I spy, a pair of Bangladeshi male workers, in plain clothes, holding hands and putting their arms around each other. Homosexual.
Have you spotted the strong hints of cultural stereotyping in the statement made?
1. Are Bangladeshi males necessarily workers?
2. Must 2 males having physical contact mean homosexuality?
Stereotyping. It has become our daily bread. We cannot live without it. We make conclusions about others with it.
However, stereotyping may become the poison of your team. Truthfully, how many of us came into our course with the impression that:
1. Indians are the best in programming.
2. Friends who ask questions after lectures are trying to curry flavor the lecturer.
3. People from part 2. are enemies.
4. Foreigners are hard to work with. They stick together within their small groups.
5. Malays are lazy.
Kudos to my reader who has no stereotypes in mind. For the rest of us mortals, its these stereotypes that will likely create misunderstandings with our teammates. Cast them away! Create impressions of your teammates only after you have worked with them, and understood their background.
Each one of us comes from a different part of history, and therefore it is very hard to say that 2 person can share the same life story. It is this personal history that molds us into who we are today, and the culture that we follow. Effective communication revolves around successfully understanding another person's mindset, and being sensitive to their needs.
In what ways, one may ask? Understand that our friends have Friday prayers, so as not to condone their meeting attendances. Understand that our friends are trying their best to learn a new language, in a foreign land. Understand that our friends have no family members to depend on. Understand that what you think may not be what it seems to be.
It is through these understandings that we will be able marry culture and communication. Not necessarily a perfect union, but at least "Happily Ever After".
Ending it off on a lighter note, the Queen is an Indian!
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Hi ChenYang,
ReplyDeleteYou certainly made a point that stereotyping can be destructive and at times, become the Achilles Heels of a team that has the potential to do well. It is hard to get a team of random people to work together. Harder if the team is made up of people with unique cultural backgrounds. Even harder when each member pass unnecessary judgements upon the rest of the team within the first few minutes of meeting.
Sadly, stereotyping may already be a conception that is inherent in all of us. Upon meeting someone whom you have not met before in your life, it is almost impossible not to pass quick judgements based on their appearances and image. One would certainly identify a well-dressed gentleman to be more educated and have a better upbringing than another that is shabbily dressed. In this modern era where connections among people are created rapidly (especially in the corporation world), stereotyping may be our best bet in figuring out who is our potential working partners and who is not.
And the video is really funny =)
Cheers
Hi ChenYang,
ReplyDeleteI have read your post and I totally agree that stereotyping leads to misconception. Stereotyping has become a habit that is "in-built" into our system, so much so that we are only able to control our reaction to the different stereotypes that we generate instead of being able not to stereotype.
In my opinion, I think stereotyping is rather beneficial to us in the sense that it builds on what we have seen or encountered somewhere else which caused us to have similar thought when we encounter it again. This caused us to have a natural reaction, or instinct to react to the similar type of people whom we have encountered before.
-kaiyang
Hi Yifan,
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you liked the video. :) Stereotyping is definitely inescapable in our multi-cultural society nowadays. Each of our mindsets are molded differently since young. I remember how we used to call Indians Apu-nene or Mangkali. No offence to my friends out there.
I feel that we definitely have to keep a tight reign on our feelings and emotions, especially when working with someone you have already stereotyped. This is especially so in multicultural communication.
Thank you very much Yifan for taking time off to read my post! :)
Happy weekends!
Hi Kai Yang,
ReplyDeleteOn a sidenote, I would like to welcome my 1st "external" blog commentator. :) I hope the posts didn't bore you out.
I understand what you mean when you say that stereotyping is inherent within us. I would guess that its a basic human instinct to form impressions of others on first contact.
I agree that stereotyping is beneficial, but only to the extent that the person is able to control it. In a sense, "uncontrollable stereotyping" may lead to drawing fertile and far-fetched conclusions about others.
Thank you very much Kai Yang!
Have a nice weekend!
Hey,
ReplyDeleteA valid point that I thought you brought out was that indeed stereotyping has become quite a trend in today's era. Almost every social group has been stereotyped with some characteristic or the other.
Such preconceived notions can prove to be quite a detriment when it comes to working as a team and thus should be avoided as far as possible.
And your video, made me fall off my chair. Good one:)