As a Singaporean born Australian revisiting Singapore as an exchange student, I've had the opportunity to both experience and observe countless scenarios involving intercultural communication. Specifically, I remember a situation from week two of semester which really illustrated the multidimensional nature of intercultural communication.
In the dining hall of my residential college, there was a large group of exchange students of various nationalities sitting and eating together. During conversation, a European exchange student commented about the lack of variety of food available on campus and how he was continually having to eat western food. He did not like rice or noodles and found that where ever he went, rice or noodle dishes were the only choices. I found his view rather skewed but kept these thoughts to myself as each individual has their own subjective viewpoint and tastes. However, there was an American student who strongly disagreed and responded bluntly with “I do not see how food is a problem at all. Singapore is such a culturally diverse place, there is so much great food everywhere and I find that I’ve been able to assimilate completely.”
Intercultural communication is becoming much more present and commonplace in our daily lives and society today. There are many aspects to culture and communication which can be similar, very different or even conflicting to our own! Several categorised differences can especially be noted between low vs. high context cultures, with non-verbal cues (proxemics, haptics, oculesics, kinesics), values (collectivist vs. individualistic, masculine vs feminine), time management (polychronic vs monochronic) and verbal communication styles (direct vs indirect, instrumental vs affective).
In this scenario the American student was very direct and instrumental in communicating her ideas, the European student did show slight offense however he didn’t extend the argument or take it personally. Different people communicate differently and although personally we may see their approaches as right or wrong, we need to understand that each individual’s own background teaches different norms, values and ways of communication. It is important not to have prejudice, stereotype or categorise people based on culture as each individual is unique.
Situations like this are probably familiar to many and to effectively communicate, we must be open, knowledgeable, understanding and instead embrace the differences between cultures.
