Evaluating Intercultural Behavior (Post #2)

Dining habits vary widely across different cultures and even among different subgroups of the same ethnicity. For instance, the Chinese Hakka and Hokkien have their unique ways of serving the "Bak-Kut-Teh" (a Chinese soup that consists of meaty pork ribs simmered in a complex broth of herbs and spices). While it is great to be able to delight our palates with these diverse dishes, there are times when some people fail to appreciate this diversity and this may lead to intercultural miscommunication and misunderstandings.

As a prelude to my personal experience, let me first share with everyone about a local curry cooking dispute that happened a few years back. Here's a short summary of the incident:

One Chinese family that arrived from the mainland could not tolerate the smell of curry cooked by their Indian neighbours. The Chinese family protested against the neighbour's act of cooking curry and lodged a complaint to the Singapore's Community Mediation Centre. Eventually, a compromise was reached when the Indian family agreed to only cook curry when the Chinese family was not at home. In return, the Chinese family promised to try the dish.

The incident caused a huge uproar in Singapore as many (including myself) felt that the act of depriving the Indian family of the right to cook this dish seemed too far-fetched. After all, curry is regarded as one of our national dishes and is well-loved by the local Malay, Indian and Chinese communities.  Nonetheless, it was a mutual settlement agreed by the involved parties.
My personal experience with intercultural differences happened about seven years ago. It took place during a three-week science forum held at London. Even before going to London, I already did not have a good impression of British cuisines, possibly influenced by the stereotype opinion of the faxlore, "Hell is where....the chefs British".

At the welcome dinner of the forum, we were served lamb chomp. “Not bad", I thought to myself. As I sunk my teeth into the meat, the smell did not seem right. There was something else besides the lamb and the sauce. I took a close look and realised that mayonnaise was stuffed as "fillings" in the meat. Though the smell was a bit overwhelming given the amount of mayonnaise in the meat, I thought to myself "Well, at least I'd never tasted this before. It's exotic."

However, I definitely did not expect what was to happen over the next few days. Lunch was egg mayonnaise sandwich and dinner was mayonnaise too, albeit a slight variation in how the meat was prepared (grilled, roasted etc.). This repeated for days and I started to wonder how I was going to survive this for the remaining weeks. In fact, some of the other Asian participants had similar thoughts too. Having mayonnaise was fine but certainly not for prolonged periods. Fortunately, it was not long before the facilitators of the forum realised that we are taking decreasing portions of food servings and decided to approach us for feedback. Subsequent meals served were changed to cater for international students.

From the peer teaching session as well as the relation of this personal experience, I managed to gain a few learning points:

1. Many at times we often tell ourselves that we are very open-minded and will accept any change readily. However, when faced with the scenario, we may not be that tolerant as we had expected. In this case, I had always thought that I am a very easy-going person who would just be fine with any diet but I was apparently proven wrong. That is why we should never be overly-confident of our adaptability.

2. We should be mindful of the various habits and cultures. This is especially so when the world is getting more and more interconnected and there are bound to be constant interactions with people of different geographical and cultural background. Being sensitive to their habits and cultures will allow us to gain respect from them and they would most likely reciprocate our kind intentions. We should strike a balance between accommodating to their cultures as well as introducing our cultures to them. Friendly exchanges will help others know our cultures and beliefs too and make it easier for them to understand us.

3. We should always learn to be observant and proactive. The facilitators demonstrated their ability to observe the participants' expressions and took initiatives to solicit feedback from them. By taking an active step in learning about others and listening to them, people will be more forthcoming in providing feedback. This will allow improvements to be made and bring about mutual benefit. Clarification will also help to reduce occurrences of misunderstandings. More importantly, the effort to listen to others demonstrates one's sincerity in trying to achieve effective communication.