Intercultural Communication: Conflict and Resolution

Working in an international environment also means that one has to familiarize with the diversity of cultures, languages, and so on, which can sometime be very troublesome.

When working in a group of different cultures and languages, the most frequently occurred scenario is that there are two or more people from the same country.

I am being in the same situation. In my CG1108 group, there are two Chinese Singaporean guys. As an instinct, when working together, they start talking in their mother tongue, Singlish, a combination of both English and Chinese at the same time. Fortunately, since I can speak a little Chinese, I can somehow catch up what they are discussing. However, the other member in our group, a girl from India, cannot understand what they say. She keeps asking me to translate their discussion into English, which is rather frustrating.

Speaking in their mother tongue may be faster and easier for them to express their ideas. However, it will eventually slow down the whole process of the group as the non-Chinese speaking members have to wait for the translation in order to catch the ideas. In addition, the non-Chinese speaking members may feel that they are left out in the discussion, which will result in lesser contribution to the group work.

It would be thoughtful if all members of the group discuss the group work in one common language so that everyone can fully devote to the work. By that way, the process will be pushed faster and the result will be more fruitful.

Although there were intercultural conflicts among our teammates, we did well cooperate to finish runner-up in the LEGO Mindstorms contest. Here comes the clip

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REFERENCE
1. Intercultural (Image): http://library.csun.edu/kdabbour/images/intercultural.gif
2. LEGO Mindstorms contest - Us runner-up @1:30 (Video): http://www.facebook.com/frank.ngo

Teamwork: What They Are to Me?

What is the difference between a GROUP and a TEAM? A group can be formed by a collection of people with something in common, such as gender, interest, or religion. Forming a team is much more difficult. A group qualifies as a team only if its members focus on helping one another to accomplish organizational objectives. There is no "I" in "TEAMWORK", which means everyone has to contribute to the goal set by all members.

Nowadays, no one can work on his or her own. The massive workload requires collaboration of people in order to achieve the goal. Therefore, mastering the skills to successfully work in team is a must.

For example, the first priority when doing teamwork is that members of the team have to set up the rules for the team. Though it may be uneasy at first, it will help the team easily solve problems occurred later. Chances are that the conflicts arise during the working process (in fact, they always do); all that the members have to do is to do their utmost to obey the rules and contribute to the teamwork.

There are many other skills that are essential to the success of teamwork, such as communication skill, discussion skill, and so on. Some of them can be learned through reading material. However, as people say, practice makes perfect. One can only enhance his or her skill by really apply what is learned to reality. By that way, the skills can be more and more sharpened; and the outcome of the work will become more and more fruitful.

I was really impressed when watching this video. It was the result of amazing teamwork: everyone contributing to the success of the show, no one being allowed to stand out of the crowd or to be the star. The synchronization was purely fascinating.


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REFERENCE
1. Teamwork (Image): http://www.toastmasters.org/OtherImages/Teamwork.aspx
2. Team Work: Birds or People? Find Out (Video): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF80RqLkl6E