Evaluating Intercultural Behavior (Blog Post #4)

Deva, John and Robert were working as temporary sales promoters during an IT (Information Technology) fair in Suntec City Convention Hall. Naturally, there were a lot of buyers and viewers present at the fair since it was held during the weekend as well as in conjunction with the school holidays. Hence, business was relatively good as many people came by their booth to inquire about the IT products that they were selling. It was approaching near to dinner time but the crowd in the convention hall remained almost fully packed with the continuous influx of people coming in to explore the fair.

While Deva was handling some customers, John signaled to Robert that he was hungry already and was going out to buy dinner. Robert approved of the idea since he was also hungry and thus asked John to help get dinner back for everyone instead. Amidst the noise of the crowd, John called out to Deva that he was getting dinner and Deva consented briefly with a quick nod before returning back to the customers that wanted to make some goods purchase.

Due to the fact that most of the other eateries were experiencing long queues during the dinner peak hours, John decided to choose the fastest option available so that he could go back to assist at the booth as soon as possible. In the end, John bought three burger meals at a fast food restaurant and made his way back to the convention hall.

Later while all of them were preparing to eat, Deva realized that the burger was a beef burger and being a devote believer of his Hindu religion and traditions, he was forbidden to consume beef since the cow was revered as a sacred and holy animal in Hinduism. In shock and anger, Deva questioned John about this matter and John being ignorant about Deva’s beliefs, was also surprised at Deva’s outrage. After hearing Deva’s explanation about not being able to consume beef, John apologized profusely and volunteered to treat Deva to another meal as a form of compensation for his mistake. Deva forgave John this time round since it was John’s first time and also because they had only known each other that morning at the start of the job.

From the above scenario, we can see that John does not really know much about Hinduism and he assumed that whatever he could eat, Deva also could eat, which was wrong in this case. I think that we should not be ignorant or complacent about other cultures and religions especially since Singapore is a multi-racial and multi-religious country, thus it is unavoidable for us not to interact with people from different backgrounds. We should also try to practice understanding and tolerance for various cultures so as to preserve the harmony and stability in our multi-diverse society. In addition, I feel that John could improve on his communication skills so as to prevent this kind of misunderstanding from happening again. He should have approached Deva directly and asked him face-to-face what he wanted to eat as well as was there any special preferences or prohibitions instead of just calling out to him from a distance. Moreover, Deva may not have been able to hear clearly what John was trying to say due to the noisy environment. Furthermore, John could have waited till a better time to approach Deva and asked him about dinner instead of while he was busy handling customers and may not be able to pay full attention to what John was trying to say.

Potential Research Project Topic (Blog Post #3)

Problem: The incidence of premarital sex among the youths in Singapore has risen tremendously over the past few years. As a result, cases like unwanted pregnancies, abortions, teenage mothers and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) have also increased proportionately with the number of people engaging in premarital sex. This has a dire consequence on the youth population of Singapore, who are considered to be our country’s next generation of leaders and hope, as their general health and well-being are plagued by the negative outcomes of premarital sex. Thus what may seem to be a promising future and life for our youths can be easily vanquished by simply committing premarital sex. Some reasons for the promiscuity of our youths today are possibly due to the more liberal mindset and lifestyle, the down-regulation of moral and ethical values in today’s capitalistic society, improper and insufficient sex education and peer pressure among youths etc.

General Research Question: What are the viewpoints of NUS Science Faculty students regarding the issues of premarital sex and whether adequate and correct sex education should be introduced to the students in Singapore?

Attitudinal survey: University students being one of the groups of youths to step into society to work after graduation, should be sufficiently equipped with a sound knowledge of sex so as to be able to appropriately deal with different situations involving sex when they arise. Thus, our research group has decided to focus on students studying in NUS Science Faculty for this project and so a survey is needed to gather information and feedback from the students regarding the issue of premarital sex because every individual may have different attitudes and perceptions towards premarital sex. At the same time, we hope that the insights we have obtained may be able to justify the need for sex education among the youths of Singapore so as to reduce the frequencies of premarital sex and its aftermath complications. Hence the objective of this research project would be to inform and alert proper authorities such as the management of the Dean’s office of Science Faculty in NUS, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports as well as organizations including Social Development Unit (SDU) and Singapore Planned Parenthood Association (SPPA) concerning the issue of premarital sex so as to facilitate the implementation of policies, campaigns and programs to instill suitable sex education in schools for the benefits and welfare of our youths.