Breakfast was included at my hotel.\u00a0 It was a buffet style meal with–and I’m guesstimating here–probably over 100 different dishes.\u00a0 Included in the breakfast were items from a myriad of cuisines:\u00a0 hash browns, french toast, panckakes and omelets: sushi and ramen soup; dim sum; tropical fruits; croissants; naan and curry; and many other items.\u00a0 Not surprising, given that Singapore is an amalgamation of many different cultures.<\/p>\n
Each morning when I sat down, a waiter would come to me and ask whether I wanted coffee or tea.\u00a0 The first day, I declined both.\u00a0 Several minutes later, another waitress came to me seeing my empty mug and asked whether I wanted coffee or tea.\u00a0 I told her I didn’t feel like having it.\u00a0 A third waiter came to me a bit further on, asking again if I wanted coffee or tea.\u00a0 I finally relented and asked for tea.\u00a0 That said, I’m not really a coffee or tea drinker, and the cup went untasted and untouched.<\/p>\n
Later that morning, I went into work — I was spending a week or so doing project work during my time in Singapore.\u00a0 That day, which was my first day, I got a tour of the office, including the “most important room,” the break room.\u00a0 “Would you like coffee or tea” my host asked?\u00a0 “No thank you” I politely replied.\u00a0 “Really, no coffee or tea?\u00a0 Oh, I guess you want to get it at the end of our office tour.”\u00a0 I again declined.<\/p>\n
That same day, after lunch, I was invited by the people I was eating with to the breakroom for a post lunch cup of coffee or tea. This was getting a bit ridiculous for me!\u00a0 I relented, and accepted the offer to have some tea.<\/p>\n
Talk about a culture clash!\u00a0 I wanted the option to choose, or not to choose, to have coffee or tea.\u00a0 Those who I interacted with that day were just offering something that is ubiquitously done across Singapore – drinking coffee and tea.\u00a0 My action of declining coffee and tea was so outside the norm for them that they almost refused to acknowledge it, offering it until Iwould accept.<\/p>\n
When people behave differently then you expect them to, it is sometimes hard to accept.\u00a0 You may think that you are the cause, or that you are misunderstanding the intent of the other person.\u00a0 You may be confused, or become insistant that they fall into your way of thinking.\u00a0 But an equaly\u00a0 likely scenario is that they are acting differently because they are diffferent from you.\u00a0 In a situation like this, the sooner people recognize the premise of different people having different perspectives as a mechanism to driving different actions and behaviors, the sooner a lot of misunderstandings will be cleared up.\u00a0 Ultimately, recognizing that people have different perspectives, seeking understanding of their viewpoints, and being willing to compromise on your own viewpoint, can go a long way to clearing up cross cultural misunderstandings.<\/p>\n
Finally, this lline of thinking becomes more interesting and more widely applicable when you loosely define culture as a belief system which partially drives a person’s beahviours and actions.\u00a0 Americans vs Singaporeans is certainly an example of two differen cultures … but outside of geography, religion, gender, age, income level, and countless other demographics can drive cultural differences.\u00a0 And these cultural differences ultimately can be considered, evaluated, and reacted to using the same framwork.<\/p>\n
Lessons Learned<\/u>
\n–People have different perspectives driving different actions and behaviors
\n–Ultimately, recognizing that people have different perspectives, seeking understanding of their viewpoints, and being willing to compromise on your own viewpoint, can go a long way to clearing up cross cultural misunderstandings
\n— Finally, this line of thinking becomes more interesting and more widely applicable when you loosely define culture as a belief system which partially drives a person’s beahviours and actions… for instance, age, income level, religion, gender, etc<\/p>\n
Have you ever had a culture clash of your own?\u00a0 What did you learn?\u00a0 More importantly, do you prefer coffee or tea?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Breakfast was included at my hotel.\u00a0 It was a buffet style meal with–and I’m guesstimating here–probably over 100 different dishes.\u00a0 Included in the breakfast were items from a myriad of cuisines:\u00a0 hash browns, french toast, panckakes and omelets: sushi and ramen soup; dim sum; tropical fruits; croissants; naan and curry; and many other items.\u00a0 Not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"geo":null,"yoast_head":"\n