Living in a multicultural society like Singapore,
we will associate with people from different culture and backgrounds. In common communication,
the person who receives the message may understand the message based on his own
values, beliefs and expectations for behavior. When cross-culture communication
occurs, the receiver may use information from his culture to interpret the
message which may be different from what the sender intended.
I remember this one time when my friend and
I took part in a summer camp to the UK and was treated by different host
families. I always thought it common to bring a friend home when living in
China. One day when collective activity ended and we were supposed to go back,
my friend invited me to go back with her so that we can spend more time talking
together. The hostess just showed a sense of embarrassing but treated me with a nice supper. She then told my friend that she
was supposed to inform them in advance if there is guest, otherwise they will
feel disturbed and embarrassed.
From that time on I became more sensitive
to cultural difference in communication and have the habit to do some research when
coming to a new environment and facing people from different culture. I used to
consider intercultural difference as communication barriers when I first came
to study in Singapore. However, the deeper I know about behavior habit of
people from other culture such as Indian and Malay, the more fortunate I think I am to study in a society with
multiculturalism. Getting to know how others differ from I myself is an
interesting thing and communication misunderstanding should not be the gap
between different people. Giving more tolerance to others if they didn’t act
properly and think twice before using body language or saying something will
always make cross-culture communication more harmonious and efficient.
