Blog Post #4: An Intercultural Scenario I personally facedOne of the intercultural scenarios that I shared with my group is about my friend, Cindy, during her 21st birthday party. Friends and relatives were invited to her birthday party, which was held at her apartment. Since Cindy was the limelight of the day, she dolled herself up beautifully.
Being her good friend, Cindy told me that she secretly invited her pen pal, Joseh, to her birthday party who is from the United States. Cindy is meeting him up for the very first time. Not long after, Joseh arrived, dressing up in a full-blacked old-fashioned way. Cindy's mum being more traditional is rather agitated as she find black is not an auspicious colour. This make Cindy kind of frustrated. After greeting Cindy with "Happy Birthday", he went on passing her a birthday present which was a huge clock with her favourite cartoon character Minnie Mouse. She gave him a hard stare, right into his eyes, and shouted at him, "What kind of present is this!" And went up to her room, slammed the door hard behind her. All of us were stunted about what had happened.
Cindy's Dad quickly reacted to the situation by asking the guests to continue the party. I approached Joseh on behalf of Cindy, telling him that he should not wear black-coloured clothing as it is inauspicious in Chinese Traditional Culture. Furthermore, giving a gift like clock, means cursing someone to die. Joseh was pretty sorry upon hearing what I said; he went up Cindy's room and apologized to her. Telling her about his ignorance about her cultural norms, hoping she would forgive him. Cindy did forgive him in the end and received a huge Minnie mouse jigsaw puzzle as her present instead. Both of them are still pen pal until now.
That incident was indeed a memorable one. Moreover, being a NUS student, frequently we have to communicate or do projects with people from different countries. Thus, I find that interacting between different individuals from different cultures is quite important. With a better understanding of the different cultural norms, it will make us communicate more effectively.
9:28 PM -wendy-