Intercultural communication is important in today's diverse world, as it is in a multicultural university environment such as NUS. Common miscommunications occur when individuals are not aware of each other's culture. This can cause conflict and hard feelings. In 2006, the plane brought me onto this island where I had to face different cultures. I have become more open to different cultural traditions and norms. However, sometimes I can still feel the culture shock when the westerners, especially French in this specific case, behaved very differently according to the oriental understanding.
About two years ago, there was an event conducted by NUS Office of Student Affairs. It was an international student event which took place in NUS campus, and you could get the chance to interact with people from different nations. I enjoyed the whole process; I talked with different people, coming from Australia, France, Canada, Laos, and of course, China. At the end of the event, people waived their hands to say goodbye to each other. At the point of time, our two emcees appeared on our stage. A pretty Indian girl in Sari was waving her hands to say goodbye to a group of students from France. However, the French guys seemed unsatisfied by simply waving hands. A blond guy stepped out of his group of friends and kissed the Indian girl to say goodbye ( cheek kissing) !!! The Indian girl was shocked, pushed the guy away and stared at him fiercely. The poor blond guy puzzled and was confused about what happened at that moment.
I, as an observer and a passer-by, could deeply understand both sides. In the girl's perspective, the guy's behavior was seriously offending her and she could not understand how he dared kissing her-- just a stranger who met each other at the very first time! In the guy's point of view, the fierce staring from the girl scared him but his act was extremely normal according to the French society. Neither side was wrong, but neither side reacted appropriately. I was slightly shocked by the outcome of the friendly kiss, it seriously damaged the friendly atmosphere we had just created. Goodbye kiss is not wrong, but, cheek kissing killed their friendship and connection. However, in this situation, I thought I might not push the innocent away, but I might feel as shocked and uncomfortable as the girl did.
This is just a drop of water in the sea. It is important to understand the cultural norms of each other to be avoid intercultural conflicts. Training and knowledge are important ways to resolve these problems and prevent these problems from occurring again.
