Evaluating Intercultural Behavior

As an abroad student in Singapore, the multicultural society is fancy to me. As a photography lover, I've spent a lot of time to take photos in Little India and Malay Heritage in Arab Street.

I enjoyed Tandoori food, which is an interesting cooking style with special baking oven from India. Before that, I had never used my hand to eat in a formal meal, because in Chinese culture, using hand in formal meal is rude.

Also, as long I traveled around the neighboring countries, I have learnt a lot of different cultures. In Malaysia, I was curious about why there's a green arrow on the ceiling of every room in the hotels. Later on, I knew the green arrows point to the west direction, where is the location of the Muslims' holy land to pray. In Yogyakarta, Indonesia, I have learnt that Buddhism and Hinduism has dominated in the place before. And there are a lot of other things...

As I immerging in the flash of different cultures. I have also learnt how to deal with people from different cultural background. The key word is respect. Without respect, the relationship will ruin.

The famous case is Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy in 2005. The Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published 12 cartoons which depicted the Islamic prophet Muhammad. In Islamic world, the publishing of Muhammad's portrait is seemed as blasphemy. It raised a diplomatic crisis between Denmark and the Islamic world immediately after that.

Although the Danish government and the Western world defended themselves as supporting the right of free speech, I think they crossed the bottom line of free speech and thus tarnished this word. Please put yourself in the position of those Muslims, what will you feel if the others do the same thing on you? Therefore, I think one has a duty to respect the rights of the others, just as a person would expect others to respect his rights as their duty.

In conclusion, the Golden Rule of intercultural relation is respect for individuals. Actually, almost every culture has the similar quotes for it.

Confucian said in 2000 years ago:" Do not do to others what you would not want them to do to you."

In Hindu's Mahabharata, it says:" Let not any man do unto another any act that he wishes not done to himself by others, knowing it to be painful to himself."

The Jewish says:" What is hateful to yourself do not do to your fellow man. This is the whole of the Torah."

Buddhist says:"Hurt not others with that which pains yourself."

In the Bible, it says:"Treat others as you would like them to treat you."

In Muslim's Hadith:"No man is a true believer unless he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself."

Resolving Interpersonal Conflict

During our interaction with the society, we will meet different kinds of people. Some are nice and we like to work with them, and others are "rediculous" and make us headach. But the life is crucial, we cannot choose our bettlefield.

So the first thing is change ourselves. I have read a book written by Dale Carnegie, who is well known by his training on interpersonal skills. The book's tittle is "How to Win Friends and Influence People". It gives a list of self-improment to make people like us or at least to achieve our basic purposes when dealing with people.

Other than that, I think the conflict can be divided into two categories: the short-term and the long-term.


The short-term is simple. Me and John are colleagues. We are fine to work with each other, and even are good friends afterwork. However, in a project, we have totally opposite opinion. John thinks the CPI of next season will be over 4.7%, but I don't. This could affect a lot in the company's investment strategy. Therefore, we insist our own opinion and no one wills to give in. Even worse, we have a quarrel and end up with a "cold war".


What shall I do? When most of people in the quarrel, they are irrational. This could due to their over-valued self-pride even they realise they might be wrong. So give them some time to let them cool down. We may invite them a cup of coffee or a mug of chilled beer after work. Make the conversation is a relax environment. Put myself in an attitude that I might be wrong and I'm here to learn from you sincerely. Start the talking from his interest. Never say "you are wrong". During the conversation, he might realise that you are the right person and will to admit your idea. If you are at the wrong side, don't be hesitating to admit and apologise.

Another situation is the long-term conflict. Sometimes, we dislike a person without reason. Under this circumstance, the first thing we can do is being professional. Do not let the personal feeling affect the job. Business is business. Finish your job and leave. Moreover, you may find his internal flashpoints after woking a while with him.

Last but not least, don't forget to put a smile on your face!

Why Effective Communication Skills Are Important For Me

Communication is a very important skill in our life. To distinguish from animals, we human beings express emotion, idea, information, etc. through communication. Therefore, effective communication is an important and essential skill in our daily life.

With the society's development, the interaction between individual and environment becomes undividable. Every sector in our life needs communication including having lectures in the school, job interview, presentation with the clients, and even buying a plate of "char kwe-tiaw". Therefore, the key points of communication are accuracy and effectiveness.

To make our communication accurate and effective, we must know the right way to communicate. There are too many ways of communication, such as face-to-face, telephone, letter, email, internet messenger, etc. Although the technology advancing provides us more choice and convenience. However, different ways of communication can represent different attitude and tones, and cause different feedback.

Thus, apart from good language skill, accurate and effective communication should include using the right media.