Summary post

The past few weeks has been an enriching learning journey for me. After taking this course, I feel more equipped and prepared to interact with people from different cultural and racial groups. This because the topics we discussed in class has broadened my knowledge, insights and awareness of the many inherent differences in which people communicate, interact and express their thoughts and feelings. However, I feel that all this knowledge I have acquired throughout the span of this course is only the tip of the ice berg. This is because these topics are only the general framework and theories behind how people behave and communicate in different situations. One has to actually be on the ground, interacting and participating in various day-to-day communicative situations i.e. speech acts, speech events etc so as to fully grasp and understand how to interact appropriately with people from different and diverse cultural groups.

In addition, I also feel that the course has heightened my interest in the area of cross cultural comunications as well as enhanced my awareness of the many different ways in which people express themselves and communicate in their everyday situations.

To conlcude, I think that even though the learning journey of being competent and effective in cross-cultural communication is a long and difficult one, the foundation and core value of this is to simply treat people from different backgrounds and cultures in a genuine, accepting and non-judgemental manner, despite all our inherent differences in culture, values, mannerism and belives. This will help in promoting a greater understanding in communicating across cultures and reducing the occurences of any unnecessary misunderstandings and miscommunication.

Reflections on Computer Mediated Communication

We live in an age of information and technological the age in which the Internet and computer programs are so essential in our lives such that we would somehow feel 'empty' or 'missing out' if we do not have access to the Internet or going online to interact and catch up with our friends on programs such as MSN messenger and Facebook. For instance, such computer mediated communications are a necessity and of great importance especially in the professional sphere of the workplace. This is because it is the main tool that people working in the offices, professionals such as business men, insurance agents, bankers, and the like use as a platform to reach out to clients, communicate with other business corporations and organisations to maximise their clientele, seal deals and maximise profits. Indeed I can't imagine the ramifications and implications to businesses all around the world should there be a case of a global information and technological shutdown! Another example closer to home would be in universities such as NUS and other tertiary and education institutions in which online forums, learning portals etc perform an important and core function in which lecturers and students use to submit their assignments, have discussions, view web-cast lectures and the like.

During today's class, we learnt about the various types of computer mediated communication (CMC) tools. These include email, chatrooms, discussion forums, web blogs, distribution lists, instant messenger programs such as MSN messenger, video conferencing, audio chats, Internet/web-chat and SMS/MMS etc. We also learnt that these CMC tools exists in a continuum of ranging from speech like forms to text like forms.

In addition, we also had an interesting discussion on the ways in which I.T and CMC affects the ways people express themselves. It is interesting to note that when people interact via CMC tools, they can hide their gender such that both parties involved in the online chat may not even know the gender of each other. Hence there is a possibility and in some sense privilege of anonymity in using CMC tools to interact with each other. We also learnt about the differences in which men and women express themselves in their use of CMC tools. Men are more inclined to adopt a more adversarial style of communicating and involve more factual information during their online chats. Conversely, women tend to be more supportive and affiliation/relationship oriented in their online behaviour. that men take less turns to close online conversations as compared to women who take longer turns to close conversations. On this note, another interesting fact is that in online chats, men tend to use more emoticons than females; i.e 76% compared to 24%. I would like to suggest a possible explanation for this that it could be because guys may find it relatively more difficult to express themselves in words; hence they may us emoticons as an alternative/substitute means to express how they feel.

In conclusion, I think that CMC is also a part of cross cultural communication. This is because there are many different ways in which people from different cultures communicate and interact with each other via CMC tools. Furthermore, the way in which a person behaves and communicates online may be very different than a face to face situation. On top of this, the context and topic of communication may also influence how people interact and communicate via CMC tools. Thus there is still a need for us to be sensitive and understanding to such communication differences across people and cultures so that our experience in using CMC tools will be an enjoyable one. : )

Reflections on Cross-Gender Interaction

During today's class, we learnt about how the use of English tends to be sexist at times. We also understood the differences in communication styles of men and women as well as the reasons and explanations behind these observed differences.

For starters, it is interesting to see that many words in the English language pertain to the male gender. For example; manpower, chairman, businessman, mankind and many more. On that note, we discussed on how the title of 'MS' was introduced during the 1970s as the female equivalent of 'MR'.

We also had an interesting discussion on the differences in the way men and women converse. For instance, men tend to talk more than women in the public sphere in a formal context. Women tend to overlap each other in their conversations and build upon the conversation of people in their group with few pauses as compared to conversations between men. In addition, Women also tend to be more engaged and involved in their conversations. Other interesting characteristics are that conversations between women are more relationship oriented compared to that of males which are information oriented. In terms of topic development during conversations, men tend to talk about more concrete subjects such as sports, cars, politics, money etc. Conversely, women tend to talk about 'softer' issues such as fashion, clothes, relationships, emotions, life etc.

We also learnt about the possible explanations for such differences in the conversational styles of men and women. This can be attributed firstly to Dominance theory which suggests differences in power between men and women as the main cause for such differences. Secondly, Deborah Tannen's Difference theory provides an insightful explanation that men and women tend to form different interpretive frames along nine dimensions. These includes intimacy-independence, rapport-report, problems-solutions. novice-expert etc.

In light of what I have learnt today, I think it is appropriate to conclude that conversations between men and women are a form of cross-cultural communication too. This is because there are significant differences and polarities in the ways that men and women interpret and form their views and perceptions towards each other in their everyday interactions. Hence, it is important to develop respect, sensitivity and genuine understanding as similarly required in cross-cultural communication when interacting and communicating with the opposite sex. This would prevent any unnecessary misunderstandings and arguments and ultimately lead to more enjoyable conversations between men and women.

Reflections on Cultural Systems 2: Face and Politeness

There were three learning objectives for our class today. First, to understand the basic concepts in the study of linguistic politenesss through a discussion fo the two main approaches to the study of politeness; i.e politeness maxims and face management. Second, to understand the importance of politeness in determining how we structure and interpret utteracnes and communication situations in our everyday life and activities. Third, to learn how politeness and languasge are context and culture-bound.

Our session commenced with a discussion of the various politeness maxims. It was interesting to see how these maxims are actually commonly used in our daily life and interactions with our friends, family etc. For instance, I felt that the tact maxim is often used with minimizers in our speech so as to help to minimize the cost to others and make us sound more polite in our daily utterances and requests. A good example would be, "just pop upstairs and ...", "Hang on a second!..." etc. We also discussed other politeness maxims such as generosity maxim which involves minimizing benefit to self, approbation maxim which is maximizing praise of others, modesty maxim which involves minimizing praise of self, agreement maxim, involving maximizing agreement between self and other and finally, sympathy maxim which involves maximizing sympathy between self and other. On top of this, we also discussed on the possibility of the formation on other additional maxims based on various situations we are likely to encounter in daily life; since such maxims are often part and parcel of our daily life and in some sense unconsciously observed too. We came up with social distance maxim, involving minimizing social distance to be polite and maximizing closeness between self and other.

Following that, we discussed on face management strategies which concerns public self image and the emotional and social sense of self. It also encompasses being sensitive to the 'face needs' of others. There are namely two types of face; positive face which concerns the need to be accepted and connected and negative face which concerns the need to be independent and having the freedom of action. In our discussion, I think it is intersting to see that when we are making request from a close friend such as to borrow a pen, we tend to use positve face strategies as there is a connection with them and it would be quite weird if we use negative face strategies as it would be too polite and even end up making us seem impolite! However, if the situation is with a stranger, negative face strategies would be used instead as we would have to ask the person in an appropriate manner so as not to come across as rude or impolite. Thus I felt that after our discussion of all these different approaches to politeness and face management, it would heighten my awareness to the different ways that we act out our communication situations and utterances in daily life. It would be interesting to observe the various encounters I face everyday and apply these insights.

To conclude, I think it is very apt that we ended the lesson in discussing about the cultural context and aspects with regards to politeness and face. Indeed, the subject of politeness is a cultural relative concept which encompasses making appropriate linguistic choices based on what is appropriate in a particular culture. For instance, there is a different emphasis of the various politness maxims and face management strategies in different cultural groups and countries; i.e there is greater emphasis on negative face among the Japanese and British compared to a agreater emphasis on positive face in the African American community. Thus it is crucial that we be sensitive and aware of the way such politeness maxims and face management strategies are employed in relation the various cultural groups so that we will not come across as being impolite in our attempts to be polite.

Reflections on Communication Systems 1: Components and Representation

Today's class started with a theoretical discussion on Hofstede's dimensions of cultural variability and its relation to intercultural communication. Firstly, we learnt that people recognize and accept a hierachy in high power distance cultures. In contrast, low power distance cultures are more egalitarian. In general, high power distance tends to be a feature of collectivist societies such as China and Japan and low power distance is typical of individualistic countries such as America.

The next dimension we discussed was uncertainty avoidance which concerns cultural values concerning risk. As differences in uncertainty avoidance may affect intercultural communication, I think it is important to be sensitive and accepting to how far various cultures are able to tolerate uncertainty and ambiguous situations. It was interesting to see that Singapore has a low uncertainty avoidance; in other words, it shows that Singaporeans are relatively willing and able to take risks.

Thirdly, we discussed the dimension of individualism and collectivism. I learnt that in individualistic cultures, ties between individuals are loose and people tend to look after themselves and their immediate family. In addition, individual interests prevails over that of the group and values of independence and personal identity are emphasized. On the other hand, cohesive groups are found in collectivistic cultures in which the interest of the group is emphasized. People also take care of their extended family and the value of interdependence and cooperation holds center stage. Although Singapore ranks more towards a collectivism, I think it is interesting to see that throughout the years, especially in this generation, we tend to be moving more towards in individualistic mindset; i.e in areas of education, career etc. However, some other aspects of life in Singapore still portray a collectivistic outlook, such as the emphasis on the family.

Following this, we learnt about the dimension of masculinity and femininity, which simply put refers to the extent which societies stress masculine characteristics such as assertiveness, achievement, ambition, etc or feminine characteristics such as nurturing, concerns for others, etc. In this light, Singapore ranks around the middle of the continuum.

Finally, we discussed the dimension of long term and short term orientation. I learnt that Singapore has a long term orientation, with values such as persistence, being thrifty, sense of shame and an ordering relationship by status. In comparision, short term orientation cultures have a tendency of protecting 'face' and a respect for tradition.

The tutorial activities we discussed helped us in the application of these various dimensions through classifying and categorizing various statements and situations into their respective dimensions. Finally, we watched a video on cross cultural communication skills and techniques. I felt it was very enriching and insightful as we learnt the importance of adopting an open mind to cultural differences and having a genuine acceptance of the communication styles of people in other cultures.

Reflections on Written Discourse

I found today's class rather engaging and enriching for several reasons. The main learning point of our session today was on the various discourse types with genetic language types; i.e the dominant and unique trends in the rhetoric of various language and cultural groups.

The pictorial figures introduced by Kaplan to describe the writing styles of people in different language and cultural groups were interesting and relatively close to reality. We learnt that English rhetoric follows a linear style of writing with an introduction, topic sentence, supporting sentences and conclusion. Semitic rhetoric adopt a parallel writing style which tend to appear simplistic due to an overwhelming use of coordinating words like and, so, etc. Next, in the Oriental rhetoric, it follows a circular writing pattern which starts at the peripherals; with a tendency to 'beat around the bush', before arriving at the main point towards the end of the passage. Following this, Romance rhetoric such as that of German writers adopts a digressive approach in that the writer starts and ends with the main point but tends to digress in the middle of the essay. Finally, in Russian rhetoric, it tends to be more digressive in nature and often, the reader would find it difficult to see the direction in which the writer is digressing to.

To get a better idea of the above types of discourses dominant in the various language and cultural groups, we broke into groups to discuss an activity in which we analyzed the unique styles and characteristics of writing styles common in Arabic, Chinese, Indian and Australian writers.

I felt that it was a great way to learn about the unique styles of writing of other cultures and language groups. For instance, I learnt that in Arabic writers' use of prepositions are usually direct translations from conversations in Arabic. They also have very structure/ordered sentence structure and are itemized and repetitive in nature. In our discussion of Oriental writing, it was interesting to see how the reader needs a background so as to understand the meanings of culturally loaded words such as 'gentleman of flowers', 'hermit of flowers' etc, used by the Chinese writers. In addition, Chinese writers tend to carry hidden meanings or messages which critic the society within their essay. This can be seen through the use of several imagery and analogies to bring their point across. This could probably because expressing such views directly may be too sensitive and they might even be prosecuted too. Hence, an indirect form of writing is adopted. Another interesting observation we gathered was from our discussion on letters written by Chinese and Australians. For example, in Oriental letter writing, reasons are usually placed before requests, as compared to letters written by Australians in where it is the exact opposite, i.e requests before reasons. It was interesting to see that the letter written by an Australian was short and sweet, direct and to the point compared to that of the Chinese writer where is is rather lengthy.

In conclusion, in light of all we have learnt about written discourse, I think it is crucial and important to be aware of the different writing styles of various language groups and cultures. This is because such an awareness will enable me to use the appropriate style of writing in the respective cultures which I come into contact with. For instance, adopting an Indian writing style when I am in India, a Chinese style when I am in China and so on. This would prevent any potential miscommunication which may arise due to the use of an inappropriate writing approach.

Reflections on Spoken Discourse

After today's class, I managed to acquire a better understanding of the various culture-specific operations of speech events which involve the use of spoken discourse in the form of narratives, telephone openings, the use of listener responses in conversations etc. In addition, I have also learnt how to apply analytic strategies to the spoken discourses in my own culture.

I feel that in our Singapore context, the use of 'Singlish' enables both speaker and recipient the unique way to simplify or shorten their sentences. This is because 'singlish' is part and parcel, an integral part of their everyday conversations. Hence an interesting observation can be seen in Singaporean phone conversations in that openings and closings are done in a straightforward and direct way.

We also discussed about American phone openings. It is interesting that when calls are made, the person who answers the phone will usually be the one who will say 'hello' first, before the caller. In this sense, the 'ringtone' functions like a 'pat on the shoulder'; and the caller thus expects the other party to say 'hello'.

Next, in the subject of narratives, I learnt that even though similar stories may be told in English and Chinese contexts, these narratives are very different in their purpose or function. For instance, English narratives serve an entertainment purpose; as compared to Chinese narratives which have a moral/education purpose, to teach favourable character values/behaviors etc.

I also learnt that the extent of listener responses differs across cultures. For instance listening responses are frequently used in the conversations amongst people in Japan. The Japanese might even tend to emphasize, take note or comment on each other's listening responses.

Finally, on a lighter note, the session ended with an enjoyable and interesting activity in which we broke into groups to create and form our own narratives based on a series of pictures. It was indeed a creative and fun way to apply what we have learnt during the class.