As a child, I was fascinated by two things - Sweets and animals. My childhood memories are made up of all my time spent with my zoo of animals at home. My mom called out home A Nest.
The pivotal point of my aimless academic life (where I followed what everyone does and thinks i should do) was when my father conducted a mini operation on an Aromwana. As I watched him scrape dead cells form the fish's stomach, and kind of "brought it back to life", i knew what I wanted to do. It was the desire to work with animals and to heal them for the rest of my life!
Hence I embarked on a journey of self discovery through various internships at veterinary hospitals in Singapore, Germany and Hungary. This helped not only in decorating my resume, but also reacertain my goals
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Reflecting on the Reseach Project Experience
The research project has been quite an experience for me. It gave me the chance to know my teammates much better than I thought I would. Yuanlin has been in the same course with me for the past two years or so, but I never got the opportunity to talk to her and interact with her. Mushtaq is from the engineering faculty and if it was not for this research topic, I would have never known him.
Through the course of our reasearch project, we met with alot of difficulties. There were many occasions that arranging a meeting for us was impossible simply because of our timetable clashes. There were many times when we could not agree on the same issues and had to engage in fierce exchanges of ideas. However, I must say that despite occasions of heated discussions, we were able to implement all the effective communication skills used. When I played the role of an observer while Yuanlin and Mushtaq engaged in a discussion, I saw that both parties actively practised skills such as active listening, constructive criticisms and patience.
All in all, despite delayed schedules due to time constraints and distinct differences among team members, I must say that the group has displayed an outstanding amount of tolerance, cooperation and teamwork. We helped each other solve problems. We help each other with the workload when someone has other deadlines to meet. We each proactively assigned tasks and took tasks.
As mentioned above, there were schedule delays and the team was not able to really work on the report only until a few days before the deadline. However, the team stuck together and worked through the night, fighting together to meet the deadline to produce as best a quality we could.
Through the course of our reasearch project, we met with alot of difficulties. There were many occasions that arranging a meeting for us was impossible simply because of our timetable clashes. There were many times when we could not agree on the same issues and had to engage in fierce exchanges of ideas. However, I must say that despite occasions of heated discussions, we were able to implement all the effective communication skills used. When I played the role of an observer while Yuanlin and Mushtaq engaged in a discussion, I saw that both parties actively practised skills such as active listening, constructive criticisms and patience.
All in all, despite delayed schedules due to time constraints and distinct differences among team members, I must say that the group has displayed an outstanding amount of tolerance, cooperation and teamwork. We helped each other solve problems. We help each other with the workload when someone has other deadlines to meet. We each proactively assigned tasks and took tasks.
As mentioned above, there were schedule delays and the team was not able to really work on the report only until a few days before the deadline. However, the team stuck together and worked through the night, fighting together to meet the deadline to produce as best a quality we could.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Evaluating Intercultural Behaviour
This is an incident that really happened last december, to me, my best friend and my boyfriend's mother. A strange combination, but wait till you hear the story!
As we all know, most probably from experience and hearsays, that there are more common than not, many intercultural conflicts. These conflicts can range from small misunderstandings where both parties can laugh it off, or to real resentment of each other. Hence, the importance of understanding different cultures, respecting each other and being tolerant, can never be stressed enough.
Let's give Best Friend a name, S. S has been my closest friend for 10 years and after dating my boyfriend for two and a half years, I decided that S should come with me to meet H (boyfriend)'s mother for dinner. So last december, S and I flew to Germany together to met H's family.
S is an indian muslim girl, while H's family is german and H's father is a protestant priest.
Upon arriving at H's home, the entire family greeted us enthusaistically. They first showered me with hugs and kisses, followed by extending their warmth to S. When the family opened their arms to hug S, she shyed away awkwardly. There was a moment of confusion before the silence was broken by a shy smile from S. They then proceeded on to introduce one another.
Later on, H's mother prepared a huge welcome feast and invited us for dinner together. As everyone sat around the table and began eating, S started to thank H's mother profusely, and then carried on to apologise profusely. She could not have the dinner, even though H's mother was aware that no pork and lard was to be served that night. This was because S could still not eat from food that were cooked by utensils which were once used to cook pork. That was another moment of confusion and embarrassment. H's mother was very apologetic and extremely embarrassed and hurried to prepare bread with alot (ALOT) of different kinds of spreads.
To end the string of embarrassment, S could eat only two slices of bread with very little spread because she is not used to having pickles and olives and shrimps on her bread. I was once told by my germany language teacher that Germans generally get a little offended when food offered to them is not finished, or taken just a little bit. I believe that was the case because H's mother looked somewhat upset at the table. It may be because she was upset with herself for not being able to give her guest the best dinner, but it may very well also be that she was upset because S did not eat much.
From the above happenings, it is quite obvious how intercultural problems can arise because of lack of knowledge from the two parties involved. Hence it is always vital that one learn and equip himself about the cultural do's and dont's before interacting with the other person, for many embarrassing moments and arguements can be avoided.
As we all know, most probably from experience and hearsays, that there are more common than not, many intercultural conflicts. These conflicts can range from small misunderstandings where both parties can laugh it off, or to real resentment of each other. Hence, the importance of understanding different cultures, respecting each other and being tolerant, can never be stressed enough.
Let's give Best Friend a name, S. S has been my closest friend for 10 years and after dating my boyfriend for two and a half years, I decided that S should come with me to meet H (boyfriend)'s mother for dinner. So last december, S and I flew to Germany together to met H's family.
S is an indian muslim girl, while H's family is german and H's father is a protestant priest.
Upon arriving at H's home, the entire family greeted us enthusaistically. They first showered me with hugs and kisses, followed by extending their warmth to S. When the family opened their arms to hug S, she shyed away awkwardly. There was a moment of confusion before the silence was broken by a shy smile from S. They then proceeded on to introduce one another.
Later on, H's mother prepared a huge welcome feast and invited us for dinner together. As everyone sat around the table and began eating, S started to thank H's mother profusely, and then carried on to apologise profusely. She could not have the dinner, even though H's mother was aware that no pork and lard was to be served that night. This was because S could still not eat from food that were cooked by utensils which were once used to cook pork. That was another moment of confusion and embarrassment. H's mother was very apologetic and extremely embarrassed and hurried to prepare bread with alot (ALOT) of different kinds of spreads.
To end the string of embarrassment, S could eat only two slices of bread with very little spread because she is not used to having pickles and olives and shrimps on her bread. I was once told by my germany language teacher that Germans generally get a little offended when food offered to them is not finished, or taken just a little bit. I believe that was the case because H's mother looked somewhat upset at the table. It may be because she was upset with herself for not being able to give her guest the best dinner, but it may very well also be that she was upset because S did not eat much.
From the above happenings, it is quite obvious how intercultural problems can arise because of lack of knowledge from the two parties involved. Hence it is always vital that one learn and equip himself about the cultural do's and dont's before interacting with the other person, for many embarrassing moments and arguements can be avoided.
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