceed the average recommended hours per week. This would increase the tendency of students having to spend all their time on studying and much less for rest or play. This could be detrimental to the overall well being of the student.

Some questions which I have included:
1) How many hours are student spending on studies per week?
2) Is this more than the number of Modular Credits that they have?
3) How much time do they spend sleeping each day?
4) How much time do they spend on playing each week?

In this survey report, my general research question would be "Is the modular credit system an understatement of the number of hours students spend studying each week?" and my hypothesis would be that NUS students spend more than the recommended time for the given amount of MCs and that the relation between the number of MCs and the number of hours spend studying is greater than the ratio 2: 5. The objective of this research study is to determine if the hypothesis is correct and my target reader would be the Dean's Office. The objective of the report would then be to increase the awareness of the Dean's office regarding this discrepancy in the amount of supposedly allocated time and the actual time spend and that this could be detrimental to the growth and well being of a student.

An attitudinal survey is essential in this report as students would be able to rate their response to the issue on a scale system thus enabling students to give a more detailed feedback. Furthermore, it would be more affective in nature and thus would be able to accommodate students’ perception regarding the issue. Since this issue is very much open to perception and also varying in everyone’s level of adaptability to work management, such a form of survey would help to give us more insight into the problems which this issue may pose and allow us to formulate constructive recommendations.

An Interpersonal Conflict

During my Junior College days, I was fortunate to be given the opportunity to be in a committee to help facilitate the functioning of the swim team. It was a fulfilling experience for me as I got to learn a lot and also to interact with a lot of people which help me to progress both as an individual and also a team player. However, this unique journey was not one without obstacles.

In the second year of my college years, as we were preparing for our preliminary examinations, one of our committee members, Marvin (not his real name), came to talk to me one day. He told me that he has decided to quit school and move on to pursue a course in a polytechnic as he does not think that he would be able to cope with the coming preliminary examinations and also the “A” levels. I was surprised by his decision and I tried to persuade him to continue to try and finish up the “A” levels and not stop halfway. I pointed out that while it may be difficult, he had many friends around him who could help and also motivate him through this difficult period. However, he told me that he has made up his mind and that he has also already signed up a polytechnic course. He also further reminded me to not let anyone else know about it which I agreed to do so.

Some time later, another of the committee member, Josephine (not her real name), found out about Marvin’s decision and also that I knew about it and had not told any of the other committee members. While she was shocked by Marvin’s decision, she was further angry about me keeping quiet about the issue and confronted me regarding it. I tried to explain to her but she was still angry as she felt that we are a team and also fellow committee members and I should have told her so we could try to help Marvin together. While I understood her point of view, I also felt strongly that I had a responsibility towards Marvin and had to respect his decision as well. As such, with neither of us giving way, it led to communications breakdown.

Fortunately, after a few days, we were able to discuss things more calmly and agreed that we both had our reasons and as such we managed to work out a common ground between us. However, this issue has led me to ponder about whether I could have avoided this communication problem at all. Should I keep my promise to Marvin or should I respond to my commitment to the team and committee?

Why Developing Communication Skills are Important

Developing communication skills are important to me as I believe that communication is an integral and essential part of our lives and it comes in many forms. Some of these include the relatively obvious verbal and written aspect of communications - our body language, listening, our tone, facial expressions etc. These are all some aspects of communications and they contribute to the overall essence of effective communications. For example, during a conversation, if one party consistently show a disinterested body posture or facial expression, he or she may be deemed to be bored and not listening or even rude. This may lead to communication breakdowns despite the fact that the person may actually be listening intently. Furthermore, while we may or may not be conscious of it, we are consistently being judged on how we communicate with others. In the above example, we see that the individual may have been judged to be disinterested or rude due to his body language and facial expression which may not be his or her intent. Personally, I feel that this is sometimes an issue for me as I do have an occasional tendency to do or say what I feel most comfortable then. However, this form of unconscious or impulse response may not be an appropriate one and in the process I may have created a misunderstanding with the people around me. Therefore developing communication skills is important as we are often judged upon, on a personal note, on how we communicate with one another and it could also serve to prevent misunderstandings.

Developing communication skills is also important as it is determining in the outcomes of various actions. Our ability to communicate effectively will enable us to put across messages to others with as little distortion as possible. Thus they would be able to understand our intentions better and this can serve to help us achieve our aims. More importantly, effective communications would enable us to move our audiences into believing or taking our point of view and this could be of particular importance for us especially during a presentation or an interview where our communication skills will have a direct impact on the outcome.

Therefore, while the above factors are not the only factors which make developing communication skills important, I believe that these are the ones which I feel are more important to me.