The incident below happened in one of the residences in NUS. During dinner time, all the foreigners and Singaporeans would sit together and chat with each other among their own clique. In one of the conversation between two Singaporeans(Bryan and ERic), Eric accidentally pronounced "procrastination" as "procastination". Bryan told the others about his mispronunciation and they started to laugh at him. Instead of feeling embarrassed or angry, Eric put a smile on his face, apologize for the mispronunciation and continue chatting with others. On the same table, another Singaporean (Joyce) were talking to a Chinese(Wang Biao) who has just come to Singapore for less than half a year. She has no problem in understanding his English with strong Chinese accent. Meanwhile, Bryan overheard their conversation and tried to interrupt. As Wang Biao kept using "sen" in front of his each sentence, Bryan could not figure out what "sen" he was referring to until Joyce revealed that the word is "then". Bryan began to tell the rest on the table about it and some of them started giggling. Wang Biao felt embarrassed and offended so he talked less throughout the dinner time. He left the table immediately once he finished his food.
Evaluation:
In the example above, Eric does not seem to care much about his mispronunciation as it is just a minor mistake in his opinion. However, Wang Biao does not interpret it in the same way. In his culture, being polite, it is a must to listen and to respect to what other people are trying to say. He felt severely offended when the rest on the table showed disrespect to what he said. Bryan should not have made or had an assumption that everyone on the table would not get offended if he made fun of their pronunciation. By putting himself in someone else's shoes, he will definitely come to see others point of view and their feelings. Thus, empathy is vital in understanding people from different cultures. Besides, wisdom is of importance to effective intercultural communication as it teaches us how to interact with people with respect and knowledge. Through having background knowledge to intercultural differences, much of the communication problems could be avoided. In a nutshell, respect in all cultures in the world is a common language and by earning it through respecting other cultures and religions, the favor is returned.
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Hello Ronny,
ReplyDeleteBryan is indeed very culturally insensitive to Wang Biao's feelings. I am positive that his Mandarin is not as fluent as Wang Biao's either but even if it was, being more sensitive would have been a better choice.
Having said that, Bryan may have unintentionally insulted Wang Biao and genuinely meant no harm. On the other hand, if he were to be as tactless at the workplace, I am pretty sure that the person at the receiving end will not remain quiet. This could in turn be detrimental to intercultural-interpersonal relationships with business associates at the workplace.
Trina Chua
Hi Ronny,
ReplyDeleteI agree with your point that empathy is vital in understanding people of different cultures. In this case, Bryan seemed to be a little insensitive to the feelings of Wang Biao. Apart from considering the cultural aspects, making fun of others based on the way they speak is something undesirable. Bryan's curiosity to find out the meaning of "sen" was not wrong. However he needs to be more mindful of his actions thereafter. I felt that Bryan should not have told everyone else about Wang Biao's issue.
Many a times we assume that what is funny to us is also funny to others. This could lead to disastrous outcomes in an intercultural situation. I am sure all of us at some point or another have witnessed people of different culture doing things that may seem a litle strange or even amusing to us. However, it is always best to remind ourselves that no matter how unusual those cultural practices are, we ought to respect them instead of making fun of them. After all, we ourselves might feel hurt too if someone else made fun or even laughed at our culture. Cultural issues are generally sensitive in nature and thus it is wise to avoid cracking jokes about them.
ReplyDeleteActually, I think Eric had the right idea just laughing off his mistake but I always think it's rude to correct other people and embarrass them in a social setting. Whoever you're dealing with, consideration must be shown for their feelings if hurt and subsequent conflict is to be avoided.
ReplyDeleteMrs Richardson