Culture

Culture - Some say that it is the lens through which we view the world around us, while others deem it to be the behavior, beliefs and characteristics of a particular social, ethnic, or age group. There are so many definitions for Culture that Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn, two American anthropologists, compiled about 164 definitions of "culture" in their book” Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions”.

With so many cultures around the world it is common to see many practices by certain cultures being misinterpreted by others. I would like quote an example where a particular culture has been misunderstood.(I do not mean to offend anyone with this example)

Example:

It is a common sight to see Indian workers holding hands when they walk along Little India* or when simply standing together with fellow workers. This action has often been deemed by many as an exhibition of homosexual behavior. As I am an Indian myself , I have been asked countless number of times by my peers about this phenomena and frankly I was as clueless as them until my Secondary School history teacher explained this action to us. These workers are from villages and sub urban areas of India and to them once someone is their friend they treat them as their brother. They don’t feel that it is wrong to hold a brother’s hand and instead they see it as an expression of affection and friendship. They are unfazed by the homosexual taunts that they frequently receive, as to them as long as they are not homosexuals at heart there is nothing wrong with holding hands. Personally I find their argument valid. If we were to categorize physical contact between people of the same gender as homosexual behavior then hugging one another should also be deemed homosexual behavior. It is a common sight around Europe, to see men hugging each other and it would certainly be absurd and ludicrous to call them homosexuals. (While saying that I would definitely not want to hold another guys hand while walking)

I believe that from this example we can draw two very important lessons. Firstly, before we judge any culture it is very important to familiarize ourselves with the culture and judge objectively. Secondly, the other subtle lesson is that we shouldn’t always generalize that every one from a certain culture would practice all the behaviors ,beliefs and characteristics attributed to that culture(just like how my friends expected me to know about the holding hands incident) because there is always that element of individual choice and preference.

-The End-

*Little India is a predominantly Indian populated area in Singapore, where many Indian, Bangladesh and Pakistan construction workers can be found.

Communication and team work: what are they to me?

Communication

I believe that in this 21^st century in order to be successful, one must be able to communicate well. Communication doesn’t just involve the ability to speak to a targeted audience. As a matter of fact, you can be born mute and still be able to communicate well. So what is communication exactly? After looking through the tons of definitions, from the reading materials, it seems that communication is a process which involves transfer of information. The several models of communication which we learned are very enriching but with the advancements in technology we may have to rethink these models. The video link below is a simple testament of that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLEEiQZOYDs&feature=related

Team work

Team work is a quality that can be seen in almost any industry (sports, military, politics etc) and it is a quality that works well in tandem with communication. One of the key components for team work to thrive is to have good leadership. A good leader is one who is dedicated, competent, inspirational and most importantly has good command and control. Command and control is only possible if one is able to communicate well. Hence a good leader has to be able to communicate well. Apart from that if you have team members who are able to communicate and socialize well it would help build team spirit and productivity. So it’s not really surprising that employers and institutions nowadays are willing to pay vast amounts of money to retain employees who can converse well and work as a team.