Evaluating Intercultural Behaviour

I was doing a project with 3 other project mates, one of whom was Malay (let’s call her Siti) and the other two were Chinese. We got along quite well and overall the project was smooth-sailing and everything turned out fine. However, there were some situations when I thought my friends and I, who were Chinese, were not being sensitive towards our Malay project mate.

Due to the presence of a Malay project member, English would be our main conversational language during meetings. However, my friends and I were quite accustomed to communicating in mandarin when speaking among ourselves. Hence, we had the tendency of communicating with Siti in English when discussing about the project and switching to mandarin unknowingly when speaking to each other. There was no conflict observed in this scenario but this had resulted in some awkward moments for Siti. Sometimes, she would smile sheepishly at us to hide the awkwardness of not knowing what to say and would wait for us to finish our conversation. At times, she would look down on her paper, appearing to be engrossed in her own work since she could not be part of the conversation. After realizing her awkwardness, we tried to refrain from speaking mandarin during our project meetings.

This was an intercultural barrier where there was a difference in the language spoken. Despite getting along well, Siti would still feel left out in the group as she was the only Malay and the only one who did not understand the Chinese language. We were being insensitive towards Siti’s uneasiness and did not put ourselves in her shoes. Speaking in a “foreign” language when she was present and excluding her from the conversation was increasing the intercultural barrier instead of breaking it. Through this incident, I learnt to be more empathetic and sensitive towards friends of other races.

Potential Research Topic

Be green. This is one of the hottest topics in discussion now. News and research on the depleting ozone layer and melting polar caps were reported by the media more frequently than before. The adverse effects of global warming are becoming more and more prominent, and have made many realized how “sick” our mother Earth is. Recently, Singapore had launched campaigns to raise awareness of the people in reducing the usage of plastic bags. We had the ‘Bring You Own Bag’ (BYOB) campaign on the first Wednesday of every month, where one is required to bring his own bag when buying goods. The major supermarkets and some other participating stores will not be providing plastic bags for free. If one needs a carrier, he will need to make a donation which will be used to fund environmental activities. NUS has also participated actively in caring for the environment, as seen from its recent measure not to provide plastic bags for free in bookstores, drink and fruit stalls.

Our research topic will be on the awareness and opinion of NUS students on the implementation of this measure in school campus. We will also examine the attitude of NUS students towards the campaign in reducing the use of plastic bags in school and in Singapore. The effectiveness of such campaigns and possible improvements shall also be researched. The general research question will be: Are NUS students aware and supportive of the BYOB campaign launched both in campus and in Singapore?

An attitudinal survey is necessary to investigate the opinion of the targeted population (NUS students) on the issue as there may be no prior studies been conducted on the topic. As this is a campaign implemented not too long ago, the small pool of secondary sources may not be able to fulfill the purpose and demand of the research topic. A survey allows one to obtain primary, untreated data on the issue, which can then be used for further analysis. It may be more useful than relying on secondary sources which have been analysed and hence subjected to inaccuracy and biasness.