My Biodata!

My name is Michelle Lee. I am currently studying at the National University of Singapore (NUS), in my 3rd year, last semester and I will be graduating this July. I am from the Faculty of Science, majoring in Applied Mathematics, with concentration in Operations Research, and minoring in Economics.

Prior to my university education, I was from Tampines Junior College (TPJC), where I studied Economics, Mathematics and Physics. My strong interest in Mathematics has led me to continue to pursue my interest in it in the university. Although Mathematics in the university is very much different and more difficult compared to the mathematics in JC, the mathematical training that I receive in NUS fosters logical and critical thinking and analytical skills when solving problems. This is an essential skill in everyday life.

In order to strike a good balance between my work and studies, I was very active in the TPJC Choir, where I took up leadership roles, being in the Music Committee as a Sectional leader. I was responsible for training choir members in my section during sectional practices. It was a challenging role as singing and music is not something that can be explicitly spelt with a word or phrase. Therefore, I had to exhaust all my verbal and nonverbal communication skills to guide them to sing well. I think that through this experience, I have developed interacting, liaising and public speaking skills, which is vital in the workforce.

On top of the school activities, I have been playing the piano for many years and I am currently preparing for my Grade 8 theory exam this May. My music study was a rough journey as I am a difficult student when I was young and many a times, I have thought of giving up. Having come thus far, it has thought me to be disciplined and persistent, not only in music, and the things and work that we encounter in our daily life. My passion for music has led me to aspire to be a piano teacher after I have earned my Diploma in Teaching certificate.

In addition to being bilingual, I hope to master the third language, Korean, which I am very interested in. 안녕하세요! 저는 미셸 입니다. 만나서 반갑워요! This sentence means, ‘Hello! I am Michelle. Nice to meet you!’ Apart from my interest, I think that learning an additional language is an added skill. Being in a society that has infinitely many opportunities to work with people of different cultures and backgrounds, such added skills will enable one to communicate more effectively.

I hope that with all the valuable skills that I have learnt thus far, it will bring me to greater heights in my work and personal well being.

Courtesy on the Train?

Effective communication is something that is very useful in every day life as it effectively conveys your intended message to the other party, be it verbal or non verbal.

I was traveling on the MRT on a Monday, on the way to ES2007s lesson. It was about 9am and the train was quite crowded, with all the working adults rushing to work and all the seats were taken up.

In view of the courtesy campaign going on, all the trains have designated seats near the door for people with special needs like the elderly, children, handicapped and pregnant ladies. When I reach a particular stop, there was this pregnant lady coming in. She caught my attention as she had a very big tummy. I continued to observe her for a little while. After squeezing through the crowd at the door, she immediately turned to the seat nearest at the door and tapped on a young lady’s shoulder who was sitting there and fast asleep. When this young lady woke up from her sleep, she had the blur looking face and was quite surprised to see a pregnant lady standing in front of her. Without hesitating, the pregnant lady pointed to the courtesy campaign poster pasted at the top of the seat, hinting to the young lady that ‘Hey, this seat is reserved for me!’ I was quite taken aback when I saw such a scene. But since this seat is really reserved for people like them, I cannot really comment much.

On the following Thursday, I was on the way to ES2007s lesson around the same time. Again, I saw this pregnant lady boarding the train and she did exactly the same thing, turning to the person that is seated nearest to the door and requesting for the seat to be given up to her.

No doubt I agree that this pregnant lady needs the seat more than the other commuters, I think that somehow or another, she is exploiting her rights to get a seat in the train. From my point of view, the seats near the door is reserved for those people with special needs, however, it should be based on one’s own willingness to give up the seat, instead of those people requesting for it. Some people may look perfectly fit on the outside but may not be suitable for standing too long a time due to leg problems. Thus, does it mean that these people without visible special needs are not suitable to take the reserved seat and have to give up their seats when these ‘special needs people’ request for the seat?

I think that this courtesy campaign has done a good job in promoting courtesy as I do see people giving up their seats. However, organizing a courtesy campaign is not to just paste posters around and not looking into the consequences and impacts of it. To me, I think that this is a form of bad communication on the organizer’s part. The poster that they have pasted is the cause of the problem. Being so briefly explained, it has led to the exploitation of rights by those special needs people. Such a problem can be solved when the organizers take a little effort to be more precise in drafting their posters and explain further what these posters really mean. Do these special needs people have the right to request for the seat or is it based on one’s own willingness to give up the seats to them? It is not right to assume that the readers of the posters understand the exact meaning of it. I am sure just a couple of lines of words will do the job!

Evaluating Intercultural Behaviors

Culture is a full range of learned human behavior patterns. It varies from country to country, and within the same country, it varies from place to place, which leads to what we call a subculture.

Last December, I was in Richmond, America, spending a white Christmas with
my American friends and family members. Christmas in America is surprisingly a very big occasion, as compared to Singapore, which is relatively quiet. Christmas over there is just like Singapore’s Chinese New Year where everyone will get together and celebrate this special day. With choir groups caroling and performances like tap-dance with Christmas songs, it’s hard not to sink into the warm atmosphere despite being so cold during winter.

In order to have a taste of Christmas over there, I stayed home with my friends and their family members. I was amazed by the number of people who turned up for the celebration. Including all the extended family members, there were a total of 30 over people under one roof, where each will bring some food over and share it with everyone. Something like pot-luck! With everyone exchanging warm greetings and engaging in conversations, I could sense the difference in the Christmas mood, something that I will not, or perhaps, never, be able to find back home.

Decorations are one of the highlights during the Christmas season. As you drive down the neighbourhood at night, you will see that every house has its own beautifully decorated yard, with decorations like a chubby snowman or a red nose reindeer! I was really thrilled when I saw those beautiful lightings. So, my friends decided to bring me on a Tacky Christmas Tour, where we go round scouting for houses with exaggerating Christmas decorations. From the picture, it is not difficult to tell that this household spends about USD$1000 per month on electricity bills! Isn’t that unbelievable?! Back in Singapore, if any household should decorate their houses like the American families, that house will sure stick out like a sore thumb and I am quite certain that their neighbours will be furious when that house is attracting so much attention from the rest.

Upon returning home from the trip, I had an insight of the cultural norms and values of the Americans during the Christmas season. Decorating their houses and gathering with their family members is a cultural norm to them. Judging from their practices, one can easily tell that the Americans value Christmas Day a lot. Just by spending Christmas with an American family, I have learnt so much about their values and cultural norms without having my friends to explicitly enlighten me on it, which is exactly the fundamentals of effective communication!

Therefore, we can see how miraculously cultural norms, values and effective communication are interrelated. A picture speaks a thousand words, and by understanding the cultural norms and values of a particular society, I believe it is not difficult to achieve effective communication across the borders and globally.