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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>Foreigners should wait, watch and adapt
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->I REFER to Thursday's column, 'Reaching out to the foreigners in our midst'.
While the causes of loneliness among foreigners cannot be disputed, the conclusions need not be self-judgmental.
Locals in any country are shaped by its economic, social and political dynamics. If Singapore students are obsessed with work and grades, that is Singapore's meritocracy dynamics for you. But is it accurate to say they are unfriendly? One should consider if they are very friendly among themselves first. There are loners and social rejects in every society.
Second, when foreigners make a conscious choice to leave their native shores to work or study overseas, they know they face an unfamiliar environment. They have to wait, watch, learn and adapt.
Foreigners should factor in the time required to fit into a foreign society. All of us respond to visual and aural stimuli. If such stimuli are different from the norm, we do not respond (unless we are forced to). Still, situations push locals to transact with foreigners.
Foreigners should firmly blank out comparisons with their own countrymen 'back home'. Be open and admit you are new and trying to settle in. I was a foreigner at one time, and I always look back at locals' reception of me with gratitude.
This happened because they (the hosts) and I (the guest) both played our parts.
The 'watch' part is critical. Body language, verbal slang, even regular verbal expressions vary from country to country. Foreigners should pick up cues from locals' verbal and non-verbal communication.
In the 'learn' phase, every newcomer to Singapore needs to observe the tools locals use in different situations. Back in the kampung, you just bite off the skin of the luscious mango, eat the fruit and throw away the seeds. Messy hands? No problem. Just wipe them anywhere. But in Singapore, you carry tissues. You buy mangoes that are skinned and eat them with thin bamboo spikes. This is the 'adapt' phase.
So let the buzzword for both Singaporeans and foreigners be: responsive. Prema Jayakumar (Mrs)
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->I REFER to Thursday's column, 'Reaching out to the foreigners in our midst'.
While the causes of loneliness among foreigners cannot be disputed, the conclusions need not be self-judgmental.
Locals in any country are shaped by its economic, social and political dynamics. If Singapore students are obsessed with work and grades, that is Singapore's meritocracy dynamics for you. But is it accurate to say they are unfriendly? One should consider if they are very friendly among themselves first. There are loners and social rejects in every society.
Second, when foreigners make a conscious choice to leave their native shores to work or study overseas, they know they face an unfamiliar environment. They have to wait, watch, learn and adapt.
Foreigners should factor in the time required to fit into a foreign society. All of us respond to visual and aural stimuli. If such stimuli are different from the norm, we do not respond (unless we are forced to). Still, situations push locals to transact with foreigners.
Foreigners should firmly blank out comparisons with their own countrymen 'back home'. Be open and admit you are new and trying to settle in. I was a foreigner at one time, and I always look back at locals' reception of me with gratitude.
This happened because they (the hosts) and I (the guest) both played our parts.
The 'watch' part is critical. Body language, verbal slang, even regular verbal expressions vary from country to country. Foreigners should pick up cues from locals' verbal and non-verbal communication.
In the 'learn' phase, every newcomer to Singapore needs to observe the tools locals use in different situations. Back in the kampung, you just bite off the skin of the luscious mango, eat the fruit and throw away the seeds. Messy hands? No problem. Just wipe them anywhere. But in Singapore, you carry tissues. You buy mangoes that are skinned and eat them with thin bamboo spikes. This is the 'adapt' phase.
So let the buzzword for both Singaporeans and foreigners be: responsive. Prema Jayakumar (Mrs)
