I had a tough time trying to recall an intercultural conflict for this post. I guess I had been either too ignorant, or had unknowingly averted such clashes that they never escalated to a memorable episode. The following is an incident which I think could possibly develop into a bigger problem.
In Norway, I took an English language module which was a part of their international master’s programme. So naturally there was a fair mix of Norwegian postgraduates, international postgraduates, and a handful of us daredevil bachelor exchange students in class. (It was like pulling a kamikaze stunt every time I stepped into class. Phrase structure, semantics, syntax…it was all Greek to me.) The class had about 50 students, of which half was Norwegian or at least Norwegian-speaking. Less the Europeans, the rest of the nations represented were China, Nepal, Korea, Kazakhstan, Japan and Singapore.
One fine day, we were tasked with a small group exercise. So we got our questions and shifted furniture to form our groups. Halfway through, as our tutor was making her rounds, she exclaimed,
“Why is it that we have this all-Asian group here and all you Norwegians are sitting together?”
Well, nothing happened to follow up that statement. We laughed it off and lesson continued asper normal. I suppose she said that purely out of her observation and meant nothing more.
But what if my Norwegian classmates interpreted the situation as an unfriendly act? Could they have thought that we (Asians) congregated deliberately? That we did not want them in our social circle?
This is probably an instance when like poles do not repel each other. Even though we did not come from the same country or background, we share the common identity as foreigners. When thrown in an unfamiliar environment, I guess we have a built-in mechanism to cling on tosomething we can relate to, someone we can connect to.
This “clinging on” mentality is the reason why I think this could spiral into problems. It definitely occurs in real life. One large complaint about foreigners in a country is that they disregard the local culture and create animosity by doing stuff their way. How can you ever blend into the community when you hang out with the same foreigners every day? How can you do as the Romans do if you do not even make the effort to observe and learn from them?
