All of us would have heard about the Israeli-Palestinian or the India-Pakistan conflict. Recently, the spate of attacks on Indian students in Australia has caused a furor. Improper communication causes further conflict, like the Mail Today’s cartoon showing a Victoria Police officer in a Klu Klux Klan hood which unfairly groups all Australians as racists. In today’s globalised world, cultural communication is essential. Personally, it is important for exchange programs, to study in an international university like NUS, and to interact with my teammates and friends.
Although I was the only Indian student in my class for a few years, I found many close friends there. However, there is a language barrier when people start talking in Hindi or Chinese among themselves, as I find it difficult to be involved in the conversation. In teamwork, nobody should feel left out. I try to be culturally sensitive and considerate towards people’s values. For instance, when I go to a Muslim friend’s house for Hari Raya, I dress appropriately so as not to offend anyone.
In Singapore, although there is commendable inter-cultural harmony, I feel more can be done to increase true understanding of each other’s cultures and values, rather than simply having surface knowledge about cultures’ celebrations, food and attire, and just practicing tolerance.
Interpersonal communication is important in teamwork. Communication is not solely verbal; non-verbal communication creates a big impression too. Our Signals, expressions and voice tone all play a part in our body language. Listening attentively and giving feedback shows your teammate that you care about what he or she has to say.
Without good interpersonal communication, conflicts arise in teams. Stereotyping and labeling the majority culture as the norm should be avoided so as to gain from the collective experiences and knowledge of a multi-cultural team.
Although I was the only Indian student in my class for a few years, I found many close friends there. However, there is a language barrier when people start talking in Hindi or Chinese among themselves, as I find it difficult to be involved in the conversation. In teamwork, nobody should feel left out. I try to be culturally sensitive and considerate towards people’s values. For instance, when I go to a Muslim friend’s house for Hari Raya, I dress appropriately so as not to offend anyone.
In Singapore, although there is commendable inter-cultural harmony, I feel more can be done to increase true understanding of each other’s cultures and values, rather than simply having surface knowledge about cultures’ celebrations, food and attire, and just practicing tolerance.
Interpersonal communication is important in teamwork. Communication is not solely verbal; non-verbal communication creates a big impression too. Our Signals, expressions and voice tone all play a part in our body language. Listening attentively and giving feedback shows your teammate that you care about what he or she has to say.
Without good interpersonal communication, conflicts arise in teams. Stereotyping and labeling the majority culture as the norm should be avoided so as to gain from the collective experiences and knowledge of a multi-cultural team.
Hey Renuka
ReplyDeleteThe various examples that you gave at the start of your posts are rather fresh to me. (I guess it is because I haven’t been reading news:)). I agree with you that it is important to be culturally sensitive to every racial group. We should understand each racial group’s culture and behave appropriately in front of them. You discussed quite a number of the principles that we have talked about in class. It will be good that you could relate these principles to your examples. For instance, you could relate the active listening skills to your example on being left out in a group. You also mentioned quite a variety of examples and maybe you could narrow down and focus on one example in your explanation for the principles. Overall, your post is insightful and interesting. Keep it up!
Hey Renuka.
ReplyDeletei like the fact that you provide a wide range of examples, very comprehensive and also shows that you are very knowledgeable about the issue,nice =]
personally i noe how it felt to be kept out of a discussion due to language barrier, and i hope that i never was the initiator/participator in such an unpleasant experience for you. personally i felt that speaking a language that some ppl present could not understand it's an deliberate effort to alienate certain ppl, and thus should never be encourage. your post, with all those real-life examples offered, really can provoke empathy in me =]
however, i feel that somehow your post is a bit dis-jointed. you start with general examples, moving on to your personal experience, and then localize your scope of discussion to singapore, and move on then to what makes up effective communication. all are sound and valid examples/cases, just that theres a lack of a main point to connect things together for easier understanding of the readers, at least for me its hard to rmb any points you raised, i can only rmb the examples o_O, other than that nice post with broad range of examples.
योद्धाओं के वर्ग !आगे जाएँ (i mean keep it up =])
Hey Renuka
ReplyDeleteYou provide lots of examples, opinions and suggestion, which makes your point impressive and sufficient. You start with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and figure out the importance of the cultural communication. With stating your own experiences and improvement you show the principles of intercultural and interpersonal communication. And then you make some good suggestions for intercultural and interpersonal communication. The structure of your post is clear and convincing. But I think it will be better to show more details of how you deal with the difficulties in cultural communication and more reflection on what you learnt and how you improved.
I agree with many of the points that you made, especially the one about how there could be more racial harmony rather than mere tolerance in Singapore. Personally I feel that while emphasis has been placed on giving all the major races sufficient representation, and this certainly creates a suitable environment for nurturing racial harmony, true change happens only when we start to put ourselves in other's shoes and treat them as we would like them to treat us.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, like what Tan Chen has mentioned, I think the flow of your post could be better. Although each paragraph makes a clear and good point, they don't link up too cogently when strung together. Perhaps you could have made the links between the paragraphs stronger. Just my two cents :)
I agree with many of the points that you made, especially the one about how there could be more racial harmony rather than mere tolerance in Singapore. Personally I feel that while emphasis has been placed on giving all the major races sufficient representation, and this certainly creates a suitable environment for nurturing racial harmony, true change happens only when we start to put ourselves in other's shoes and treat them as we would like them to treat us.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, like what Tan Chen has mentioned, I think the flow of your post could be better. Although each paragraph makes a clear and good point, they don't link up too cogently when strung together. Perhaps you could have made the links between the paragraphs stronger. Just my two cents :)