Scenario on intercultural behavior

Scenario on intercultural behavior
This is a scenario that Kalene ‘s group acted out. It is about her outing experience with her friends from Spain. She had arranged to meet them at 3pm one day to catch a movie. When she arrived punctually at 3pm that day, she waited almost one hour before her female Spanish friend arrived. When she arrived, she was immaculately dressed but didn’t apologize for her lateness. If that was not shocking, her female friend casually told her that their common friend, Bernard also from Spain will be ‘late’ as he was still combing his hair. In the end, Kalene had to wait two hours for both of her friends before they went out.
It turns out that it was normal for Spanish to be late without giving any prior notice. Being a “on the ball” Singaporean, this was something that Kalene had to get used to. In order to minimise waiting time on future outings, she would smartly fixed a meeting time and then come one hour later.


As a Singaporean living in Singapore, I share common cultural traits such as the 3Ks, Kiasu, Kiasi, and Kia whatever. However besides these very important survival characteristics, we actually have other desirable traits as well. For example, it is a social norm for Singaporeans not to be late for more than 30 minutes and if we are really going to be terribly late, we would give the other party a call to inform. (I thought this is culture universal)
I can only imagine how Kaylene felt in that agonizing two hours wait, the equivalence of finishing a past year exam paper, rushing out a lab report, writing a weekly blog, or catching a precious sleep for the late night earlier. There was so much that one can accomplish in that “gone forever “two hours.
However it is also our cultural trait not to express our opinions openly. I bet Kaylene must be seething with anger inside her, but since she is a Singaporean, it would be unwise to shout at her newfound Spanish friends openly in public.
I wonder if she ever spoke to her Spanish friends about punctuality. Because if she had, she would not have to use another of our cultural trait, which is pragmatism, that is to arrive one hour later than the arranged time. I would have done the same. (High five).
In fairness, I thought we should give her Spanish friends the benefit of doubt as they are new to our country and might not know how to get around well. In order to effectively communicate with them, perhaps Kalene can find a quiet setting, and share opinions with them. We are after all living in a society, it is important for us to interact and communicate with each other