I would describe the intercultural behavior in local context.
When I was in Secondary school, there was once that a Malay girl and I were tasked to organize a barbeque outing. We need to marinate chicken wings and other food and she suggested that she could do the marinating and buying of utensils. I thought I could bring tongs from my house, as to save some cost, but she disagreed. I was puzzled and later she explained to me that, everything need to be Halal, as in the utensils used for marinating and for barbequing need to be clean and not used before in a Chinese household for example, because Chinese may have used them to cook food like pork.
It was then that I realise and understand the difference. All along we knew that Malays ate Halal food but sometimes we may forget the importance of it and what it really means. There was also another incidence that was when a class outing was held at Pasta Mania, one of our Malay friend came along but he did not order anything. Then we realise it was because the restaurant was not yet Halal certified. He did not voice out because he did not want to cause any inconvenience, this is just like the Malay girl that I had mentioned above, she did not want to trouble me and hence she volunteered to do the stuffs that need to be done in a Halal way.
When I was in Secondary school, there was once that a Malay girl and I were tasked to organize a barbeque outing. We need to marinate chicken wings and other food and she suggested that she could do the marinating and buying of utensils. I thought I could bring tongs from my house, as to save some cost, but she disagreed. I was puzzled and later she explained to me that, everything need to be Halal, as in the utensils used for marinating and for barbequing need to be clean and not used before in a Chinese household for example, because Chinese may have used them to cook food like pork.
It was then that I realise and understand the difference. All along we knew that Malays ate Halal food but sometimes we may forget the importance of it and what it really means. There was also another incidence that was when a class outing was held at Pasta Mania, one of our Malay friend came along but he did not order anything. Then we realise it was because the restaurant was not yet Halal certified. He did not voice out because he did not want to cause any inconvenience, this is just like the Malay girl that I had mentioned above, she did not want to trouble me and hence she volunteered to do the stuffs that need to be done in a Halal way.
The scenarios mentioned above had helped me to understand the importance of effective communication too. Besides explaining and understanding ones cultural norms and values, one needs to learn to be sensitive as well and also learn to compromise to each other cultures. This is especially important in Singapore as we are a multi-racial and multi-religions country.
