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.
That's a very interesting and insightful post Yumeng. It shows how even in small things like bringing a friend home without giving prior notice to your host family may be an issue because in their culture letting people know beforehand is only polite.
ReplyDeleteHi Yumeng
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post and it set me thinking about whether such a situation of bringing a friend home without former notice is a matter about culture or is it about a matter on certain rules that a family abides by.
For my family, we will have to inform people at home before bringing a friend home, unless the friend is a close friend that the family has met before.
Then again, I understand that for the instance of hosting someone is very much different from just bringing a friend home for maybe project work.
Thank you for the sharing!
Cheers
Shu Wen
Hi Yumeng,
ReplyDeleteI thought that was a very interesting post. It reminded me of my experience as a guest in a host family when I went for a home-stay in Brisbane, Australia back in 2010.
I found it very interesting to see the differences in the lifestyles of my family at home and my host family. There differences were apparent even in the simplest of daily activities such as eating meals, watching television and sleeping. It was wonderful to have the opportunity to experience the Australian culture and even be inspired to adopt some of their daily practices when I went back home.
The entire experience made me realize the importance of appreciating and understanding a different culture, and even adapting to their lifestyle to the best of one's ability when living and communicating with them. Doing this allows one to fully immerse into a new culture for a change, and prepares one for interaction with people of the same culture in future at the work-place or outside.