Open Topic

It has been 3 months since I have taken this module and has since gained many new insights in communicating effectively. Recently, along with some of my colleagues, we conducted several rounds of interview to look for suitable candidates for our newly set-up club.
During the interview, I applied what I learnt from class and realized that I have become more aware of the things that happen during a conversation. Take for example, the non-verbal cues that people give when they are talking. It tells a lot about the person just by looking at the way he or she presents herself or even the way he or she sits. I remembered clearly there was one girl who came in, sat down at the brim of the chair, had her legs closed, and was bending slightly lower than the rest. She spoke really soft. Overall, all of us who interviewed her picked up the cues quite strongly and thought she was not confident and was extremely nervous. There were many others who had different kind of cues as well, like shaking their legs vigorously or playing with their fingers. I think the shaking their legs cue was the funniest because the entire chair shook like as if there was someone shaking it using a lot of force.
Generally, I think I had become more conscious of body language which I think would really help at this point in time because I am going to go for many job interviews.
So, have you come across anything like this recently? Like picking up the different kinds of cues as people engage in the conversation. Please feel free to share any experiences here.

Cheers,
Siew Cheng

Biodata

Biodata:

Siew Cheng is currently an undergraduate in National University of Singapore(NUS) and will be graduating with a Bachelor of Science (Life Sciences) in May 2009. She is passionate about inspiring and empowering youths and she believe in loving them for who they are and celebrating for who they become, because each and everyone of them are special and unique in their way. Fueled by her passion for the youths, she organizes and participates in many not for profit projects for the youths. In addition, she took up many leadership positions to inspire and empower the people around her. Moreover, she has been actively involved in making a difference for the youths by facilitating with a premium leadership and character development company, The Absorbent Mind, since her studies in NUS.

Evaluating Intercultural Behaviour

Last year, I facilitated an exchange camp between Singapore and Thailand Secondary School students. It was certainly memorable as I got to observe loads of interesting cultural norms of the other country and got to work together with teachers from Thailand.
I especially remembered one incident where there was a huge misunderstanding that was caused by not understanding the other country’s culture.

The group I managed comprised of both Thai and Singaporean kids and I had a very playful boy from Singapore who was outcast by the entire group. The whole incident sparked off when this playful boy refused to sleep in the same direction as other boys. He instead chose to sleep with his legs facing the other boys’ head. Everyone in the room insisted him to shift but he just refused to do so hence they started arguing. It didn’t look like a problem to us but it was deemed as disrespectful and rude to the Thais. To them, they regard the head as the highest part of the body, both literally and figuratively hence we are not suppose to touch their head neither should we have our feet pointing at it. It was only after I explained it to him did he realized what he did was rude. Subsequently, he shifted his position.

Therefore, I think it will be good that we do some research and be sensitive about the culture of the country before we interact with the people from there so that we do not offend anyone at all.