Intercultural miscommunication and misattributions often underscore intercultural conflict. Individuals coming from two contrastive cultural communities have different value assumptions, expectations, verbal and nonverbal habits, and interaction scripts that influence the conflict process. Intercultural conflict is defined as the perceived or actual incompatibility of values, norms, processes, or goals between a minimum of two cultural parties over content, identity, relational, and procedural issues. In my opinion, the major characteristic of intercultural conflicts is that the conflict often involves intercultural perceptions - perceptions that are filtered through our lenses of ethnocentrism and stereotypes, and these perceptions color our conflict attribution proces.
Two years back, my family and I went to London for a holiday. We decided to visit Oxford which was seemingly near as seen on the London Transport Map. As reccommended by the local guide, we purchased tourists passes to ride the tube. We made enquiries at the control station nearest our hotel, on the best route to get to Oxford and if our tourists passes would allow us to travel there. The grumpy station attendant looked at our passes and then made markings on our maps, to guide us on which stations to transit and alight at. We got on the train a little lightheaded as we never expected transportation over such a large distance, in London whereby the standard of living is comparatively significantly higher, to be that affordable. Along the way, a conducter asked us to produce our passes for verification. He scrutinised them for some time and then returned them to us, without saying a word. Upon our arrival at Oxford, the automated barriers located at the stations' exit, refused our passes and denied our exit. The stations' officers then came along to inform us of a difference and penalty we had to pay. We were in shock as it was a 'gia-normous' amount to pay for a self-planned, supposedly more economical free-and-easy itinerary, so naturally, we asked why. It was only then that the officers told us that the tourists passes we had were invalid for travel outside central London. We explained how we derived at such a misunderstanding. The officers then lifted the penalty and allowed us exit. As we made our exit, we witnessed a Chinese girl, seemingly from mainland China, crying. From her crying stammers, we gathered that she was in a situation similar to ours.
Although we didn't exactly have a conflict with any of the relevant authorities involved or make a scene like the Chinese girl did, we paid a hefty sum for the lesson learnt. The differnce amounted to SGD$70 per pax, that was $350 for my family of five and this definitely exceeded the original amount we would have had to pay if we had purchased the right, required tickets to get to Oxford. In the case of the Chinese girl, I guess that a possible communication barrier could have been the key enabler for the misunderstanding. In our case, we felt that we had ourselves to blame, at least partially. We should have seeked a second opinion from the locals since the grumpy train attendant didn't exactly answer our question as to whether our tourists passes would be valid. We probably got too lightheaded and assumed London to be like Hongkong whereby tourists passes allow foreign visitors to travel to most parts of the country. What we could not understand was, why did the train conducter not say anything when he checked our passes? Could it be that it was their culture to care less since nothing could be done and assume that we already knew? Or was he just plain sadistic?
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5 comments:
You present a clear case of miscommunication and misunderstanding, Yilin. Obviously, as tourists you might not have known that Oxford was outside London. The original seller should have alerted you. But what makes such miscommunication intercultural is the fact that your family had come from abroad. Tourists from Bath who had done the same thing would have faced the same penalty, right? Do you think any stereotyping, or blatant discrimination was involved?
The indifference of the train station staff is quite disconcerting. Do they have an information counter where you can seek assistance? If possible, approaching your local guide for more detailed instructions may have been more helpful. He/She should be familiar with possible problms which tourists face.
This is definitely surprising since there shouldn't be any language miscommunication at all, for your family at least. This is just plain negligence on the part of the ticket seller as well as the conductor. As to whether they do have any ulterior motives, it's hard to say.
I think that he is just plain sadistic! Either that or he is just a lazy person who cannot be bothered to help others. I think I would be damn pissed if that situation happened to me. Did you flare up in front of the staff at that point of time?
Ah yes, we first enquired at the information counter, that was where the grumpy attendant was stationed.
My skeptical, untrusting elder sister pointed out the possibility of them, being Europeans, discriminating us, Asians. Then again, it might really just be a case of miscommunication or negligence as pointed out by Weili. We never quite ascertained the real cause but I guess my parents felt it would be safer not to flare up and pay the difference, since we were in a foreign land afterall.
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