Blog post #4 Evaluating Intercultural Behavior

People from different cultures background will have different opinions and habits on certain stuffs. One of the intercultural interactions, which I faced with people from different cultural background, was the visit of my auntie’s friends from Europe. They were here in Singapore for a holiday. Playing the host here, my auntie had to bring them around Singapore. I was invited to join them for a meal at a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown. They were trying to order some Chinese dishes but they could not understand the Chinese characters or the English translate terms.

My auntie had a hard time explaining to them and introducing a few famous Chinese dishes that they should not miss it out. After quite a long while, they finally decided the dishes and we waited patiently for the order. In the meanwhile, they were drinking the Chinese tea which was served to them. However, they could not accept the bitter taste of the tea, and finally gave up and changed to soft drinks instead. At last, the dishes are served. Seeing my aunt’s European friends struggling with the chopstick, I took my initiative to teach them the correct hand posture to hold a chopstick. Since they never used a chopstick before, they find it hard and finally gave up and changed to metal forks and spoons. While trying the Chinese dishes, our European friends find it hard to accept the taste. After a few mouthfuls of trying, they gave up.

Growing up in different cultures that are very different from the Chinese, for examples, Westerner does not drink tea, use chopstick or plastic spoon, nor do not they eat rice as their main course. With different culture background, they feel difficult to accept the Chinese culture here. However, it is a good experience not only for them but also for me.

Blog post #3: Potential Research Project Topics

The issue in which I would like to address on is about ‘Are the bell shape curve grading system helpful to NUS students?’ To grade according to the bell curve, means that the percentage of students who are awarded each grade is predetermined according to an estimation of what the norm is. The bell curve is constructed such that only top 10-15% of the students will have a grade of A, while majority of the students will fall into the grade C region. Grade B, D, E and F region will have smaller percentage as compared to C grade region.

The usefulness on this grading system is rather personal. With this sort of grading system, some of the students might find it helpful. For example, if they did not score well for the exam, the system will moderate such that their overall grade for that particular module will still ends up in the C or D grade region. On the other hand, others might find the grading system unfair. They did pretty well for a specific module but they only manage to get a B grade using the bell curve grading system when they deserve a better grade like an A grade.

In this research, I would like to determine the percentage of NUS students who find the bell curve shape grading system useful. Hence, conducting a survey to study this topic is crucial. Survey questions are created so as to get the ideas on how the students think and feel about the grading system NUS employed. With the help of the survey, I can collect and establish actual data about how many people think that the bell shape curve grading system is useful to them.