Evaluating Intercultural Behavior (Blog Post #4)

During my Student Exchange Program in University of Adelaide in South Australia, I met a group of Japanese students who were also on exchange. They were really friendly and out-going and we became good friends almost right away. Although their command of the English language was not as good, we could still communicate pretty well. We would often have parties and invited everyone we knew in the University. The parties were often mixed with international students and people from all over the world, Australians, Germans, Spaniards, Americans, Japanese, Malaysians, and, of course, Singaporeans. While talking to our fellow Singaporeans, we sometimes used our most famous “language”, Singlish, and often mixed some Chinese words in our conversations. Perhaps we felt that it was more comfortable conversing to other Singaporeans this way and we did not really think about how it would affect the other international students.

One day, back in the University campus, I met one of the Japanese exchange students, A. She appeared to be serious and said that she wanted to talk to me regarding an issue. I was alarmed and proceeded to ask her what it was. She said that she was feeling uncomfortable that my Singaporean friends and I were talking in Singlish and Chinese at the parties. I was shocked to hear that from her and quickly apologized for our insensitivity. I then told her that we were unaware that she was feeling like that and we had no intentions of excluding anyone from our conversations. After that incident, we kept reminding ourselves not to talk in a way that will exclude other people at the parties. Fortunately, that incident was not blown out of proportion and I remained good friends with them ever since.

Here's a picture of me and the Japanese exchange students when we were on a cruise to see dolphins!

Potential Research Project Topics (Blog Post #3)

Issue/Problem/Product:

The issue of foreign talents in the recent achievement of Singapore’s Olympic silver medal.

General research question:

Do Singaporeans take pride in the foreign talents that has helped the nation to clinch the first Olympic medal in 48 years?

Hypothesis:

Having a campaign to promote the foreign talents’ image of being citizens of Singapore will allow more people to embrace them as being true Singaporeans and their achievements will not be looked upon negatively.

Problem statement:

The objective of this study is to analyze whether a campaign to promote the foreign talents’ image of being citizens of Singapore will allow more people to embrace them as true Singaporeans and take pride in their achievements for the nation.

Target readers:

Singaporeans, foreign talents and relevant authorities such as the Singapore Sports Council.

Purpose statement:

One objective of this report is to inform the relevant authorities such as the Singapore Sports Council that there is a segment of the Singapore population that looks negatively upon the achievements of the foreign talents in the recent Olympics. Also, another objective is to persuade the authorities that, by having a campaign to promote these foreign talents’ image of being citizens, it will allow more people to embrace them as true Singaporeans and take pride in their achievements.

Purpose of Survey:

To accurately determine the percentage of Singaporeans who view the achievement of the Olympic silver medal by foreign talents negatively. Also, it is to determine if having a campaign to promote the foreign talents’ image will aid in Singaporeans’ acceptance of their achievements for the nation.