Fostering Intercultural Interaction

Hi guys, we're back to blogging once again! (:

This week, we have learnt about intercultural interactions and how people from different continents differ from each other (especially how westerners are different from those in the east).

This is one little example of a intercultural interaction I have with my physics tutor. He's from Australia, and he is over 50 years old. He's a good teacher, and is very open. Once in class, he suddenly shared about his personal life, about his younger brother. He started reminiscing about his time spent with his brother, even though his brother lost an arm. Then, he started tearing, and we were all quiet, and didn't know what to do. I think the whole class is caught off guard.

With us being Asians, it is already a rare sight to see teachers sharing something so personal to their students. When he started tearing, I was more surprised than anything else, as I would have never imagined it coming. Here is this white-haired Caucasian tearing in front of his class. Yes, a guy. I'm stereotypical. We don't get to see guys tear, what more my own teacher! In the Asian perspective, cultural norm is that guys don't shed tears because it shows weakness, and less masculine to be so emotional.

However, when you see the situation from his perspective, we would understand that he is just being himself, without the restrain of expressing himself freely to his students. He probably would not bother what our opinions of him are (low context, if I didn’t get it wrong). And also, to him, he is not raised up in an environment with such values, and  hence he would not have the consciousness to stay away from sharing too much of his personal life with us. 

It was indeed an interesting experience, in which I get to see how different Asians and Caucasians behave.

Application Letter

Job Advertisement:
Program Executive
Big Brain Development Centre

Familiar with MOE Pri Maths syllabus. Motivating & Passionate to teach children in small group. Creative mind. Communicate well with staffs, students & parents. Team player. Support operation. Weekdays afternoon & night; sat morning and afternoon. Minimum A level/Fresh graduate may apply. Only open to S'porean/PRs. Email hr.bigbrain.centre@gmail.com

My Application Letter:

13 St George’s Rd
#23-260
Singapore 320013
Contact No. : 94506504
Email Address: seewan@nus.edu.sg

10^th February 2011

HR Department
Big Brain Development Centre
 55 Siglap Road
 #02-31 Siglap Centre
Singapore 455871

Dear Sir/Mdm

Application for the position of Program Executive

I am writing to you with great interest in the position of Program Executive in your learning centre. I will be graduating from National University of Singapore with Bachelor of Science (Mathematics) in May 2011, and will be available for employment as soon as June 2011.

During my years of study, I offered tuition to primary school students ranging from Primary 4 to 6, and hence possess adequate familiarity with MOE primary school mathematics syllabus. I am passionate about educating the younger generation, and ensure my students excel in their studies. This can be seen from the improvements of results of my students listed in my resume. The greatest fulfillment I have in tutoring is to see them loving the subject. With the passion I have for children, I also volunteered in my children’s church.  Such experiences enable me to handle children in different situations even better.

I am people-oriented and love to communicate with people. Hence, I worked as a receptionist during my holidays, giving me opportunities to interact with different people. I therefore I believe I am the suitable candidate for this position.

 I enthusiastically look forward to putting my knowledge and experience into practice in your organisation. Do feel free to contact me and I will be more than willing to answer any question that you may have. Thank you very much for your consideration.

Yours faithfully

Wong See Wan

Enclosure: Resume

Interpersonal conflicts, how should we handle it?

For the fact that communication is an essential part of our daily lives, conflicts will unsurprisingly happen to every one of us. Interpersonal conflict is a situation in which one or both persons in a relationship are experiencing difficulties working or living with each other. Such conflicts can happen between family members, friends, and colleagues in the workplace.

One example was during the time I worked part-time after A’levels. I worked as a receptionist, and it was a telemarketing company so I had to send a report on everyone’s phone call durations to the managers every morning. Once, there was this sales manager, Ms. Q, who was away for a week and the assistant manager took over during her absence. The assistant manager made changes to the sitting arrangement and hence there were changes to the report of her department. When she came back, without checking with her assistant manager or me, she emailed and carbon copied to all the managers (including the directing manager) of the “mistake” I’ve made. The email was in a tone of reprimanding and blaming me what I’ve done, mentioning that I didn’t check my report before sending. I was shocked to receive the email, and was flabbergasted that she even emailed to the rest of the managers. It seems to me that she’s trying to show the rest my incompetency. However, I’m glad that the directing manager was very tactful, and emailed back to her to inform her of the changes, and ask her to check before sending such emails. The directing manager's email was definitely more polite that Ms.Q's email. Of course there were other conflicts that I had experience with Ms. Q, and hence, I can say that it's really difficult for me to work with her. Afterall, I think the directing manager handled the situation much better than Ms. Q.

Anyway, a question to ponder : how would you handle such a situation if you were in my shoes, but without the directing manager stepping in to help?

Thanks for your suggestions in advance, and for reading through my lengthy post! (:

Why I need effective communication.

Effective communication is definitely vital in our daily lives as we interact with people every day. Usually when it comes to communication, people will think that it's about us being able to speak well, and be heard. But we also have to acknowledge the fact that we have to be good listeners to have effective communication.

This is probably the area in which I need to improve on - being a good listener. There are many instances in which I didn't understand what my friends were saying, and it will end up being a joke among the group. Well, I don't mind the fun among friends, but when in the working world, consequences of not being a good listener could be serious! So, this is one major reason why I need to pick up professional communication before I graduate. (:  

Of course, I need to be a good communicator as well. We have to express ourselves differently when we are a leader and when we are not. I lead a small group of youths in my church. There are times we have fun but there are times when I want to tell them something serious, but I wasn't taking seriously. This annoys me quite a bit, and I know I need to be equipped with the right skills of communication to be a good leader, be it in school, church or workplace in future.

All in all, being a better communicator is what I aim to achieve by the end of this course, and I know we definitely will!