Blog Post #4 Evaluating Intercultural Behaviour

My HDB flat was undergoing lift upgrading and there were many Indian and Chinese labourers around. I was walking towards the lift when I saw the foreman, who was a Singaporean, briefing the workers at the lift landing. The Chinese labourers were nodding their heads at the foreman's instructions. To my surprise, I saw the Indian labourers shaking their heads as the foreman was talking. However, the foreman ignored the non-verbal cues that the Indians were sending and continued his briefing. As he finished speaking, he asked on a final note, "You understand?" to all the workers. The Chinese labourers nodded and walked off to get a wheelbarrow while all the Indian labourers shook their heads vigorously.

To my further chagrin, the Indian labourers subsequently took a spade and starting laying tiles. Unable to contain myself, I walked up and asked the foreman, "Excuse me sir, but how can you let them start work when they don't understand your instructions? Our lift may collapse!"

The foreman was startled and replied, "They know what to do. What do you mean?" I said, "But they were shaking their heads!" This time the foreman laughed, "Young lady, when an Indian shakes his head, it means he agrees with you. If he keeps quiet and has no head shaking motions, it means he does not understand you. If you actually see him nodding his head, you are in trouble. He is totally lost. So basically you must explain to him until he shakes his head at you. They are different from us Chinese."

I confirmed what the foremean had said with my father, who was the Department Head of Painting and Blasting at Drydock World. My father had always worked with large numbers of Indian labourers at the shipyard. He verified what the foreman had said, "Yup Indians shake their heads when they agree with you or to show that they are listening. They sway their heads for at least one circle, from the left to the right back to the left. If they are interested in what you are saying, they shake their heads even faster."

I was enlightened after that day!

Blog Post #3: Potential Research Project Topics

Issue:

The topic I propose to research on concerns the CCA points system for NUS students staying in hall.

Description of issue

From a newspaper article in Lianhe Wanbao where a foreign student voiced his complaints, I understand that you need over 80 CCA points to stay in NUS hall, which means you have to join about 4 CCAs to qualify.

This has resulted in NUS hall students, mainly foreign students, to join many clubs and societies in order to secure the necessary CCA points without having the interest and passion in them. With our heavy academic workload, it is humanly impossible for a person to cope with 3 CCAs or more. Hence it is not surprising when CCAs complain that their foreign members are slacking off duties and pushing their work to other CCA members.

CCAs are meant to cultivate leadership skills in students. However with the demanding CCA points system, we are only encouraging hall students to join many CCAs in name and be absent physically, causing many problems to the running of the CCAs. We are in fact cultivating the spirit of irresponsibility.

Why survey?

An attitudinal survey is needed to study this topic so that we can find out about the opinions of both foreign and Singaporean students involved in CCA towards the CCA points system to stay in hall.

Purpose of study

If a general agreement is found that the CCA points sytem is detrimental, it can be proposed to the NUS Administration that the CCA points system be scrapped and replaced with a qualitative grading of the CCA system. For example, a NUS hall student would only have to join 1 CCA and points would be awarded based on his quality contributions to that CCA.

If he has been contributing actively, I believe he qualifies for a place to stay in hall while if he has been a missing member, he would be penalised. This would solve the problem of CCAs having members that want CCA points but do not do any work. I believe that my research topic has practical applications.