Post 2: Observation of team behavior: intercultural and interpersonal communication

Once, I was out shopping with my friend when he saw a T-shirt that he liked. After checking the price ($30 for 2), he immediately expressed his surprise at how cheap it was. I was personally surprised at how he could say something like that was "cheap" since this was around the usual price range of the T-shirts that I buy.



You might be wondering, "How does this relate to intercultural communication?" Well, let's review what culture means. After reading from CARLA and WSU, I believe culture can be simplified to mean "A set of shared beliefs and values that influences an individual." Hence, within a country, there can be many multiple groups of people with different cultures.

Usually people think of different races/religions when talking about intercultural communication since language also plays a part in understanding communication. However, I think this is also a valid example of how different cultures can be misunderstood, even when both are speaking the same language. My belief of what is cheap clearly won't be the same as everyone else.

A separate example of cultural differences between countries

Thinking back, I wasn't affected by his statement, since I've known him for some time and am able to understand him. However, what if it was someone who was sensitive to financial issues? They might be hurt upon hearing this statement or, in extreme cases, get upset and verbally or physically assault him.

In situations like this, the listener will have to practise tolerance and active listening. Is he being genuinely surprised? Maybe he was trying to be sarcastic? We must first not be affected by his statement emotionally, since that can cloud your judgment. With a calm state of mind, we can then start analyzing his tone and non-verbal actions to see what he is trying to express.

The speaker also has to practise discretion. If they do notice that the listener is obviously uncomfortable with the topic, it would be better to clarify, apologise if necessary and change the topic to something more suitable.



In closing, intercultural communication is always in our lives and we must always take note that the meaning of a word or phrase differs between individuals.

Post 1: Communication and Teamwork: What do they mean to me?

During the previous semester, most of our projects didn't involve group work, with most of the students working on their own. However, this semester turned everything around, with all the CEG modules requiring us to work in teams.


What does teamwork mean? To me, teamwork is being able to work well together with other people, putting your trust in each other and producing a final product that we all agree on.

Working in a team is a lot different from working by yourself. First off, there's the increased pressure from the other team members relying on you to complete your individual portion since each delay would affect the next section. For example, on a previous group project I worked on, there were small delays on each member's section. In the end, we had to rush the essay out after working overnight on it, leaving little time for editing.

Furthermore, teamwork requires you to be able to communicate clearly with each other. How else would you be able to work on a project together if you are not able to understand what the others are trying to do? I certainly wouldn't want to be getting apples after spending an hour describing to you how an orange looks like.


So how do you communicate clearly? While MindTools points out several stages during the communication process, I believe that the choice of the channel of communication is the most important.

I'm sure most have experienced the exasperation of trying to talk to someone in a noisy area. This obviously is not the best method of communicating at that time. Thus, this is why I believe one of the more important aspects of clear communication is the choice of the communication channel since it will affect how clear your message is. It furthermore has the added effect of changing the importance and formality of your message. Imagine SMS-ing your professor asking him for help!

Language can also be included as a channel, since it is a medium for information. For example, when I was studying in Thailand, the people there had some trouble understanding me, as I spoke quite fast and in English, which they were not experienced in, and vice-versa when they speak in Thai to me.


In summary, I find that being able to communicate clearly and being able to work in teams are important skills to posses. With programs getting more complicated and larger, without these skills, it would take a long time to get these done!

Introduction

Hello, and welcome to my CG1413 blog. My name is Rayner and I'm in Computer Engineering (Kinda obvious no? Haha) I usually spend my free time either gaming or watching anime.

I have studied in Thailand before, getting an International Baccalaureate Diploma. However, I don't know any Thai words since I didn't really learn it. Not to mention 2 years of brainless activity in the Army has made me forgot the tiny fragments that I do know.

This blog will contain reflections on the topics discussed in each weekly tutorial. Hopefully, I'll be able to inject a bit of humour into each post while still maintaining an academic feel, so that it won't be so boring.

As you can see, I usually prefer darker backgrounds since it's less glaring. But if anyone has difficulty in reading the posts, please let me know. I'll try and change the colours around.