Evaluating Intercultural Behavior (Blog Post #4)

It is the first time for June to attend a Hari Raya celebration in Faizal’s house. Due to the hot weather, June wore only spaghetti strap and a pair of shorts to his house. In addition, it was a joyous occasion so June decided to buy some food to his house. June bought a packet of drumsticks and headed straight to Faizal’s house.

When Faizal opened the door, he was shocked to see June dressed so skimpily. He scolded June for her carelessness but forgave her for it as it was the June’s first time attending such a celebration. Then, when Faizal’s parents saw June in shorts, they shook their head and were really angry and Faizal was scolded by his parents. June felt sorry for her stupid mistake of dressing casually instead of dressing to the occasion. The misery did not stop right there for June. June presented the food to Faizal’s parents and to their utter disbelief, it was not Halal as they cannot find a Halal sign on the packaging. Faizal’s parents got so furious that they asked June to go home immediately. June felt so disappointed at her own actions that she cried and left the house.

From the above scenario, we have several things to take note. One is to know the culture and values of others. For June’s case, she should have asked Faizal whether wearing spaghetti strap and a pair of shorts is alright. She just takes it for granted that it is okay. In Malay tradition, girls should dress decently instead of skimpily because it is a sign of disrespect for the elderly. Secondly, she should have called and asked Faizal whether it was alright if she bought food that is not Halal. For Malays, they only eat food which are Halal. Halal means permissible. An animal or poultry has to be slaughtered in a ritual way known as Zibah then it can be considered Halal. If she had called and clarified with Faizal, this incident would not have happened. Lastly, June should not leave the house, instead she should apologize to Faizal and his parents and everything will be fine. In this way, it would repair the bad feelings between them.

Potential Research Project Topics (Blog Post #3)

I would like to do a research on whether the problem of students coming late for classes in NUS is solely due to the frequency of bus 95. I have thought about various other reasons regarding this problem. One could be due to the low frequencies of buses and MRT, another could be due to the attitudes of students or it could be because the lessons are too early for them. However, I’m more interested in researching on whether the frequency of bus number 95 has any reason for students to be late for their classes. Being a student of NUS, traveling from my house to school which includes waiting for bus number 95 is a daily routine. Although there is another alternative, bus number 198, the more convenient bus to science faculty and other faculties is still bus 95. However, there is one main problem: students waiting at the bus stop in Buona Vista will take the bus to school and since the bus is single decked, a lot of the students have to wait for quite some time to get to board another one if they missed it due to too many passengers. Therefore, I am thinking whether this is the main reason that caused students to be late for classes in NUS.

An attitudinal survey is needed because we need to see are there other reasons that contribute to the students being late or is it solely the frequency of bus number 95. Some people are late because they stay quite far away from school while others are late because of their attitudes. For instance, some people feel too lazy to wake up 15 minutes earlier to travel to school. By having concrete evidence through survey, we can know the real reason behind people being late. Then we can come out with solutions to solve the problem such as informing the Land Transport Authority about this problem and see if they can increase the frequency of bus 95 or construct a double-decker bus which can fetch more commuters. It will definitely benefit the students and lecturers. The objective of the report is to inform the LTA about this pressing issue.