Evaluating Intercultural Behavior

Disclaimer: This post is not meant to be racist or discriminatory. These are merely events that I have observed and my views on them.

Imagine this, you are running towards the elevator which is closing. You yell out, “HOLD THE DOOR PLEASE!” However, the person in the lift ignores you and continues to press the “Close Door” button. Many of us will feel that this behavior is rude and disgusting.

What if I told you that this is perfectly normal in some countries (which I shall not name)? In Chigala (fictional country name), it is perfectly normal to shut the elevator door in someone’s face. This is a true story which my girlfriend told me.

Her brother, ZZZ, went to Chigala. He was in a lift and was holding the door for someone that was running for the lift. The natives of Chigala thought that ZZZ did not know which button was the “Close” button and courteously pointed it out to him.

WHY?

In their culture, time is very precious and everyone is always rushing for point A to point B. This is why it is perfectly normal to not hold the door, since everyone is similarly in a rush.

This brings us to the important point. Understanding cultural norms. Behavior that we find rude or distasteful might be perfectly normal or even courteous to members of another culture. Similarly, members of another culture might find our behaviors downright crude.

So the next time you visit Chigala, if you see somebody running for the lift, be sure to close the door on them.

NUS FIGHTS CLIMATE CHANGE

You see the above slogan everywhere on campus (or at least in the science faculty). But are we REALLY fighting climate change? I applaud NUS for the efforts made, e.g. charging extra for plastic bags, providing recycle bins etc, but are they really effective?

All these efforts will be for naught if the general population does not contribute to the movement. "10 cents more for a plastic bag? So what? I can afford it." "Throw the cans and waste paper into the recycle bin? Aiyah, too far!" In order to fight climate change, the general public must be educated on the detrimental effects of it. Many know about “climate change”, but do they really understand it?

Even with the widespread publicity campaigns by the NEA and various other organizations, many people are still either ignorant or refusing to see the signs. Why is this so? Obviously, there must be something wrong with the current education system.

In order to devise a proper education system, we must first understand the reasons as to why the general population refuses to embrace the movement. Is it because of cost? Or are there other reasons?

Only then, will we be able to truly fight Climate Change.

Hence, I will like to propose the following topic for the research project.

Research question
How aware are NUS students about the climate changes and its' effects?

Hypothesis
NUS students are well aware of the climate changes and the effects. (>70% of survey questions correct)

Problem statement
The objective of this research study is to determine the awareness level of NUS students about the climate changes and its' effects.

Purpose statement
The objective of this report provides the NUS committee with data on the level of awareness of the NUS student body. If this is low, it might provide useful information for the committee to devise a better campaign/education system. If the level of awareness is high, it shows that the campaign is effective and might be worthwhile to implement in other institutions.

Reasons for Attitudinal Survey
The main objective of this campaign is to educate/change the attitudes of NUS students towards climate change. Hence, in order to determine the success rate of this campaign, we will need to poll the student body to determine the current awareness level.
Edited 8/9/2008