It’s almost a month since the day I came to this place. It is a whole new environment for me. For my last visit to Singapore before this, dates back to the past 10 years. Therefore, everything has changed a lot; the town, shopping centres, lots and houses, a lot more. So, for my experience living in Singapore, I would like to say that I want to start from scratch. I do not know at all how people here communicate; the way they speak, or express themselves. For we are all human, there is always a common way to communicate, that is by using verbal communication. The beauty of language allows us to converse, exchange thoughts and speak up our mind.
Even so, language can also become a barrier and lead to miscommunication. For example, speaking mandarin to Japanese who doesn’t know Chinese can lead to many misunderstandings. Although sometimes we are able to communicate using the same language, misinterpretation can still occur, which is an example of the language-based barriers to communication.
To illustrate, my communication class instructor divided us into groups in the beginning of the semester, each with 5 to 6 persons. And the groups are to be maintained and work together for the rest of the communication course semester. I was grouped with 5 Singaporeans, which made me the odd one out. Our first task was to make a video to introduce ourselves and we were to do it with our assigned group members. While we were holding a meeting to discuss about the theme, one of my group members suggested a Singaporean comedy show. And during then, I was so blur, I didn’t know what they were talking about. Being the international student that I am, I do not know anything about the television shows. Thus, I kept quiet for the whole time the meeting was held.
During the silent moment that I have had, I felt alienated. I was not able to give any comments or opinions; all I knew was just to nod my head and agree to whatever they were saying. After all, keeping quiet is just another form of communication. Thanks to my group members for being so considerate by showing me the video of the show to give me an idea of what they had been discussing about.
Just to give another concrete evidence, my housemate who is also an international student, and I were involved in another grouping incident in ESL 407, an English course. Since we are foreigners, we do not have anything in common to talk about with others; as a result, finding a group was not easy. We ended up doing the project in a group of two. Despite that, we finally did find a group to join, and that was only because our ESL 407 instructor didn’t want the number of groups to exceed 5.
Even so, language can also become a barrier and lead to miscommunication. For example, speaking mandarin to Japanese who doesn’t know Chinese can lead to many misunderstandings. Although sometimes we are able to communicate using the same language, misinterpretation can still occur, which is an example of the language-based barriers to communication.
To illustrate, my communication class instructor divided us into groups in the beginning of the semester, each with 5 to 6 persons. And the groups are to be maintained and work together for the rest of the communication course semester. I was grouped with 5 Singaporeans, which made me the odd one out. Our first task was to make a video to introduce ourselves and we were to do it with our assigned group members. While we were holding a meeting to discuss about the theme, one of my group members suggested a Singaporean comedy show. And during then, I was so blur, I didn’t know what they were talking about. Being the international student that I am, I do not know anything about the television shows. Thus, I kept quiet for the whole time the meeting was held.
During the silent moment that I have had, I felt alienated. I was not able to give any comments or opinions; all I knew was just to nod my head and agree to whatever they were saying. After all, keeping quiet is just another form of communication. Thanks to my group members for being so considerate by showing me the video of the show to give me an idea of what they had been discussing about.
Just to give another concrete evidence, my housemate who is also an international student, and I were involved in another grouping incident in ESL 407, an English course. Since we are foreigners, we do not have anything in common to talk about with others; as a result, finding a group was not easy. We ended up doing the project in a group of two. Despite that, we finally did find a group to join, and that was only because our ESL 407 instructor didn’t want the number of groups to exceed 5.
same thing happened to me when i was in UK... i knew absolutely nothing about their lifestyle or culture. But i adapted to it after a
ReplyDeleteyear or so. =) Learning new things in a foreign country can be interesting and at the same time kind of frustrating. But its worth it though...