Intercultural Communication

This picture to my left shows a picture of two people of different cultures (the hair) communicating with one another. Notice the blank speech bubble which is shaped in a jigsaw puzzle shape that can be pieced together nicely. From the look on their faces, it seems to me like a happy conversation that they are having. However, words cannot be seen and thus, we can use our creative imagination to think of the dialogue spoken between them.

As we all come from different cultures, there are many differences and miscommunication may occur. There are cultural barriers as well as attidudinal barriers to intercultural communication. First up is cultural barriers. There are 5 ways in which culture affects communication. Perception of reality, understanding of role relations, goal - oriented behaviours, sense of self and message making. In short, as each person comes from a different culture, what one person perceives to be right may not mean the same thing to another person. A person's beliefs will difer from that of another person. One may not fully understand or comprehend what the other party is saying, hence the blank speech bubble but with good relationship, the dialogue still can be pieced together.

Next, we have the attidudinal barriers. People tend to stereotype others from different cultural backgrounds. We all have a certain idea that those who come from say, China are all the same. But we are wrong, although they all come from China, within the country itself, there are many different cultures. Holding negative social attitudes towards members of other groups, also known as prejudices can cause conflicts within different cultures. One would tend to believe that one's culture group is far superior thatn others and we tend to judge others by what we believe in. This is a very wrong attitude to have towards others.

From the cartoon, we can see that when both cultures work together hand - in - hand, communication can be smooth sailing and one would be able to piece together nicely a good relationship as well as a good dialogue. If one is able to put aside the differences and understand those of different cultural backgrounds, we would all be able to communicate well with one another.

Simple yet Complex!!!

Some people say a picture speaks a thousand words. In this picture, it does portray to me alot of words which can easily be described in this simple yet complex picture. What is the first thing you think of when you look at this picture? Its a group of people inteconnected with each other through the use of their hands to form an unbroken circle in the centre. Alot of group work and co-ordination is needed to form this almost flawless unbroken circle in the centre.

If one person were to let go of the other person's hand, the circle will not be complete anymore. Same concept occurs in a group. If one person were to let go or give up, the group will fall apart and conflict will arise.
What exactly is a group then, one would ask? A group is a "collection of individuals who, as a result of interacting with one another over time, become independent, developing shared patterns of behaviour and a collective identity.

From the above picture, all the hands, although different, look roughly the same. Why is that so? It is because they are in a group and they share the same collective goal and identity.
Working together in a group may has advantages and disadvantages. One can get to like a person better or dislike a person. All this is determined by how one perceives the group to be or how one approaches a group. To be able to fit into a paticular group, one mostly would have to like the same thing as the other members in the group. There are many roles within a group itself that enables the group to function well. Such roles are critical in the development of the group to a further level. Being a student, I have personally seen many people who take on different roles within a group to help the group in all ways and means. This is very good and because each person in a group is different and have different talents given to them, they take on different roles, thus providing each person within a group to develop their talent in their particular field and at the same time, bring the group to greater heights. Isnt that wonderful? Killing two birds with one stone!!

All in all, working together as a group is something that is unavoidable. Even if one manages to escape that in school life, it will not stay that way in the working life. There will be big projects to handle as a team and this is where roles within the group members fall into place. Learning to work together as a team is crucial and if one member falls, the whole team will fall too. We're all in this together!

Reality or Joke??

Interpersonal Communication is defined as making personal contacts, building a connection with and establishing a relationship with another individual to satisfy our social needs and realise our personal goals.

This cartoon shows us a side of relationship that not many people will see. The guy in the picture is saying that he will stay with the girl as long as it pleases him and it doesnt give him any grief. It applies to the communication theory of relational formation and development in the exchange part. It states that people get into a relationship based on our perceptions of the costs and rewards of the relationship. This means that we enter a relationship with the hope that we get benefits out of it and there are rewards from it. Once no rewards or benefits is gained from that relationship, one party or both will back out.

In Knapp's model of relational development, this cartoon can also be interpreted in such a way that once the guy gets fed up of the other party, they will terminate their relationship. Before that, however, during the 8th stage, a.k.a the stagnation stage, parties are just going through the motions os a relationship and there is absence of joy and excitement. In order not to feel the pain of losing the other party, they persist to avoid pain of termination and just go through routine scripts. Subsequently, as the relationship goes from bad to worse, the relationship will terminate and that is when both parties move on seperately.

This cartoon really shows me the ugly side of humans as one will not tell a person directly to their face that they will only stay on with the person as long as it gives them pleasure and benefit to their own self. Although this cartoon can be seen as reality to some, to others, it may just be a joke.
What do you think?

Ferrari's Mistake - Overdependence on technology

The F1 race in Singapore was a very interesting race in which Ferrari's Felipe Massa was almost devasting to him. Was it his pit crew's fault? Or was it Massa's fault?

"Those watching the F1 last weekend would gasp in horror as Ferrari’s Felipe Massa stepped on the accelerator after his schedule pitstop and to everyone’s horror, the fuel nozzle still attached to his F2008 F1 car.

It seems that there was some error in the Ferrari pitstop, when a crewman pressed the go button of the electronic sign wrongly, which gave the green lights for Massa to leave the pit, but not known to Massa, the re-fuelling mechanic have yet to remove the fuel nozzle.

Team Ferrari is the only team that uses electronic sign to indicate to their F1 drivers if its fine to move off. Other F1 teams uses a ‘lollipop stick’ where the chief mechanic would hold the stick in front of the driver and would only remove it once the other mechanics have completed their pit-jobs.

If Massa who is currently in second place (77 points) in the F1 drivers title loses the championship to McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton (84 points), the incident at Singapore GP will be regarded as the turning point for Ferrari’s failure to defend the drivers title under Ferrari flag. Kimi Raikkonen was last year champion."

Taken from http://www.singaporegp.org/constructors/what-caused-felipe-massa-pit-error-at-singapore-gp

This shows that although technology can be good at times, it does not always prove to be the best. Sticking to the old fashion use of the 'lollipop stick' did prove to be much better in this case. Aside from the technology part, miscommunication may have occured here.

"What I don’t understand is why those crew moved off from the front quickly even when the hose is still in the nozzel. This i believe played a part in the decision of the signal controller who had obviously concentrated at but front and ignored what happened at the back."


Above is a comment posted by one of the people who watched the F1 race and in it shows miscommunication between the pit crew members themselves. The organisation and arrangement between the fron pit crew members and those at the back was not in sync thus causing this great loss to Ferrari.
Miscommunication can occur in many ways, through non verbal or verbal cues. Non verbal cues in this case includes the use of body language. Maybe the pit crew members in the front, seeing that those at the back seemed to have finished signaled the cue for Massa to go. Body language can be misinterpreted as seen in this case. Massa, on the other hand, not knowing if the pit crew had finished, but assuming that they were done, followed the cue to go off. There was no verbal communication involved between that of the pit crew members and Massa. Even if there were little communication, it would not have been heard clearly because of the loud noises in the surrounding environment.
With all this in check, Felipe Massa, starting of at first place fell to one of the bottom few, thus causing Ferrari to lose the F1 race. Therefore, who should be responsible for the fall of Ferrari in the Singapore F1 grand prix?
Is it Felipe Massa? Or is it the Ferrari pit crew members?