Evaluating Intercultural Behaviour

In the multi-cultural and multi-racial society in Singapore, I feel that one of the more endearing qualities that Singaporeans often overlook (and to a certain extent, take for granted) is the ability for people of the different races to communicate and generally understand each other well enough. 

Indeed, the dual-language policy adopted by Singapore since its early days of independence has resulted in two generations of Singaporeans who not only learn their own Mother Tongue language to communicate within their racial communities, but are also quite proficient in English to communicate with their counterparts in schools, working environments and in the public sphere.

The humble kopitiam, bedrock of local Singaporean food.

Just last week, I was having dinner at a local kopitiam when I decided to buy a beverage. Queuing right in front of me was a well-dressed gentleman and he was trying to make his order to an elderly Chinese woman manning the drink stall.

He said, in his Indonesian-accented English, “Can I have a milk tea please?”

In the local context, it was a rather unusual order. Almost all Singaporeans order drinks in the kopitiam in a smattering of local dialects, Mandarin and Bahasa Melayu. From the confused look on the old lady's face, she had clearly never heard of a “milk tea” before.

So she barked, “Huh?!”

The man was taken aback and turned around to look at me for help. So I asked him what he wanted and helped him place his order in dialect. 

A few minutes later, he walked past the table where I was eating at, holding his drink, and he gave me a smile. I took it that he got what he wanted! If no one was around to help him, he might have gotten a drink that was not his cup of tea (terrible pun I know, but I just couldn’t resist).

Much harder to order than you ever imagined.

From this short exchange, I believe that it was a timely reminder that intercultural communication can be tricky at times. In a seemingly simple task of ordering a drink at a local coffee shop, a foreigner may not be aware that some elderly Singaporeans did not learn English in their time and hence spoke only exclusively in Mandarin or dialects. 

On the other hand, most Singaporeans will intuitively order in dialect in a kopitiam even if he is capable of speaking perfect English! These are the small nuances that determine the effectiveness of intercultural communication and it may take months or even years for foreigners to pick up. 

Therefore, when it is our turn to go overseas for work or pleasure, we must be careful in our own interactions with people of other cultures to be able to communicate effectively.