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.

Resolving Interpersonal Conflict (Blog Post #2)

Alice is the only daughter in her family. She has two elder brothers, one of them a lawyer and the other a businessman. Being the only daughter and the youngest in the family, Alice’s parents naturally loved her the most and showered her with the most affection and attention. In spite of all this, Alice was not a spoilt and snobbish child but full of care and understanding that made her very popular and easy to get along with among her friends and classmates. After Alice graduated from college, she applied for a job as a nurse in a hospital and she successfully got the job she had been yearning for since young. As a new nurse, the chief nurse, Mrs. Wong, assigned two other senior nurses, Brenda and Carissa, to assist and guide Alice in her daily job routine in the hospital. The personalities of Brenda and Carissa were completely opposite; Brenda was friendly, outgoing and extrovert-like whereas Carissa was cold, reserved and introvert-like. Alice became good friends and colleagues with Brenda after some time while her relationship with Carissa remained merely at the work acquaintance level.

After a few months later, Alice checked out that she would be on duty for a particular Saturday which happened to coincide with her father’s birthday and that the whole family had agreed to go to a restaurant for a birthday dinner celebration. Thus she approached Brenda and asked her if she could help her with her duty for that day and Brenda replied no problem. On that day itself, Carissa called Alice and questioned her why she was not at the hospital as Alice was supposed to take over from her at the shift change interval. Alice was surprised that Brenda was not there yet so she contacted her through phone and SMS but she got no reply from Brenda. At Carrisa’s demand, Alice had no choice but to report for work reluctantly and as a result, her family members especially her father, were displeased that she was not able to turn up for this important family function. Even her brother, who was on an overseas business trip, took the effort to rush back for the birthday dinner.

Subsequently, Alice confronted Brenda to check with her why she never turned up on that day and Brenda lied to her that she was not feeling well on that day when she actually went out for a movie with her friends. Alice probed further why she did not return her call or message and Brenda simply said that she was resting at home the whole day and so she did not turn on her mobile phone as she was sleeping. Alice was vexed with Brenda’s attitude and irresponsibility and so she walked away in silence.

How should Brenda have responded when Alice confronted her regarding her absence from duty when she had made the promise to her earlier on so as to prevent any strains on their friendship?

Possible causes: Dishonesty, Insensitivity and Lack of accountability of one’s actions.

M Vs. F

I remembered that we were discussing about the issue of gender in effective communication back in class last week and we were like agreeing and emphasizing on its importance and relevance in today's society. Happened to find this funny cartoon picture depicting the differences in a male's mind and a female's mind and so decided to share it with all. Enjoy.

(PS: No wonder why people say Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus...)

Effective Communication Skills (Blog Post #1)

According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, communication can be defined as “a process by which information is exchanged between individuals through a common system of symbols, signs, or behavior” as well as “a technique for expressing ideas effectively”. Hence effective communication can be regarded to be a situation whereby thoughts and views of one person can be successfully transmitted across a medium to the intended person and vice versa so as to produce the complex web of information flow we see in today’s world.

Evolution has imbued in us the innate ability to communicate with other human beings as well as to be able to hone the skills and techniques required for a more efficient way of communication since Homo sapiens are classified as social creatures. A good example would be that when a newly-born baby arrives in this world, his/her first ability to communicate with the world would simply be crying regardless of anything such as feeling hungry, wetting diapers, feeling scared, feeling sleepy, etc. As the infant grows up, the parents will start to educate the child on the basic fundamentals of communication such as languages, speech, listening and writing. Subsequently as the child goes to school, he/she will learn more in-depth about how to communicate properly as well as being imparted with knowledge concurrently. When the child continues to move up the higher ladder of education, knowledge and communication skills will also advance up to higher levels, plus with more life experiences, the child will learn to mould and shape his/her ability to communicate appropriately as deem fit by various scenarios. Later when the child goes into society to work, he/she will also need to adapt to communicate proficiently in society as a mature adult. Thus, equipping with effective communication skills in one can be treated like a life-long learning process basically because we inevitably cannot escape from communicating with people unless we are like “isolated in a no-man island”, which is very unlikely since our species have colonized most of the places on Earth.

In view of this, I believe that possessing effective communication skills can allow me to be a better listener and observer so that I will be able to apprehend the context of what others are trying to say and avoid unnecessary misunderstandings. This will also allow me to strengthen the bonds with other people regardless of culture, gender, language, race or religion, thus it may be beneficial to both parties in whatever we do such as during studying, working or playing. Moreover, becoming a better speaker and writer can also be value-added in terms of establishing and maintaining good two-way communication networks with other people as I can relate my feelings, ideas and thoughts smoothly to them without resulting in any confusion. Besides that, endowing with effective communication skills and techniques can be considered to be important soft core skills as I will be more ready when tackling tasks such as writing business correspondence, writing reports, writing resumes and job application letters, going for interviews, giving oral presentations, etc.

In summary, developing effective communication skills are things that we cannot afford to overlook because these soft core skills are one of the “bare necessities” that we need in life to be able to interact competently with other people in society.