Evaluating Intercultural Behavior (Blog Post #4)

There was this incident that I faced personally, a small conflict that I encountered when I travelled to Chinatown at San Francisco. I was with a group of my friends, doing shopping. One of my friends had spoilt her luggage at the airport and so she decided to get a new one. We entered this store selling luggage opened by a Hong Kong immigrant. As we did not wish to lug the luggage around, we wanted to get it after we were done with our shopping. Therefore, we asked the lady boss what time does the store closes. To our surprise, the lady boss started shouting and saying things in Cantonese with nasty tone which we don’t understand. We all stood there puzzled.

We immediately asked our friend who is also from Hong Kong what the lady boss was talking about and told her what had happened. Seeing that we were so shocked and afraid, she laughed and explained that in Hong Kong, it is superstitious to ask what time the store closes. To them it means that when the store is going to wind up. We were so embarrassed. We let the Hong Kong friend helped in purchasing the luggage to prevent any more misunderstanding. Due to our ignorance, we actually said the wrong things and offended the lady boss without even knowing.

We all understand that different countries, race or religions have different practices. Negligence and insensitivity towards other’s culture can result in embarrassment or even conflict. We should respect other’s customs and cultures but we may not know about some of the practices they have. Especially when we travel to another country, the culture may be very much different from ours that we had never heard about or experienced before. Hence, learning and knowing more about the country’s culture are essential. Through understanding, we can then avoid saying or doing the wrong things and end up offending the other party. On the other hand, the other party should also understand that it may all be unintentional. It helps when one explains about their culture and practices instead of just yelling. It not only prevents any conflict from occurring but also allows others to have a better understanding of the culture. And of course, the same situation could also be avoided in the future. Therefore I feel that understanding and accommodating are very important in intercultural communication to prevent any misunderstanding from taking place.

Potential Research Project Topics (Blog Post #3)

Problem
Most of us should be familiar with Community Involvement Programme(CIP). CIP is part of our Co-Curricular Activities (CCA) record, where a maximum of 5 CCA points would be awarded for 100 hours of CIP activities done over the 4 years in secondary school. It serves to create awareness in students of their role and ability to make a difference in our society and community. Through CIP, students are exposed to and motivated to help the less fortunate and those in need. However, with CIP contributing to the CCA record, some people may feel that they are “forced” to do CIP. In this way, it contradicts with the definition of volunteering. In addition, many of us may not continue participating in volunteer work upon graduation since it’s no longer compulsory to fulfill any hours of CIP activities in NUS.

General Research Question
Should community service be made compulsory for all students in NUS to inculcate volunteerism?

Why an attitudinal survey would be needed in order to study this topic?
Having survey allows us to have first hand information which may be more accurate and credible than those found online. Moreover, since the problem involves and affects them, it is important to obtain their views about the issue. Different people may have different experience and thoughts on compulsory community involvement programme.

Objective of the study
The objective of the research study is to determine if students in NUS are involved in volunteer work and if CIP is effective in inculcating volunteerism.

Objective of the report
The objective of the report is to inform the school of the lack of community service among students of NUS and therefore suggest that the school can implement actions to encourage volunteerism.

Effective Communication Skills (Blog Post #2)

Sarah and Tracy were grouped to complete a project assignment together which has a deadline of less than a months’ time. Although they were in the same class for 2 years, they had never worked together before. Sarah is a high achiever who excels in her studies and achieved straight distinctions for the previous projects while Tracy is an average student who is easily satisfied so long as she had done her best.

When it comes to the time that the project was returned, they found out that their grade was the lowest in class. Sarah was very unhappy about the results so she went to look for the lecturer. The lecturer had his own stand and perceptions for the submitted report, and since the marks was already allocated, there is also nothing he can do about it.

Seeing Sarah so worked up and frustrated, Tracy tried to go forward to console her. However, Sarah replied practically shouting, “Of course you can relax and chill. For such a person like you, getting a C or D is not something unusual anyway. But for me, I cant! I must get an A no matter what!”

After hearing this, Tracy was extremely shocked and hurt. She paused for a few seconds and then replied, “What are you trying to say? What do you mean by that?” Sarah murmured something under her breath. Tracy was so angry that she just turned her head and walked away. From then on, they ignore every time they see each other. They even bad mouth each other behind their back.

How could both Tracy and Sarah have handled the situation better?

Effective Communication Skills (Blog Post #1)

Communication is the fundamental basis of interaction between people. Moreover, it is considered as a complex process. It involves messages to be transmitted between two parties in order to comprehend each others’ thoughts and feelings. As the message is being encoded or decoded, the true meaning of the messages is often lost. The message received may be different from the intended meaning that the speaker is trying to bring across.

Developing effective communication skills can reduce misunderstanding between parties. Words can bring different meanings to different people. The different interpretations of the messages or even inattentiveness in listening can then result in wrong information being received. Engaging in active listening allows messages to be transmitted more accurately and clearly, preventing the possible inconvenience that could be resulted.

In addition, words may also have hidden meanings. Generally, people do not actually say what they really mean. They also do not have the habit of explaining when what they said was being misunderstood. To make things worst, he or she will expect you to understand what they really want. Such paradox makes it difficult for one to understand the each other. However, certain physical actions or behaviour done intentionally or unintentionally can reflect our true thoughts and feelings. For example, actions such as yawning are done when we feel tired or bored. Being able to interpret such non-verbal cues allows us to have a better understanding of the ‘hidden’ true message he or she is trying to convey.

On top of that, developing effective communication skills can also resolve conflicts. As mentioned above, communication is not only about talking. Listening is an important role in effective communication as well. In spite of yelling ridiculously at each other in an argument, active listening enables both parties to understand the different perspectives of problem and eventually coming up with the best solution for the conflict.
In conclusion, communication actually leads to better understanding of one another bringing people closer together. With this development of effective communication skills, it will allow close relationship to be formed resulting to widening of social network. With the widening of social network, in a way, it will be a potential source to seek help from.