Evaluating Intercultural Behaviour

A few weeks back, while waiting for my friend at the canteen, I got so bored that I started to observe the group of girls who were seated at the table next to me. That group comprised of a Muslim and 2 Chinese girls, and there was nothing unusual about them except that they were talking rather loudly. They were loud enough for me to overhear every single word of what they were saying. Shortly into their lunch, the Muslim girl excused herself to the toilet leaving the 2 Chinese girls behind. One of them was eating char siew noodles while the other was having mee soto from the Muslim stall, as identified by its trademark utensil colour.

What followed was this short conversation between them:

Chinese girl A: " Hey, you should try this mee soto, its really good! I heard its quite a popular item from the stall!

Chinese girl B: " Really? Alright! "

Chinese girl B then proceeded to try her friend's mee soto using her chopsticks. At that point of time, the Muslim girl returned and when she saw them sharing that bowl of mee soto, she seemed quite alarmed. She tapped her Chinese friend on her shoulders and said " Hey, you can't use your chopsticks to eat the mee soto! Your chopticks are not supposed to have any contact with the utensils from the Muslim stall, remember? " Though alarmed by her friend's actions, she was gentle in her tone.

Chinese girl B: " Oh yah! I really forgot! I'm so sorry! "

I was not surprised at all by this situation because it commonly happens among my friends. Sometimes, it is because they genuinely do not know that the slightest utensil contact can offend the Muslims, but sometimes, they are just too careless. Personally, I feel that the Muslim girl's reaction is not uncalled for as pork is considered a taboo to the Muslims. In addition, they are also very careful to not 'contaminate' their utensils with the utensils from non-halal stalls which would contain the slightest trace of pork. This is because pork is considered a sin and unclean in Islam (the main religion for Muslims).

Since we are living in a multi-racial society, I feel that we really should make it a point to be more sensitive towards the other religions, races and their cultures. It is inevitable that misunderstandings occur sometimes, like what happened in the situation mentioned earlier, but as long as we are all tolerant of each other's differences and are willing to accommodate each other, conflicts can be avoided. It is also crucial to be understanding towards each other.

In the situation above, there were no conflicts because the Chinese girl apologised to her Muslim counterpart upon realising her mistake. Her Muslim friend, too, was understanding and forgiving towards her, and so the matter did not blow up. In this, we can see that effective communication is also important in such a situation. This is because had the Muslim girl raised her voice at her friend in the very first place, her friend probably would have been unhappy with her and things might turn really ugly. Effective communication is a two-way thing and really takes two hands to clap. By going close to her friend and tapping her on her shoulder, the Muslim girl made it a point to overcome physical and noise barriers to get her message across to her friend. On the Chinese girl's part, she was an active listener and did not ignore her Muslim friend. If she had turned a deaf ear to her friend, her friend would have been offended, leading to an unnecessary misunderstanding. Active listening, hence, is also a very important aspect of effective communication.

Overspending or Not?

Gone are the days when meeting up with friends for dinner simply means having a meal in the foodcourt or nearby coffeeshop. I feel that there has been an increasing trend which sees students, especially undergrads, dinning at more upmarket places like Cafe Cartel, Swensens, New York New York, NYDC, just to name a few, when eating out with friends. As a result, expenditures on meals have increased. Being one who is also guilty of this, I would like to research on this issue. To qualify as overspending on a meal, one would have to spend, on average, more than $15 on only a main course. My general research question in relation to this would then be are most undergrads overspending on a single meal when dinning out with friends?

My hypothesis which follows would be:
Most undergrads overspend on a single meal when dinning out with friends.

The most crucial part of this research would be to conduct an attitudinal survey to find out how much, on average, an undergrad would spend on a meal when eating out with friends. The survey would be a fairly simple one, which compromises 2 main questions: where they usually eat and how much they usually spend on average on a single meal. A simple survey like this is important for one to guage if a student actually overspends by means of the qualifiers as mentioned above.

The objective of this study would be to determine if dinning outlets frequently patronised by many of the undergrads should offer tertiary student discounts to them if they indeed are spending too much when eating out. This would help reduce the students' meal expenditures, as well as boost the business of these restaurants/cafes.

The target readers for this study would then be the restaurant/cafe operators as well as the student unions of the various local tertiary instituitions. This is because the student union looks after the welfare of the students, and would be involved in the negotiation with the relevant operators to offer the undergrads discounts.

I feel the pinch when I spend up to $10 for a salad like this when I dine out with my friends. Just curious, are any of you like me too?















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