Summary Post

The mordule has been quite an experience.
Intially, I thought squeezing in a small classroom with so few people for 3 whole hours would be agonizing
but I feel it all turned out pretty well after all
this class is small, but I feel we are all very united
a bunch of people with diverse perspectives
many different backgrounds and qualities
yet we can all come togt and learn things togther
it has been quite an experience like no other mordule I have ever done

I must say that the interactive segments in the class has been very interesting
we all have a few good laughs and learn a lot of new things about how different cultures communicate, miscommunicate,interpret and understand each other
just within one language such as english can have so many variations and styles
so many different perspectives, lingos, interpretations
its really amzing how we all managed to live with each other

the project I must say has been quite a feet
fun none the less.
it has been interesting deciphering different theories and assumptions we make
going abt conducting the interviews
forming conclusion out of the many different respondents we have
It sometimes felt like we were doing a thesis paper
but all has went well
and I am glad that we had managed to finish it to the best of our ability

so to all our dear course mates and Dr Deng,
thank you for being such a joy to have!
have a fantastic future ahead!~!

Final Post- CMC

CMC is something that is very close to my realm of interests
having chosen to do it for the research paper as well
it shows the degree of things that I feel can be explored in CMC

In this time and age,
people are getting busier for FtF meetups, and somethings uses the convenience of CMC to catch up with people
there is also the growth of online romantic relationships
which shows the degree of importance of CMC in our lives these days
it is a convenient, casual and simple way to keep updated and in touch with friends all around the world
One interesting thing would be that CMC has also formed its own net lingo
its funny to see how while CMC is already so conveninet, people actually even invent short forms, acroyms and abbreviations to simplify the communication further
I guess as the notes shows, people would want to be able to type as fast as their mind thinks, so as to convey as though they are speaking in the written form.
the net lingo is also a more laid back and 'fashionable' way of speaking, by removing all the formaltiy and politeness in it
emoticons are also something that is very prevalent
as CMC is unable to show a persons expressions and body language
so emoticons such as :) or -_-" is ways to express how the person might appear to be.
emoticons I feel has become very important and neccessary in mantaining good online communication, expecially if you do not want to have misunderstandings with the other party, as there are times where words can be misinterpreted and the tone come across in the way that one did not intended

One last thing I found very interesting was that people uses CMC to do all the the following:
-COMPLIMENT ON ABILITY
-COMPLIMENT ON LIFESTYLE
-CPMPLIMENT ON PERSONALITY
-COMPLIMENT ON APPEARANCE

these are very insightful, as it shows how CMC is a great way to compliment people in a casual yet unawkward manner. so if a guy wants to impress a girl but finds it awkward to do so face to face, online would be a great starting ground. Yea
so thats all for this entry
this mordule has been very insightful and interesting
Thank you all for contributing to the enjoyment of it!

Gender Interaction

This week's lesson was very interesting
as it is rather pertainant to what my group is looking at for our project
gender issues have always been an interesting topic to discuss
to learn more about social constructs
and the difficulties women face in fighting for gender equality

it is funny to see how for animals, there are so many different terms to describe
the young female, young male, adult female, adult male
makes me wonder if all these were even neccessary
why did the creator of these words have to go down to the very specifics
does it thrill him or her to come up with more words:)
is there a need to differentiate the young of a goat, female and male, while they are almost the same anyway.

one interesting thing that we discussed quite a lot in class was the issue about the Miss, Mrs and Ms
it really keeps me thinking
should I support this by addressing myself in terms of Ms in future:D
but if I do so, will people connotate it as me being of an elder age
I guess in singapore, it is slowly becoming prevalent to use Ms
but it still takes a bit of getting use to

lastly, we had a lot of discussion about the way men and women interact during conversations
I thought that was very insigthful
as we realize how men respond very differently when they talk to women
it is quite amusing to see how they change their tone, their degree of imposition just to come across differently in a mix gender conversation
but I guess sometimes we should not overread into things
as perhaps in a modern society, it is just manners to accomadate the other party in a conversation
similarly if there is majority of men in a group conversation and only one woman
maybe she too will adapt to the rest by interrupting more and having stronger opinions
well.
we shall see:)

Components and representation

learning about the 4 different Hofstede’s dimensions has been very insightful indeed
- power distance
- individualism versus collectivism
- uncertainty accepting versus uncertainty avoidance
- masculinity versus femininity
these are things that I have heard a lot about
learnt in various classes in business school
learn about it in organizational behaviour
but I can always takeaway new lessons each time

I must say there are always certain systems that I would prefer as an individual
that I would see as ideal
due to my gender, my personality, and career
but of coz,
different societies and cultures are more geared to certain dimensions
a challenge at times
but tt is wht makes them unique as they are:)

Power distance has always been something that I am not quite for
In singapore, power distance is quite prevalent, and it actually hinders communication, openness and mutual respect among people
by playing this ' I am your boss' or 'I am your father' thing
it doesnt always work out as the person will end up disrespecting you even more
when you play hierachy

RISK
singaporeans are very very risk averse
afraid of failure
weary of their movements and actions
and afraid to face the repercussions of their mistakes
but I guess being more risk taking actually does encourage creativity, to be
unafraid of changes
and open to deviant ways and approaches
sometimes taking risk will eventually reward you immensely
therefore people should be unafraid to take risks.:)
you may fail a few times
but wil eventually reap immensly

I guess every society prides itself in different things
some countries try to steer away from what it use to be
but culture is something that is very fundamental to society,
and in order to change mindest and behaviours, it takes getting use to.

Written Discourse

Some takeaways from class is that letters written by people from different cultures can be extremely different
just writing a simple letter requesting for something can be a totally different approach across cultures
just like the assignment we did
where the way a chinese writes a request is
- introduce self
- show interest in the group they are writing to
- explain their situation
- give the request
- show gratefulness and apologize for the trouble caused

but in the case of a westerner
they are more direct and straight forward
which is clear, but may sound impolite as well
so there needs to be a balance:)

another interesting thing we discussed in class was the one about the indian essay on Dowry
we can see how inductive and deductive forms of argument is so different
to us locals, it may seem like the writer of the essay did not seem to have a clear statement or point of view
but perhaps it is just the style of writing from people in theat culture
so just because we are taught a certain way
does not mean another form of argument is neccessarily bad
therefore it was quite insightful
these were my general takeaway
group discussions are indeed a great way to learn more:)

Spoken Discourse

I managed to take away quite a couple of things during this week's class
Firstly, its funny to learn how Dutch start off their telephone conversations with self identity
it is still something I find very useful but yet amusing
perhaps in spore, this is more common for corporate office numbers
to inform the caller of whether the number they called is the correct one
so as to provide reassurance and relief to the caller to get straight to the point of the call
instead of starting of with a entire string of words
and get a extremely puzzled person on the other line
so yes, self identification is good

however, if the person you are calling is someone you are familiar with, call quite often that you can actually remember the number at the back of your head
hearing him or her pick up the line addressing his or her number is kind of strange
it is even worse on the other end if the receiver gets a prank call and the caller knows their name before they even need to utter a word
therefore, there is a bit of danger to it this kind of formality

another thing that is amusing is the way people grow and learn naturally to start conversations without getting straight to the point
like first with greeting, followed by identification, then greeting-after-you etc etc
they will hang around talking about different things, the weather, the children, enquiring of the other party's health and sounding interested
most people will be honestly and sincerely interested in the other party
but sometimes all the person want to do is get straight to the point that they need
lets say a favour
so this delay tactic is just a matter of politeness
which may end up sounding very forced in the process

the final takeway from the class is my favourite of all
Reactive expressions!
Collaborative expressions!
so yes.. i finally know the term of something I use so very often in our lives
and I am rather surprise that Chineses are shown to use it so much less than the Austrialians
Coz I feel that I myself am guilty of using it
very
very often

yes indeed
and for various reasons
1. To assure that one is sincerely and attentively listening to your friend
2. To help yourself follow the conversation, lets say you are finding it very hard to concentrate or catch up with what the person is saying
3. To help prevent awkward silences and pauses in a conversation
4. To assist when the other party is stuck trying to convey a certain point

So come to think of it
I think reactive expressions are very useful
very important
especially for women
who engage in dialogue so much more often
to keep conversations going smoothly
and make the understanding clearer
however, we must be careful not to use these words too often
that it becomes blatant to the other party that you are trying too hard
and yes, I have been a victim of such a thing..:)
so thats all for tonight!
signing off:)

Speech Events

The lesson i learnt from this class is pretty interesting
I learnt that genre is not just a term used in lit, but it is also
'a fairly predictable sets of speech acts, participants, topics, settings, or other regularly occurring and conventional forms'
this is quite insightful, as it shows that a genre can also be created using speech convwentions and patterns
It is also the first time that i realised that every conversation does have a topic or agenda
it might not be intentional, but even a conversation starter like 'How's your day?'
might have the agenda to get the person you are talking to to start becoming friendlier and open up to you
even if you honestly do not think his day is any different from the day before

Some insightful things I took away from the class is the case examples
like from the jap marriage and wet market bargaining scene
it was extremely interesting to find out such norms and behaviours of our asian society and how these beliefs and mindsets were crafted.
Indeed, knowing more about our culture and how conventions and norms come about sure makes you think twice about
' So does it mean a girl CAN in the future propose to a man?'
haha..but for that to change in spore. It might need another 100 more years?

Sentiments about Speech Acts

I must say there is much I have learnt and unlearnt from this class on speech acts
Speech, is something that comes naturally as one grows up
we pick up things, nuances, habits and behaviours through
our environment,
the people we meet with,
the lifestyle we grow up in
and half the time, we have utterly no idea what triggers us to talk a certain way
come across a certain way, or respond a certain way

however, through the class
I actually got to see things that we do not often realise about ourselves
about how the way we are brought up in our culture reflects how we carry ourselves as we grow up
chinese for example,
tend to be more wary of compliments
yes, we do not like criticism
but receiving showers of praise is something that we shun as well
maybe it is due to the way we we brought up
being taught that the humble succeeds
while the arrogant falters
hence, causing us to be afraid to appear overly confident of our abilities
and not knowing how to receive compliments when given
but after having gone through the class
I must say
yes, things are different now
deflecting and rejecting are no longer the best way to respond
but accepting and returning is a much more polite and intelligent way
it all boils down to the way we say it
the tone in our voice
being open to accepting compliments is perfectly okay
and being quick to compliment is the way to go.:)

one other lesson I learnt about is being more tolerant of different cultures
language is an extremely complex, and one way of saying something can mean so many different things to another
and another
yes, indeed westernization is uniting certain values and communication forms
but yet there are still many cultures out there that we need to be sensitive about
especially given that the world is becoming more globalised, we have to learn
how to communicate and be careful of how we come across to others
in order to work together and negotiate matters.

with that, I end my sentiments about speech acts
lets all strive towards bringing forth fountains of compliments to those around us
Nice blog btw!:)