The Hand Gesture

There was this one time when an Italian couple came to Singapore to tour and sightsee. They were new to Singapore and therefore did not know much about the Asian culture here. One day, they found themselves at the heart of Little India, tired and hungry after much sightseeing. They chanced upon a small Indian family restaurant and decided to get a first taste of Indian cuisine.

They arrived at the entrance and a male Indian waiter was there to greet them. He brought them to a table and they sat down. The waiter spoke to them in heavily accented English and with their limited understanding of the language, they did not know what he was saying. He kept asking them ‘what do you want to eat’ but they were still clueless especially with his heavy Indian accent. Exasperated, the waiter decided to use hand gestures to bring across his point. He kept using his hand to show this:

When they saw his hand gestures, the Italian couple became infuriated and their faces turned red. They got so angry that they said something in Italian and though it was not clear what they said, it was definitely something not good. They immediately stood up and walked away in a huff, ignoring the poor waiter who was chasing after them and asking them what was wrong. They were gone in a jiffy and the helpless waiter walked back looking confused and scratching his head, trying to figure out what he did wrong.

I was shocked to see that the Italian couple walked off agitated and angry as I felt the waiter did nothing wrong. In Indian culture, using the hand gesture as seen in the picture above was common practice and meant a sign of eating. Therefore, it seemed that there was nothing offensive about this gesture and the Italian couple was just being ridiculous and petty. However, after much research, it was known that showing this hand gesture meant ‘what the f***’ in Italian. Now it is more understandable why the Italian couple was offended. Here is a video explaining the numerous Italian hand gestures which I found useful and entertaining:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVCuyrPk7P4

To sum it off, we must always be careful in using hand gestures or any kind of body language when interacting with people of different cultural backgrounds. Similar gestures can hold dissimilar meanings in different cultures. It is thus important and handy to do some research first before communicating with others of different cultures. In this way, intercultural conflict can be avoided. Here is some useful information about the various hand gestures and their interpretation:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_gesture

P.S. The above scenario was hypothetical, as I haven’t actually seen or been in an intercultural conflict myself. I was inspired by Russell Peters who is an Indian American comedian and loves to joke about people of different cultural groups especially his own ethnic group. Here is a video of him talking about the hand gesture mentioned above and the different meanings it has in the Indian and Italian culture:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbNkuK6X1i4

Green Disco!

Since our research topic is all about GREEN issues, I am thinking of injecting some fun, excitement and creativeness into our project to spice it up rather than having the usual boring typical project of educating people to actively utilize the 3 R’s- Reduce, reuse and recycle. Like giving out brochures containing long-winded information on why and how we should save the environment, blah blah blah…which translate into more yawns, yawns, yawns. BORING!

Issue/Problem/Product:
These days, many people ESPECIALLY the YOUNG are apathetic to the fact that the environment they live in is severely depleting each day. They are ignorant to the seriousness of the situation even when there are numerous campaigns abound to fight climate change. I am guilty to be one of them. Opps. Therefore, I propose that our project should be more relevant to people of our age and younger, to make it fun, intriguing and exciting so as to capture their attention and increase their awareness of climate change.

My main research idea is to introduce Club4Climate in Singapore. Club4Climate is the first eco nightclub in London that helps look after the environment. The most interesting and coolest part is that its dance-floor generates electricity. As long as clubbers stepped on it, electricity will be produced to power the entire building. In fact, the entire club is so eco-friendly that it also includes low flush toilets and automatic taps to ensure maximum water saving and even gives free entry for those who walked or cycled to the venue!

I found it an innovative idea as it not only allows people to enjoy their nightlife but to save the world at the same time.

You can check out Club4Climate at their website:

http://www.club4climate.com/

I believe if we introduce Club4Climate in Singapore, it will be easier to reach out to young Singaporeans about green issues as they make up the bulk of the population in the country’s booming night scene. The young may welcome the concept as it is hip, cool and fresh, things that they are looking out for. Moreover, with incentives like free entry to the club, they will be encouraged to walk or cycle instead of driving or cabbing there. By integrating eco-friendliness into part of their lifestyle, young Singaporeans will inadvertently exercise the 3 R’s without having to put much effort into educating them. Hence, it is a good topic to research on.

General research question:
So the question is, ‘Is it viable to introduce Club4Climate in Singapore?’

Problem statement:
The main objective of this study is to analyse whether young Singaporeans will be interested in having Club4Climate in Singapore and also to examine whether it will increase their awareness and interest in saving the earth.

Reason for an attitudinal survey:
Our target respondents for the survey will be Young Singaporeans as we will need to find out their attitudes towards Club4Climate. The survey will aid in solving the problem statement and from there, draw a conclusion whether it is viable to introduce this rather new concept to Singapore.

I think I can continue ranting on the benefits of my research topic but guess I’ll just end here and let you guys decide whether it will be a good research for our project. Do please consider! Whee! Bring you guys more cookies! Haha… =)

And the solution is...

After reading what you guys have written on my previous blog post, I’ll try to sum up everything to come out with the best possible solution.

My captain should have discussed with the rest of the teammates first to decide whether we should follow our coach’s decision. If my team decides to do so, then I guess we just have to face the consequences. Just as what Max advises, our coach is after all looking out for our best interest and we should trust him and his judgment. However, if we decide to go against his wishes, we should row our hearts out for the race and do our best as a matter of respect to our opponents and ourselves. In fact, I do believe that it does not matter which lanes we are in because if we are strong enough, we can overcome all obstacles. This will further prove to our competitors that nothing can come our way. =)

Usain Bolt. Who cares about whether you're cocky or not. Is all about winning in the end. Haha.

What REALLY happened in the end…

We felt rather guilty of what we had done but we decided not to harp on it and concentrate on the finals. After all what was done was done. Our captain had earlier mentioned that we should not be affected by what others said and was time to prove what we were capable of during the finals. This caused us to be more motivated as we wanted to detract the speculations about us. Ultimately we won the finals and by a huge margin! The first in the years of NUS dragonboat. We subsequently won the coveted ‘Prime Minister’s Cup’ too! It was a joyous moment for us and our coach even insisted that we should shake hands with our rivals and congratulate them which we did. In the end it was not about what people thought about us but about what we thought about ourselves and knowing that we had done our utmost best eventually.

The glorious moment. Winning the PM cup race.