The culture of Singapore

Discuss about the Combination of Cross Cultural Management.

The culture of Singapore is that of a mixed culture. The culture is majorly a combination of Europe and Asian cultures especially influenced by East Asian, South Asian, Malay, and Eurasian culture. Being influenced by so many unique cultures and different religions, Singapore receives people belonging to different religion and diversity to live and work here. The English used here is called Singlish- a mixture of English and Singaporean words. The country is dominated by a culture called “Kia Su” meaning the fear to lose to others or wanting to always win. Because of this culture, people in Singapore tend to be selfish and always victory oriented, not being very friendly to one another. In my experience, Singapore is one of the safest countries to reside in. However, I face a lot of difficulties when it comes to adapting myself to the Kia Su culture and the Singlish language (Yeo & Pang, 2016). Most of my Singaporean classmates always want to win in every situation, looking for opportunities to win the teacher’s attention and exhibiting that they are the cleverest. During my conversations with my classmates and the local people, it is difficult for me to understand what they are speaking. Because of the Singlish language, I have to ask them to repeat each sentence twice or thrice. The place is quite expensive and my expenditures have gone up after I have started living in Singapore. I have to think twice before purchasing anything. However, in my opinion, Singapore is a very beautiful and charming place to live in. The cities are very clean and all the places are very beautiful but staying here is becoming a little stressful for me due to a difference in culture, expensive lifestyle, and language problem as I come from another country. Singapore has a very good education system. In spite of being one of the smallest countries in Asia, the country has a number of well-known and high-ranking universities. As a result, a lot of students from different parts of the world come here to study including me (Liu, 2007). Even the school level education is very good in both government and private schools. In my personal opinion, Singaporean students are very hard working, and the prevalence of the Kia Su culture creates a very competitive atmosphere. Studying in Singapore is a challenging task for me because of the language problem. In school, a lot of work includes the need for group workings. Working in group assignments can be difficult and challenging if one does not understand their local language or is not good in studies (Liu, 2007). The school teachers give a lot of work and I am required to a lot of research work to complete the assigned tasks. This is a good thing as the more I work in group assignments and do research, the more I learn. Besides studying in class, the school encourages us to study at home too, and I being a good student, I push myself and do my best to study hard for all my semesters. As Singapore receives students from all around the world, I get the opportunity to mix with people coming from different culture and having a different religion. This way I get to learn a lot about the various cultures and religions of different regions across the world. As an international student, finding a job in Singapore is difficult as most of the Singaporean companies give priority to the local people. Similar to the education system, companies in Singapore insist on working in groups or teams to achieve goals. It is a challenging job to fit into these work groups and adapt to their work culture. Working in Singapore is hard with overtime working a common practice. If one cannot finish their assigned work, they need to do overtime or take their work back home and finish it. Kia Su culture is prevalent in the companies too and all the employees are selfish and working hard to come first in the highly competitive environment (Yeo & Pang, 2016). With the language problems, culture differences, as well as study and work pressure, living in Singapore is a challenging experience.

Challenges faced by international students in Singapore

Cross-cultural Intelligence is the capability to carry out work effectively across different cultures. It is the ability to adapt to dynamic cultures and overcome language barriers so as to transform an unfavourable atmosphere into a favourable one and excel in work (Tej Adidam, Gajre, & Kejriwal, 2009). Being from another country, there are certain difficulties I am facing in Singapore such as unfamiliarity with the Singlish language makes it difficult for me to converse with people; surviving is challenging because of high living expenses; Kia Su culture makes it highly competitive everywhere- in schools and offices, and people are selfish and less friendly. Owing to present challenges, it would be really beneficial for me to increase my knowledge, skills, and activities so that I can work better in Singapore. Additionally, working in multicultural teams in schools and office here at Singapore will help me to understand and better adapt to other cultures so that it will be easier to work in other countries or become a global leader (Tej Adidam, Gajre, & Kejriwal, 2009).

As mentioned earlier, living in Singapore is really challenging and filled with difficulties. To overcome these difficulties, I am trying to understand what are my strengths and what are the areas in which I can improve so that I can handle my situations in a better way. I am a really good student when it comes to studies and I can work very hard. Also, I have an innate talent of being able to grasp things quickly. Adapting to different cultures is something that will come gradually. I need to improve my language skills so that I can understand Singlish better. Understanding the language will help me in honing my language skills and I will be able to converse with my classmates, colleagues, and other Singaporeans comfortably without having to ask them to repeat every sentence again and again (Leimgruber, 2014). Working in teams and group assignments are really helpful in improving my Singlish speaking skills besides increasing my confidence. Also, working with the multi-cultural teams it is easier to better adapt to different cultures. My ability to adapt to the competitive winning Kia Su culture still needs improvement. I use my good study skills to help me excel in school tasks and group assignments. My hard working ability and the quality to grasp things quicker helps me to grasp their local language. I keep practising talking to everyone around me in Singlish and my perseverance happens to give me positive results (Leimgruber, 2014).

Cultural Intelligence Development Plan

In the light of my current situation and the immediate challenges that I face, I really need to work on improve two very important cultural intelligence capabilities, that is, strategy and action. In a place where living expenses are very high, I need better strategies to help me survive. In a place where everyone is coming up with newer methods to gain victory and where competition is extremely high, I need to implement tactful actions so as not to lose to others and maintain my position in the competition. I need to have strategies to help me live comfortably, otherwise, if I do the hasty spending, I will exhaust all my money and there will be no one to help me in this foreign land (Charoensukmongkol, 2014). If I don’t put in enough efforts and actions, the Kia Su culture will get the better of me and soon everyone will be ahead of me and I will lose to others. People here are a bit selfish and not very friendly. I need to stay cautious and not let anyone take advantage of me in any way. So to improve my weaknesses and build further upon my strengths I need to study more diligently and work hard to stay ahead of my colleagues. I also need to be very observant to understand people and their motives. I must be careful enough to not let anyone achieve their goals at the cost of my innocence. I must observe and carefully choose my friends. Another strategy I need to undertake is to chalk out expenditure and saving the list and strictly adhere to it so that I will not spend more than I earn and the list will help me to understand what kind of expenditure is essential and what is not required. I will be chalking out a one-month and a six-month goal for both working diligently to stay ahead of others and chalk out a financial record of my earnings and expenditure (Tang, Siang, & Koh, 2006).

References

Charoensukmongkol, P. (2014). Cultural intelligence and export performance of small and medium enterprises in Thailand: Mediating roles of organizational capabilities. International Small Business Journal, 34(1), 105-122. https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0266242614539364

Leimgruber, J. (2014). Singlish as defined by young educated Chinese Singaporeans. International Journal Of The Sociology Of Language, 2014(230). https://dx.doi.org/10.1515/ijsl-2014-0026

Liu, Q. (2007). Core Culture Values and Beliefs of Singapore. American Journal Of Culture And Philosophy, 2(2). https://dx.doi.org/10.7176/ajcp-2-2-1

Tang, T., Siang, L., & Koh, D. (2006). The development and regulation of occupational exposure limits in Singapore. Regulatory Toxicology And Pharmacology, 46(2), 136-141. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.yrtph.2006.02.005

Tej Adidam, P., Gajre, S., & Kejriwal, S. (2009). Cross?cultural competitive intelligence strategies. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 27(5), 666-680. https://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02634500910977881

Yeo, S. & Pang, A. (2016). Asian multiculturalism in communication: Impact of culture in the practice of public relations in Singapore. Public Relations Review. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2016.10.014