Culture consists of thousands of pieces of information

I really enjoyed the class this week (Lecture 6) on the macro-approaches to cross-cultural communication. The video shown at the beginning of the class compared the macro socio-psychological values and characteristics of different cultures. Through this video, I realized that knowing and understanding the cultural traits of different national groups and how they affect their communicational and behavior patterns are helpful in helping one to cope with people from different cultures. In fact, there were instances during the video where I could identify with the issue as it happened to me before. Let me share with you some experiences I had.((:

I have group mate who is from Thailand and my group met her mum one day during a group meeting when she came to visit Singapore. My Thai friend introduced her mum to us and we shook hands and did the usual way of greeting a friend’s mum in Singapore, which is to say something like “Hello Aunty, nice to meet you! Welcome to Singapore, I’m Hannah!” and give a nice smile. When my group sat down with my friend later, we asked her if that was the correct way of greeting her mum and she replied that calling her mum “aunty” was considered to be rude in the Thai culture. However, her mum would not be offended as she is widely traveled and would understand. When asked about the proper way to make a greeting, my Thai friend had difficultly finding the correct phrase/ word to use in English, as it depended on the relationship to the friend. For example, in Thailand, if you met your best friend’s mum, you would greet her the same way as you greet your own mum. We were shocked and apologetic after this incident!

I happened to be on exchange to UNC-Chapel Hill in the USA on Ben n Jerry’s free cone day. Some of my American friends and I arranged to have free ice-cream at the store that afternoon. As usual, the lines to free stuff will be very long but surprisingly, the line moved very fast that day. I arrived at the place earlier and my friends were not there yet so I decided to get in line first and was really excited to get free ice-cream! When my friends reached the place, they called me on my mobile to ask me where I was and I told them I was already queuing up for the ice-cream. They did not seem to understand what I was saying and kept asking me where I was so they could find me, and I kept repeating the same phrase. I only realized why after I hung up. There was some sort of miscommunication as my American friends did not understand the meaning of “queuing up”. Instead, they used the phrase “in line”. I should have told them that “I’m in line”, and they would have understood where I was instantly. In fact there are a number of common word(s) which have the same meanings that Americans use which we Singaporeans do not usually do so. To name a few, such word(s) are:
American: restroom Singaporean: toilet
American: elevator Singaporean: lift

The above are just two interesting experiences I had which made me more aware when interacting with people from different cultures. When put into the same situation again, I would now know how to react. Have you had such experiences too you would like to share?((:

Lecture 5 Written Discourse

It never came across my mind that different cultures do actually write very differently and follow a certain pattern till this class. Maybe it is because I am most of the time in Singapore and am hardly exposed to written discourse by people of other cultures. From this class, I learnt that written discourse types can be identified with genetic language types namely,
1) English linearity,
2) Semitic parallelism,
3) Oriental circular,
4) Romance digressive, and
5) Russian.

I found the activity we did during class very funny, especially when identifying the classical Chinese writing when translated to English! It seemed so deep, philosophical and hard to understand! I also learnt that one similarity among the written discourse of different cultures is that they follow a four-part structure which consist the introduction, development, transition and lastly, the closing. To tell you honestly, I have never analyzed written discourse this way. Interesting!((:

Telephone openings and closings

Telephone openings and closings were the main discussion for our class this week (Lecture 4). It was very funny to find out how informal our telephone openings and closing are nowadays. Especially in Singapore among the younger generation, telephone openings have resorted to going directly into the topic, without much addressing the other party over the phone. In fact, many at times, a lot of Singlish is used. In some cultures, this may seem disrespectful but a possible explanation for this behavior is the mutual understanding between friends who are on the line and the need to make the conversation quick and brief that telephone openings among the younger generation are like that nowadays.

On a side note, some of you may be wondering why I called this blog Hannah’s kaleidoscope. A kaleidoscope is an optical instrument in which bits of glass, held loosely at the end of a rotating tube, are shown in continually changing symmetrical forms by reflection in two or more mirrors set at angles to each other, a continually changing pattern of shapes and colors; a continually shifting pattern, scene, or the like: The 1920s were a kaleidoscope of fads and fashion. I really like looking through a kaleidoscope, and seeing the different shapes and colors change as I look through it against the light and turn it along as I admire the colorful shapes. Similarly, I hope to use this blog as a platform to exercise and expose myself in language and writing on different perspectives of issues regarding cross-cultural communication and discourse in order to achieve greater understanding on these issues.

Hope you’ll have fun reading the next few reflections!((:

Business Meetings

The discussion on marriage proposals was the highlight for our lesson this week (Lecture 3). A marriage proposal is a speech event which differs slightly between cultures, but is generally governed by rules for the use of speech. How different can a marriage proposal be between various cultures, besides Singaporeans using “Let’s buy a HDB flat together” as a marriage proposal? It’ll be interesting to hear of the different ways some people use, isn’t it?

During this class, I kept thinking that these days, the use of speech for different speech events are now not exactly defined by the culture. Some people from one culture may adopt some aspects of another culture’s way of a certain speech event. For example, in this modern age, Chinese in Singapore may seem to adopt some characteristics of the same speech event distinctive to the American culture. This is truly an example of the changing nature of culture.

On another note, I have been very busy with my Consulting Practicum, an Honors year requirement for Business School students. For this project, my team had the opportunity to go to Batam, Indonesia and Pontian, Malaysia where we met businessmen (which explains why I’m not in class on Wednesdays sometimes!). It was then that I realized that business meetings are very interesting speech events too. Have you encountered any?

Let me share with you an analysis of this speech event:

Genre: Business meeting

Topic: To discuss the lease of land

Purpose or Function: To set up a processing facility

Setting: In the boss’s office

Key: Serious yet casual

Participants: My company’s two bosses, my team, the Indonesian/ Malaysian boss (land owners) and their assistants

Message Form: Spoken, written

Act Sequence:

B: My company’s two bosses and my team

C: The other party we were meeting

B: Thank you for meeting with us today. *shakes the other party’s hand*

C: Yes, thank you for coming all the way from Singapore. *nods and shakes hand in return*

B and C: *sits down with a drink*

B: Tell us more about your business etc. (gradually goes into the topic)

C: (Responds to the question.)

… (Exchange of questions and answers follows)

B: We look forward to working with you in the future, and will get back to you if we have further questions.

C: It’s my pleasure and thank you for coming today. I hope we can work together in the future and I’ll be willing to answer any further questions you may have. Let’s proceed to have lunch together now.

Rules for Interaction:

Be polite at all times, though there is room for jokes once in a while.

Be sensitive to the other party’s interests.

Be careful not to reveal too much on the company’s weaknesses.

Norms of Interpretation: Know when to speak and ask only appropriate questions.

Expectations

To tell you the truth, I came into this class not expecting much but it turned out that I had to go beyond my comfort zone! Setting up a blog is one such example as I’m pretty IT illiterate and quite a private person haha. But I hope through this blog, I can share my experiences and stories where I can intentionally pick out cross-cultural communication and discourse events/ situations – whether big or small and identify and apply what we’ve learnt in class each week.

It is indeed very interesting learning about speech acts, especially compliments, with cross-cultural, inter-language and socio-pragmatic variations during our second class with Dr Deng. Common speech acts include promises, threats, invitations, praises, compliments, criticisms and apologies. Believe me, I never knew such things could be studied as I thought they were pretty minor, insignificant and will usually brush it off. However, I learnt that even a single speech act may vary greatly across speech communities and a lack of knowledge may lead to intercultural miscommunications. Such speech acts are very common and is part-and-parcel of everyday communication. Truly amazing, isn’t it?((:

From our class activity, I also realized that a single person may vary his/her response in a particular speech act depending on the context, environment and language spoken. It is particularly interesting to find out that we had pretty different responses for situations spoken in English and Mandarin.

I have a story to share, enjoy!((:

I’ve a friend who used to work for a British law firm as an intern in Shanghai, China. On his second last day of work, he wanted to treat his whole department to a farewell luncheon to thank his colleagues and superiors for the goods times and working relationships they have fostered during his time working at the firm. He thought his departure was also a good excuse to get out of the office during lunch time and have a good meal and fellowship together with his colleagues.

Hence, he went around the department informing them about his plans and inviting them to join in the lunch. What was interesting were the various responses from some of his colleagues and superiors. Some responded with a simple word of thanks and confirmed their attendance; some commented it was unnecessary but will be joining in; while some said that he shouldn’t be doing this as he’s just an intern.

My friend did not really know how to respond to those who rejected his invitation and told him not to do it. Was he going to tell the rest who accepted his invitation that he was going to cancel his luncheon treat?

What are your views on their responses and how would you respond if placed in that position?