Cultural differences may pose a vast barrier to effective communication. Having different opportunities to travel overseas, I had the chance to interact with people from various regions. It is sometimes surprising that despite the similarity in the heritage roots, there are still differences in the work culture between people of different regions.
I was fortunate to have the opportunity to go on an student exchange to this nearby Asian country last spring semester. There were also few others NUS students who were on the same trip with me. However, unlike my course, the courses that my other NUS friends took were more project-based and they had many opportunities to work with the locals.
Being a city that was that was known to have high work efficiency, the locals indeed portrayed their efficiency in their projects. However, this had frustrated my friends who were their project mates. The locals are used to start their discussion and work at the very last moment before submission and they will work through the night before handing in their work to the lecturers. Unlike the locals, my friends were mostly accustomed to working towards the deadline and making progresses along the way. This hence led to misunderstandings, as my friends saw that as the lack of concern about the project; while on the other hand, the locals did not see the need to start early. No doubt, the projects were eventually completed but many unhappiness could have been avoided if there was this understanding of the cultural difference right at the beginning.
Perhaps, if I am in my friends’ shoes, I will most probably feel the same way as they did. After all, we were grew up in the similar environment and will most likely have the same attitude and sentiments towards work. I will probably be just as frustrated and irritated by their work attitude as my friends because I too will want my final product to be as perfect as possible.
Indeed, cultural differences will lead to misunderstanding if it is not carefully handled. Therefore, it will be important for us to understand and appreciate the differences that we have. After all, it is such differences between different cultures that make our world a much more vibrant and interesting place, don’t you agree?
Hello Dayang,
ReplyDeleteTalking about assignments, I remember what happened when I asked about something from my Japanese lecturer.
Apparently, I had gotten back a piece of marked assignment with a strange logo drawn in the center of my assignment. There were no ticks, no crosses. I did not know what this logo meant.
When I asked my lecturer, she said "This means very good, all correct..." I later found out the logo was a depiction of a flower.
In Japan, it is the norm to use the flower picture to indicate an assignment well done. Here in Singapore, we associate a good assignment with ticks.
Hey Dayang,
ReplyDeleteIndeed, having the opportunity to experience different cultures definitely makes life more interesting and colourful. Honestly, when I put myself into the shoes of your friends, I cannot help but feel for them. I am someone who does not like to burn the midnight oil, so I would prefer to finish everything early. At least they are efficient..
Hi Dayang,
ReplyDeleteI really like the ending sentence of your blog post, "it is such differences between different cultures that make our world a much more vibrant and interesting place...". I do agree with you for this point as the world would be pretty boring without difference, analogous to a world without natural selection and evolution and eventually only one single species with the same appearance exists.
As for the working attitude of the people in XX country, like you and your friend, I will most probably be panicky-stricken. However, from my point of view, I do not see a need for myself to tolerate this kind of cultural difference in working attitude. Instead, I will talk to them about my concern and working attitude in order to seek their understanding in it to reach compromise between me and them for they too, will need to realize such existence of difference in working attitude.
Cultural differences such as this will require mutual understanding and compromise between two parties. Unlike those taboos and inherited cultural difference like no sweeping of floor is allowed on Chinese New Year etc., different working attitudes is a cultural difference with flexibility that we can seek some changes in it.