The world is made up of people from different background, each with a unique understanding of the world. Singapore is a cosmopolitan country with an influx of culture from different countries. It has three major races namely the Chinese, Malays and Indians. The rest form people from many different countries.
I'm glad to be given an opportunity to work with people from countries like Thailand, Vietnam and India. Many of them are talented and each has their unique set of thinking. Apart from being talented, I observe they have different thinking compared to Singaporeans.
I notice that people from these countries tend to be closer to their country mate than Singaporeans. We can observe they tend to study together, eat together & play together. I believe this is a matter of preference being in their comfort zone. However, this might affect a modern intercultural team. I did notice that some are more willing to talk their ideas to their fellow country mate. This will eventually have an impact on the whole team if they do not realize their mistake.
Apart from foreigners, we should also be mindful not to touch on the sensitive racial issue of others in our team. We should educate ourselves on some of their cultural aspect. For instance, in Malay culture, it is considered rude to tap their head in any circumstances. Similarly for Indian culture, it is rude to cross over a person when they’re lying down especially someone’s who older than you. Thus, this kind of simple actions in our daily life can actually offend someone from another race.
When it comes to interpersonal skills, there are some people who are loud and expressive while some may be quiet. In a simple discussion group, the quiet tend to listen more and write down minutes. But I notice that they tend to speak when given a chance. Thus, we should be mindful of those who are quiet as they may have the urge to speak but lack the confidence. Give them a chance to talk as they may not possess the confidence like some of us.
As a last note, we should always understand people of different personality and culture as this will transform us to be a better team member for a better, yet effective team.
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ReplyDeleteHey Ferrino,
ReplyDeleteAs you say in the opening of the post, everyone has a unique understanding of the world. In one of links in my post, I read up about the theory that explains it. The ‘Standpoint Theory’ explains how everyone has a unique standpoint which is formed by his/her social interactions and their takeaway from these interactions.
I have a minor objection to what you say in the third paragraph. It is true that most of the foreigners in Singapore spend more time with their country-mates because they are more comfortable with them. However, this need not become a problem for a team unless the person is not open to learning inter-cultural communication. For instance, I “hang out” mostly with my friends from India. But I also realise the importance of understanding and learning the local culture. Since I am ready to learn about other cultures, I usually do not have trouble communicating in a team, no matter where the participants come from.
I have to say that your examples of things that can offend Malays or Indians are very impressive. You are the first Singaporean I have met who knows about not crossing over one when one is lying down. Keep it up! You seem very knowledgeable about so many cultures. I hope to learn a lot from you.
Cheers,
Anuj
Dear Ferrino,
ReplyDeleteEveryone growing up in different background has their own “understanding of the world”. Understanding their culture will make you understand them better, build better relationships and sometime avoid terrible situations when you unintentionally offend someone from another culture. In your post, you show me two impressive examples of other cultures apart from yours, and I find them quite new and interesting to me. I very admire your knowledge.
Not only people from Thailand, Vietnam or Indian tend to be closer to their country mates but I notice that almost every oversea student tends to be so. It is natural of them since people from same country often share the same ways of thinking and same habits. When hanging out with my Vietnamese friends I find myself more confident because I am in my “comfort zone”. Like me, others may be too lazy to or even scared of getting out of it. Gradually, I began to realize that I had missed many good chances of meeting new friends and knowing new cultures.
In your second last paragraph, I totally agree with you since some people are very quiet and shy. What we should do is to encourage them to talk, to discuss more. Sometimes, they give a very valuable idea.
I like your blog and I hope you will give me some more experience about other cultures.
Regards,
Long
Dear Ferrino,
ReplyDeleteThere is no doubt that we should always understand people of different personality and culture. This is one of the most basic and useful principles that, if every one of us keeps it in mind, can help us solve most of the problems whether interpersonal or intercultural.
But sometimes problems will still occur even if we know we must understand different personality and culture. I guess one of the reasons is that we are always assuming that the other party or person can understand our personality and culture very well. This is not always true for the same reason that we ourselves may not always be able to understand them or him so well.
For example, people from a high context culture may assume that their listeners can understand their underlying messages and didn’t realize that some of their listeners are from a low context culture, and vice versa.
So besides always trying to understand the other side’s personality and culture, I would like to add that we can always assume and accept that the other side may not be able to understand our personality and culture so well and hence always be generous to them and always be patient in making ourselves well understood.
Regards,
Shiyan
Hi Ferrino,
ReplyDeleteI agree that we should always be mindful of those who are quieter in the group. Just because someone is quiet during a discussion does not mean that there’s nothing going on in his or her mind. They could just be really shy or have problems with the language.
You did mention that we should encourage these members to participate but you did not really describe how. We should be mindful of them and remember to give them a chance to speak. But, we could do better by asking them questions. For example, “What do you think is the best method?” It’s better to ask open questions to encourage them to voice out their opinions.
However, I disagree that the quieter people in a team usually writes down the minutes. In all the teams that I’ve been in, no one likes to write down the minutes. It’s generally seen as a chore. What should be done is to rotate the duty of taking down the minutes. We should not just dump the chore onto the quieter members of the group who are not as comfortable with expressing themselves.
Regards,
Russell