On Saturday night, I was at Orchard road to experience a festival that we know as Thaipusam, a major religious festival celebrated by the Hindus in Singapore. It was a truly fascinating event, with spirit-lifting music and vibrantly coloured costumes encircling the whole stretch of road. While the event did cause a substantial volume of traffic congestion along the streets of Orchard, passersby certainly did enjoy a change in atmosphere that this event brought along. To add on, this is probably the only festival where major road closures occur along this prime district.
The narration above shows aptly an intercultural scenario that occurs in Singapore. While primarily populated by Chinese, Singapore is a nation that is populated by citizens of different race and religion. There is a high chance in which the people whom we meet, the people whom we listen to, the people whom we speak to may all be of a different race, religion or nationality. With that, it makes considerable sense to me that I should take an extra effort to enlighten myself with the culture differences between me and that of my working counterparts.
While we are familiarised with what we know as IQ and EQ, a theory on cultural quotient (CQ) has been proposed. This is a study postulating that understanding the link between a person’s cultural background and their behaviour is imperative for successful business management. The way we react towards an American, a Chinese or an Indian have to be different so that we will not send out the wrong signal and cause any unnecessary misunderstandings. To maintain effective communication, one has to identify with whom they are talking to and react accordingly. We certainly do not want to give a hug to a Chinese on a first meeting!
Everybody comes from a different background and culture. Irregardless of our unique traditions, we should take some time off to familiarise ourselves with the rich cultural background of whom we are working with, only so can we better interact and work with them.
Hi YiFan!
ReplyDeleteI have read your posts about communication and cultural communication. I was around in town when the Thaipusam event too! But, I was one of them who got stuck in the traffic jam and not those passers-by.
Certainly, we must put in extra effort to find out more about culture apart from our races, but, what matters is what we get in the end. Equipped with better knowledge about another culture, we become more knowledgeable and thus, will be able to engage in a more productive and effective communication with people from the particular culture. After all, what is the purpose of communicating when at the end of the day, none of your points get across to that person.
-kaiyang
Hi Yifan,
ReplyDeleteThe wonders of human beings. We must have a measure to everything we know of that exists.
Although proven by academics with "lifetimes" of experience, I disagree that culture must be given a quotient. Quotients and grades makes wrong things seem even more wrong. Culture should be a learning experience. Hug a Chinese and make it unhappy. But learn the hard way and you will remember the valuable lesson for life.
However, I do find the issue of culture quotient interesting and relevant to our context. It would be good to learn more about it. :)
Have a nice weekend!
Hey Yifan,
ReplyDeleteIndeed I do agree with you. Singapore is one of the countries which has a whole lot of inherent cultural diversity and interaction.
In fact, let me share something with you. When I was applying to the universities in Singapore, I had also applied to SMU for which I was required to give a phone interview. And one of the first few questions that the interviewer asked me was how I would be able to cope in a group of people of different mindsets and cultural backgrounds, because she said that was a situation I would find myself in, several times in my university life here in Singapore.
Thus studying here in Singapore has given us the opportunity to interact with people of different backgrounds and learn about their traditions and lifestyles, which can help prepare us for life after.