Singapore has always been a mixing pot of people from diverse cultural backgrounds since its formation. It is thus pertinent for everyone to equip themselves with intercultural awareness and skills to interact tactfully with people they meet.
Given the inherent conflict-prone nature of intercultural interaction, I have observed numerous intercultural conflicts before, and one particular incident still strikes me til this day. It was during my second year of university, when I was doing a group project with peers whom I did not know before the project. The 3 group members consisted of 2 local students and an exchange student from Finland. I was appointed as the leader and we got off to group discussions before long. Soon we were at the stage of compiling everyone's work after we split roles, and while we have previously laid down details which everyone agreed upon, the exchange student made some changes to the online document without informing us. When the other local student saw the changes, he was furious at how the original plan was not adhered to, and confronted the exchange student during the next meeting.
The main crux of the conflict was that the local student, coming from a high power distance culture, felt that the exchange student should at least have informed me, as I was the compiler of the individual parts. He did not like how the exchange student had bypassed the hierarchy and took matters into his own hands. The exchange student, coming from a low power distance culture, felt that his actions were too minor and wanted to only discuss it at the next meeting. This is where one important point of intercultural communication comes into play: awareness. Both parties were not aware of the other person's culture and values, and thus acted according to what they themselves deemed fit. Awareness is more than knowledge; it is the the respect and accommodation you are willing to undertake for the person from a different cultural background. In this case, both parties could have exercised more awareness for each other, and seek to reach middle ground in a communication mode more fitting of other party's culture.
