Saturday, February 20, 2010

Fostering Intercultural Behaviour (Edited)

Culture, a seemingly simple word, is actually a noun that encompasses “the way of life, especially the general customs and beliefs, of a particular group of people at a particular time”, as defined by the Cambridge dictionary. To achieve peace and understanding among people with different cultural background, communication is the key element to it. However, it does not appear so when language is a barrier. This following situation illustrates how conflicts arise between two different cultural groups when language is not a common denominator.


This incident happened while I was a tourist in Hong Kong. While I was shopping for a gift at Temple Street, I overheard an argument between a Thai couple and the vendor of a street shop. The Thai couple saw a pair of shoes that they fancied and asked for its price. The vendor replied with HKD 3,500. The Thai couple exclaimed ‘phaaeng’, which in fact meant expensive. To the vendor, he misinterpreted it as cheap, for the Thai word sounded exactly the same as the Cantonese word for ‘cheap’. Immediately, he thought that the couple was rich and was willing to pay more. So he decided to raise the price to HKD 4,000. But still, the couple kept shouting ‘phaaeng’, in the hope of bargaining for a cheaper deal. This 'argument' lasted for a few minutes. In the end, a fellow shopkeeper from one of the neighbouring stores, exasperated from the confusion that had been going on for a good 5 minutes, stepped forward and explained to the tourists that "phaaeng" meant "cheap" in Cantonese. The tourists chuckled at the misunderstanding, and explained to him that they were exclaiming at the high price that was quoted. Eventually, both parties understood each other, and settled on a final price, leaving the tourists happy with their purchase.


As you can see, a simple word with the same pronunciation can have contrasting meanings in two different cultures/languages. If a person is not familiarized with the cultures and languages in a different country, misunderstanding are bound to arise easily. Hence, this story emphasizes the importance of intercultural communication.

6 comments:

rohan.rajiv18 said...

Dear Weiying,

The example is hilarious and it does indeed illustrate the confusion language can create.

I found the post itself to be a tad incomplete. I got the feeling that the post was very factual (with the definitions in paragraph 1 and the situation in paragraph 2) and missed your feelings/emotions on the same.

Cheers
Rohan

Clement said...

Hi Wei Ying,

While I think that your post does illustrate the importance of understanding other cultures (and languages), I would have to agree with Rohan on the point that your post seems somewhat incomplete.

Perhaps you could include some of your thoughts on how the situation could have been improved?

P.S It also seems weird to me why the vendor would increase the price after having quoted the price, even if the customer exclaimed that it was cheap - unless he was intent on losing this business.

peirong said...

Dear Wei Ying,

I do acknowledge that language differences is one of the many reasons why intercultural conflict occurs.

With regards to your experience, I have witnessed similar incidents happening, even in Singapore, where Mandarin speaking stall holders, who were only able to comprehend Mandarin, had problems understanding some foreigners, such as Caucasians customers who tried to enquire about the products they are selling. They ended up feeling frustrated about it.

However, I have also seen many people living in Singapore who are able to converse fluently in languages and dialects that is not from their culture. For instance, I have an Indian friend who is able to converse proficiently in Mandarin, Hokkien and Cantonese. This makes me, a Hokkien who is not able to speak Hokkien well, very embarrassed. In fact, many people of the younger generation are unable to converse using their own dialects.

With regards to your blog post, I feel there is room for improvement, particularly with the analysis and evaluation of this observation. I would also recommend that you may wish to project your observation and think about the possible implications language differences would have in a bigger picture, for instance, in a society.

Diana Yap said...

Hello Weiying,

that was a nice and short illustration of the effect language barrier has on intercultural communication.

Misunderstanding about foreign culture can arise due to the lack of personal experience in the country, which explains the misunderstanding between the thai couple and the vendor. Cultures differ in many ways, including language, which affects communication. Therefore, it will be good if we can interact and better understand people from different cultures, thus bridging the differences to achieve better intercultural communication.

Also, I agree with Clement that perhaps you can suggest how the intercultural conflict could have been resolved?

Brad Blackstone said...

Thanks, Weiying, for this observation post. Your story illustrates very clearly and concisely the power of language as a component of culture. I see you've received lots of feedback, including a couple calls for more completeness. I'm not so bothered, but agree it might have been useful for you to describe hypothetically how this scenario could have been resolved amicably. Still, the essence of your description and short analysis is fine.

WeiYiNg said...

Dear all,

Thanks for your comments and pinpointing to my mistakes! Sorry for ending this blog topic with an abrupt ending, and hence causing much confusion. I guess I will write a proper ending soon,after this hectic month of march.

To Brad: Thanks for your suggestions! I will write my hypothetical ending for this blog postreal soon!