i am woman!

is it reeeeaaally true that males generally get paid higher for doing the same job as females? i took sociology last sem, and we were given statistics that definitely proved this so. but somehow it only hit home when i had to interview a pharmacist at a hospital for one of my pharmacy modules. during the interview she revealed that guys typically get paid more than girls (for the first job. not sure about after that, but probably so.), even if you've got the same grades and all that. and i thought that was incredibly unfair! she mentioned it had something to do with them serving NS. but.. i honestly don't quite see the logic in that (i'm sure the guys would object haha)!

it is so ingrained in some societies that men deserve more than women. like, it's such a natural thing that people don't usually stop to question it or to think about it. okay, maybe i put it across too harshly, but i guess that's pretty much it? dr deng shared some little riddle at the start of the lecture. can't recall it exactly, but i fell for it! i thought the doctor was a man. no, wait, let me correct myself. i didn't even consciously think that the doctor was a man! the whole process was sub-conscious. to classify it as a thought would be inaccurate. i guess you could say that it didnt even occur to me that the doctor might be a female.

i never really noticed how language was sexist though. that was an eye opening session. now the world seems a whole load more unfair haha! but oh well, i'm sure all things will work out good in the end. one thing to think about would be how women should respond to it though. i'm not really into confrontation, and more for addressing the issue in a calm, elegant way.

computer mediated communication

this week's topic was familiar to me cos it's the broad topic that covers my chosen project. so many of the terms used in the lecture-tutorial were understood, and somewhat like a revision (:

we were looking at one of the previous student's project on gender in instant messaging. her survey produced a very surprising result for which females made use of more swear words in msn conversations than males. i had come across this research paper before, so that was no surprise to me. but when i first read the paper, i was indeed surprised that females swore more than males did. isn't it the case, in real life, that males swear more than females? i don't have the statistics to prove it, but my male friends generally make use of more swear words than we female folks do. and some of my male friends have also said before that the swear words always come out more easily when they're angered. some of my female friends launch into a tirade of words whilst others get too angry to even speak. personally, i just came to the conclusion that perhaps this student happened to survey a group of girls who swore a lot.

however, dr deng provided an alternative explanation. the best thing about the explanation was that it was connected to the previous topic that we discussed (face and politeness). he said that perhaps it was because these swear words were a type of positive politeness strategy that these girls used with each other to show that they were close. hmm, never thought of it that way.

but i can see how that's possible! all the people on one's msn list are people who are known by the individual. and more often than not, you'd speak to someone whom you are close to. so it's possible that you're less cautious with the language you use because of the familiarity between the two persons speaking - you know that the other person will not take offense.

the implicit is becoming explicit.

Is it me, or are all the.. implicit things in our lives becoming explicit?

Every week, I find myself being surprised (though I must say to varying degrees) at the content of the lesson. This week's elearning lesson had been one of the few I've been most surprised at, but this time the surprise only came after I started to think about what had been taught.

On a side note, I'm really glad that I took this module. All 849 points are worth it hahaha. I really feel like I'm actually learning about life here.

Anyway, this week was about face and politeness. But the politeness bit interests me more. At first, I thought it was quite hard to understand what all the maxims were about, and I had to read it through a few times before I started to understand what the notes were saying.

And now, having thought about it, it's because all these implicit things in our lives go so unnoticed that we never stop to wonder about why we do what we do. And it's so funny that there are people out there who actually consider all these things. And if they were to spend one day, maybe even one hour (!), just observing me (or anyone else for that matter) and how I communicate with my friends, I think even the small talk that I consider insignificant and sometimes unnecessary would be something they would take note of!

And as shown by the the examples given in the notes, even commenting on a friend's newly dyed hair fits into one of the maxims. Suppose you're early for lecture, and your friend has just dyed her hair, and she's all excited about it! And when she first sees you, she bounces up to you and exclaims "I FINALLY DYED MY HAIR!!!" And not only being shocked by her unprecedented burst of excitement, you are appalled by the colour choice because it seems to age her by 10 years. Then you try to maintain a calm composure and say "You look.. amazing!" But amazing can be left for interpretation... Then the lecture starts. And that would have been making use of the approbation maxim.

It's really intriguing that all these simple conversations in life have been analysed and studied, and have been given names.

I think this module will really prove to be useful in the long run. Being able to notice these implicit things in life will, I daresay, allow you to better understand a person's character and how that person thinks, and possibly this person's upbringing and culture. So it'll be useful when you have to work with people.

How interesting. (: Hmm. Maybe I should switch from Pharmacy to whatever this area of study is. Haha!!

i thought the 4 dimensions discussed during lesson last friday were rather enlightening. i suppose these 4 dimensions can be applied both on the macro and micro level.

i'm interested to find out if there are any structural differences in the same company in 2 different countries. it could be even a slight difference. but that's interesting nonetheless! for example, philippines has a power difference value of 94, but denmark has one of 18. so, generally speaking, philippines is more accepting of hierarchies and the unequal distribution of power in society. on the other hand, denmark will be more intolerant of hierarchies.

so how does that work out if a company from philippines, MNC or something, wants to set up the same company in denmark? how do they tackle the the obvious different mindsets of the new workers? there's bound to be friction somewhere. but i think the whole process of coming to a compromise, a balance ground, would be so interesting to watch.

this makes me want to work in MNCs next time. haha maybe i can join a pharmaceutical company that faces this and i'll get to see first hand how it all works out. for the better, i hope.

chu yu ni er bu ran

I think this lesson has by far been the most interesting for me. It was interesting learning about the different ways peoples of different cultures write.

I think it is quite true that people of the Orient mainly write in a roundabout way and the passage that we studied in Activity 2 really brought that out. But I realised that how one views and analyses a passage written in Chinese against the same passage translated to English can be rather different.

Whilst reading Text B (from Activity 2), I remember thinking to myself that the author seemed to be talking nonsense because he was talking about flowers and people in different dynasties, and there seemed to be no link between the two subjects at all. But I do recall that after reading it a few more times I was beginning to suspect that the author wasn't actually talking about.. flowers.

It started off with the sentence "I favor the lotus because it grows out of mud, but is not stained by mud..." I realised that pretty much was a directly translation of the chinese idiom "chu yu ni er bu ran". (I attempted to type that out in Chinese, but I must admit that my Chinese isn't too good)

And it led me to think, that perhaps if I had read Text B in chinese I would have understood the message the writer was trying to convey immediately. Chinese idioms almost always serve as an imagery. It borrows pictures and scenes from life and shows that what we see in nature very often can be used to describe life for the human being. And I think that's the beauty of the Chinese language - that it always leaves room for thought, as we clearly established during lesson.

yeh (yeh yeh)

I have a couple of close friends who are studying in Perth now. One migrated over when we were 13, and another left for further studies after completing O levels in Singapore.

The both of them definitely have developed the Australian accent, and between the 2, A (the one who migrated) has a stronger accent cos she's been there longer, and since a younger age. She came back to Singapore to visit her relatives and friends soon after, and it was hilarious because all of us thought "yeh" was a really funny expression! Not that we haven't heard of the word before, but because it was a part of her vocabulary. Every time we spoke, she'd agree (or respond) by saying "yeh" or "yeh, I get it, yeh" or "yeh, totally". Her "yeh"s came so often (almost after every other sentence) we'd usually pre-empt them and just respond in the same way as she did. Over the years there have been less "yeh"s though. But they're still there nonetheless (:

The change in the way my other friend, K (the one who left after completing O levels), spoke was more obvious and drastic. The "leh"s, "la"s and "lor"s quickly disappeared within a few months of being in Perth and they were replaced by "yeh"s. Not to mention "yeh yeh yeh". Quiet moments when one was speaking were substituted with interjectory expressions such as "yeh" and "ah" and "yeh that's right".

If I knew no better about how English was spoken in Australia I probably would have thought that my friends had turned from polite, courteous girls into rude, ill-mannered and impatient listeners who could not wait for you to be done speaking so that they could start. After all, they seemed to have so much to say when you were speaking! But really, that wasn't what they had intended at all.

It's so important to understand the cultures that people you work with are immersed in. A lack of understanding and a willingness to understand just makes room for conflict and bad relations.

uh ohhh.

As Beng Fong held the hands of the lady he had loved for the past 7 years of his life, he was sweating in all the areas - forehead, back, underarms. He was a nervous wreck, shifting in his seat as he tried to recall the words he had practised to himself in the mirror every single night for the past week. With a furrowed brow, Mei Ling asked him, "What's wrong with you? Why are you sweating??" Immediately, the words left him, and all he could babble was "Please marry me." Caught unaware, Mei Ling's eyes widened. She looked to the ground and did what a man would want at any time but now - she remained silent.

Now everybody say it with me, "UH OHHHHHH." Hahhahaha.

"Uh ohhhh" was my first response when I read that silence was the Japanese lady's response towards her lover's proposal.

Turns out that silence really means consent!! I was totally blown away! If it was a Singaporean man proposing, and all he received from his girlfriend was silence, how he'd feel like he had never been born at all!

It's really amazing how the same response can mean 2 different things in different cultures. And it's interesting and somewhat exciting that studies are actually being conducted on such things.

I still find speech events somewhat.. hard to understand though. Is it that.. simple? Practically every conversation we have is a speech event. It's difficult because we don't notice these simple everyday conversations. And it's even more difficult to recall them (I have really really terrible memory), much less break them down into its different components.

During the lecture, it was said that Americans have a principle of agreement, and hence would agree with you even though they might not. I found this very surprising!

I wouldn't say I agree or disagree with that statement because I don't have actual data to back up my claim. However, Americans areso often portrayed as a people who embrace individualism and naturally, I would assume that they will not hesitate in disagreeing with your viewpoint. Of course we might all be making statements that are too general. Yet, I also find that human behaviour is far too complicated ever categorise people perfectly. There are just too many variables.

So if you were to have a serious conversation with an American now, and if this person agrees with something you say, would you believe him or not?

Or if you were to have a serious conversation with a Singaporean you've never met before, and if this person agrees with what you have to say, would you believe him or not?

There are so many other variables to consider - his tone, body language, motives, etc. Language is powerful and effective in communicating ideas, but really, understanding goes far beyond language.

I guess the best would be for me to have an open mind right now, and to see what else I will learn in this module (: