I am from NUS cheerleading team, and we had an exchange student from Germany one and a half year ago. Benjamin Stahl was a Master Student doing his final year thesis in NUS, and he used to be a gymnastic coach back in Germany. He came down for our training at the start of the academic year, and decided that he liked the sport and to join us for the year’s Nationals competition.

In this intercultural situation, it happened during the Chinese New Year (CNY) and we had a team gathering at someone’s house. First he came visiting with a pair of ‘Sunkist’ oranges and those present had a good laugh. We found it funny because it was certainly the first time most of us (locals) had encountered. Ben was oblivious that there was a difference between mandarin orange and the normal orange. We explained to him light-heartedly about this festival (CNY) without wanting to make him feel bad about his ‘mistake’. He was very receptive to the cultural exchange and we continued with the celebration.

The above scenario is certainly not awkward because most of us are appreciative that the foreign student had made some effort in trying to understand the local culture and festival. This has definitely shed some lights into the fact that not everyone from all over the world understands other’s local culture as well; and if there really is any misunderstanding, we need to give the benefit of doubts to the foreigners and be patient in explaining the culture instead of feeling offended.

 gangrui said on March 6, 2012 at 11:24 PM  

Yo Liyuan!!

If i was at your gathering i would definitely laugh out loud!! hahahaha but seeing that he brought oranges to your house, he must have done some homework to know that oranges are needed during chinese new year! Oh in addition, he brought oranges of quite good standard, Sunkist brand. Got to give it to him!!

It was really nice of you to explain to him patiently regarding chinese new year! I believe he must have enjoyed the gathering alot and eaten lots of chinese new year goodies that he never tried before!!

Gang Rui

 G-Man said on March 7, 2012 at 2:54 PM  

Hey dude,
Actually the fact that you all invited him over for Chinese New Year already illustrates your closeness with him. Besides like Gang Rui said, he seemed pretty attuned with the expected traditions. He brought oranges (rather than coming empty handed), be brought two of them and he brought normal oranges instead of the mandarin variety. Thats 2 out of 3, if you were counting!

But anyway, it was a really light hearted mistake that everyone was able to accept. Its also I feel, the right approach to these sort of things. Just try to match the hosts and they'll attempt to correct your mistakes rather than not attempting at all. Anyway, cool story bro!

Cheers,
The G.

 liyuan said on March 8, 2012 at 8:32 PM  

Hey Govin and Gangrui,

Thank you for taking time off to read and comment on my blog post. I think my German friend had a good year of cultural exchange in Singapore and to the neighboring countries. I could still remember how he was so scared of having to eat some ‘asian’ soup as he described it as having ‘many things swimming around in it’. Well, a few months down the road and he has grown to accept and appreciate soupy stuff here! He is one open guy who is willing to try everything that we offered him, even though he may not like some at the first try.

Cheers
Chris