Evaluating Intercultural Differences

Intercultural differences can be an interesting phenomenon to observe. It helps us to know more about others’ cultures, and it is always a good way to foster new friendships by showing interest and indulging in their unique practices.

I have had ample opportunities to observe differences in cultures since my university life because I stay in a multi-cultural hostel. For me, it is an invaluable experience as students from different countries and walks of life gather in a same hall and get to know each other. Being hall residents, we have a lot of activities to bond us together, and naturally we get to know people from other countries.

I have observed one interesting difference between the practice of Chinese from my country and those from the Republic of China. I have observed my friends from China preparing dumplings when Chinese New Year was approaching. According to the culture of my country, we prepare cookies and rice cakes to celebrate this important occasion.

Their practice of cooking dumplings for the celebration aroused my curiosity. I attempted to ask if they knew anything about New Year cookies and rice cakes, and apparently there were no such practices in their hometowns. It was an enjoyable experience when I learned to make dumplings from them while I shared the delicacies from my hometown with them.

From this example, we can see the deviation of cultures from place to place, even though we are celebrating the same occasion. Without communication, we may never know the existence of other unique practices. While exploring these interesting cultures, we are able to know more about our friends from other cultures, if not fostering invaluable new friendships.

Application Letter Critique (Post #3)

Application letter:

Beh Wei Heng

1A, Kent Ridge Road,

Singapore 119224

September 3, 2011

AyoxxA Living Health Technologies Pte. Ltd. 
9 Engineering Drive 1, 
Block EA #03-12
Singapore 117576

Dear hiring manager,

I am a 3^rd year undergraduate of NUS. I am majoring in Life Science and specializing in Biomedical Science. I have received the advertisement from AyoxxA looking for Scientific Research Assistants (part-time) in the form of an email, in which I am qualified and highly interested to take up the job.

I understand that Ayoxxa is developing patented technology platform in the field of protein identification and quantification. If given the opportunity, I believe I can utilize my knowledge and lab experience from Experimental Biochemistry and Molecular Biology modules to quickly adapt and conduct experiments of immunoassays.  

I have lab experience in applying affinity chromatography and electrophoresis to separate proteins, which is 

relevant to the job advertised. As a biology student, I have also learned to collect and process data using Microsoft Excel and present them in graphical manner to generate scientific reports.

Apart from that, I can communicate well and present a positive attitude while working in a team by being friendly and proactive. I have been joining various student committees, such as orientation committee and is able to work with others in teams or individually. With a keen interest in lab research, I am more than willing to learn new technologies and contribute my ideas for protocol revisions.

I would be grateful if you would consider me for this position. I can be reached anytime via email at Weiheng.Beh@yahoo.com or my cell phone, +6591819803.

Thank you for reviewing my letter. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely,

Beh Wei Heng

Enclosure: Resume

An Interpersonal Conflict

When I was in my NUS sophomore year, I joined a song writing competition organizing committee. Since the scale of the competition was considerably large, it was natural that we had to source for collaboration with external companies to support the events of the competition. 

I came into contact with a music publishing company, in which I denote it as “company A” in this post. It did not take long before we discussed some details and came to a mutual agreement. In the terms and conditions stated, the company would provide judges for the competition at a discounted price while we would help to advertise their company during our events. 

Subsequently, another director from my committee successfully obtained a cash sponsorship from a music school and agreed to distribute flyers for them during our final event. We did not consider it to be a violation to our agreement with company A, since they were not our exclusive partner for the event.

When the liaison of company A found out about our collaboration and service for another company, she was enraged and questioned us for the decision because she deemed it as a conflict of interest because they provide music lessons as well. We were initially agitated by her accusation, but composed ourselves because we were in a collaboration nonetheless. We attempted to explain the incidence as a misunderstanding because in the contract with company A, the company was not identified as an exclusive partner and there was no rule that prohibited us from collaborating with other music company and providing service for them.

In the end, the conflict was resolved when we agreed to advertise their company via the public announcement system in addition to printed advertisements. She probably felt that their advantage in advertisement was threatened when a competitor's flyers were present at the same instance. Although the conflict was resolved without any loss from the committee, it did not end up to be a happy collaboration after all.

I learned to be more careful in future collaborations. While I review the incident, I think it would have been better if we made it clear in the contract with company A for possible collaborations and services with other similar companies. The conflict stemmed from a lack of communication and assumptions made on both sides. The company assumed us to consider them as exclusive partner, while we assumed the company to accommodate our service for another music company since it was not prohibited in the contract. 

In our everyday communications, we may do a lot of assumptions on how the others think, which are not necessarily correct. Dear readers, have you been doing the same thing?

Effective Communication -- How important is it?

Communication is a very interesting process where at least two parties exchange ideas, get to know about each other, and it is from communication where all relationships begin. It was how we build up relationships with our parents, our friends, our spouse, and every single person we might come across in any point of our life. And this is exactly why communication skills are important.

Initially, I did not perceive communication as a skill, but rather an instinctive ability born with each of us. My idea was that as long as I could get along with the people around me, I am capable of effective communication. In the sense, my definition of communication was narrow and simple.

However, as I got into school, I began to realize the broader aspects of communication. And now, being an undergraduate of NUS and nearing graduation (I am in my 3^rd year), I start to appreciate the importance of effective communication, and I think about how appreciative is the working environment for this kind of ‘soft skills’ – being able to present one’s ideas in a coherent manner, clean and easy to comprehend.

To be truthful, I am not a confident and a good speaker. I often get pretty nervous prior to any presentations or interviews, or any occasions that require speaking in front of a crowd. Therefore, I figured it would be imperative for me to take the first step to train myself now, not only in terms of speaking up, as well as preparing for any skills that may be required in the near future, such as writing an application letter, preparing a proposal, working with others, etc.

By recommendation of my friend, I came across this module and decided to give it a try. I like the class the way it is so far, it is conducive for learning yet it is casual enough for sharing of ideas and getting to know new friends. I believe I will learn a lot from this module!