Biodata

My name is Yeo Wan Yu and I am currently a third year student pursuing a degree in Materials Science & Engineering in the National University of Singapore. Previously, I studied at Paya Lebar Methodist Girls’ Primary and Secondary School for ten years before attending Meridian Junior College for two years.

During my time in Paya Lebar Methodist Girls’ School, I was in the school choir and have represented the school in various competitions such as the Singapore Youth Festival and Sing Singapore. I have also performed in many school events and external performances such as Christmas caroling. In Meridian Junior College, I was in the Modern Dance Club and have participated in competitions such as the Singapore Youth Festival and Danceworks!, along with various internal and external performances.

Apart from the academic education that I am pursuing in NUS, I have been highly involved in extra curricular activities as part of Eusoff Hall. For all my three years in NUS, I have been involved in the annual NUS Rag Day (representing Eusoff Hall), Eusoff Hall’s annual Dance Production and many internal and external events as a dancer and a choreographer. I have also represented Eusoff Hall in Funkamania, an annual dance competition in NUS. Having an interest in team sports, I have played basketball and volleyball for Eusoff Hall and took part in the Inter-Hall Games. I was also involved in various committees such as the External Relations Committee and the Sports Management Committee. Outside of hall, I have participated in the Engineering Freshmen Orientation Camp in my first year and went on to take part as a councilor in my second year. All these have helped to hone my leadership skills and taught me to be a team player with both management and organizational skills.

The work experiences I have to date include doing an internship at A*STAR Institute of Microelectronics, where I dealt with Through Silicon Vias (TSV) and solder bumps between logic dies and memory dies. I have also worked as a temporary assistant administrator in Canon Singapore Pte Ltd for six months before entering NUS. I have taken on various part-time jobs in sales and promoting for Reckitt Benkiser and VM&SD as well. Currently, I am giving private part-time tuition to primary and secondary school students.

I have a strong passion in the performing arts, and have been trained in classical piano, electone and classical ballet. Other past-time activities include basketball, blading and reading. An extrovert by nature, I hope to bring positive changes to the lives of my loved ones through my aspirations and zest for life.

Evaluating Intercultural Behaviour AGAIN!! (:

Since my previous post was an utter failure in trying to portray an intercultural observation, I am going to make up for it with this post on the same topic!

Two years ago, I was working at the duty-free shop at Changi airport departure hall as a promoter for Absolut® Vodka for the launch of one of their new flavours. There was an Absolut® roadshow display at the airport for a couple of weeks with lucky draws and a sophisticated-looking bar for passengers to try the different Absolut® flavours.

During one of my shifts at the roadshow counter with a guy partner, there were a couple of Australian guys who came to sit and chat with us. Usually, we would serve the passengers some tasters and try to get them to purchase a bottle or two of the vodka. If there were passengers who treated the roadshow counter as a free bar, we were told to try and get them to leave in subtle ways. However, the two Australian guys bought a couple of bottles after trying the latest flavour and started chatting with us as we were packing their bottles. After finding out that they had a few hours to spare with nothing to do before their transit flight, we offered to make them more drinks as we were also bored on our part due to the slow traffic of passengers at that point of time.

The four of us hit it off really well as they shared with us their traveling experiences and we exchanged our thoughts on different matters. We were comfortable with their company and they even shared with us music that they listened to on their MP3 player. At one point of time, the Australian guys started to tell us about the parties they have back at the place where they came from and one of them took out a magazine to show us pictures of the party scenes. We leaned over the counter to get a better look while he flipped through the pages and little did we know, he was showing us pictures of women flashing their uncovered boobs at the cameras! Both of us got a shock at the same time and literally “jumped” back to our side of the counter and busied ourselves with washing the cups and wiping the counter. It was really awkward as we were genuinely taken aback and yet we had to try to keep up with the conversation to appear normal. While they went on ranting about how hot the girls were over there, the two of us were just smiling on the outside and squirming on the inside and we did not know how to respond. After awhile, much to our relief, they seemed to realise our uneasiness on the topic and dropped it.

This just goes to show the different level of openness on sexual references between people of different cultures, namely the Chinese and the Australians in this scenario.

Evaluating Intercultural Behaviour

In hall, I have a close bunch of friends who are practically my family; we live in the same wing on the same floor of the same block, eat dinner in hall together every day, do various hall activities together, know the same people (or rather mostly everybody in hall), share the same gossips etc. In short, the nine of us spend almost all our time together when we are not having classes or when we are not out of hall (actually some of us take the same modules together and go out quite often together). Since we are all in our third year, we have been living this way together for the past three years. Although we all come from different backgrounds and culture, which explains the inevitable clashes we have at times, we all get along pretty well and are quite fond of one another.

There was once, Amy had a house-warming during the weekend and she invited just the bunch of us and some others (around 15 altogether) for lunch and an afternoon of movies, Guitar Heros and Wii. Most of us met beforehand somewhere nearby and walked over together. When we arrived, we greeted her mother and said our hellos to her brothers who were around at that time. After we had our lunch and were comfortably settled in the living room playing games, some of the others started to arrive and join us. What I noticed (or rather, only realized at hindsight) is that the ones who streamed in late also greeted Amy’s mum, who was shuffling between the kitchen and the living room, playing the hostess and talking to some of us. However, there was one friend, Melissa, who came in and after taking one look at Amy’s mum, who happened to be near the door, gave no acknowledgement or whatsoever. She simply turned her attention to us and joined in the merriment as if Amy’s mum was a servant and not worthy of her attention. There was an awkward moment between Melissa and Amy’s mum as the latter was obviously expecting a greeting when Melissa simply looked away. No one really noticed it as most of them were engrossed in the game but I happened to observe this seemingly insignificant “exchange” and was deeply shocked by Melissa’s rude behaviour.

Before I go on, I would like to give some background information on Melissa so that it is easier to understand why I was shocked. Melissa comes from a well-to-do family and her relatives are people of stature. Like her family, she is a devout catholic and has been sent to good schools prior to the university. She is amiable and friendly, but can be just a little judgmental and high-handed at times. She is well-liked by her peers, gets along well with people and comes across as mature to those who knows her.

Being brought up in a family where manners and respect for elders were greatly emphasized on, I could not comprehend her lack of manners in this case and was appalled by what I saw. I tried to think of possible reasons for her inexplicable behaviour and even spoke to my close friend (who knew her as an acquaintance as well) about it as it has left quite a deep impression in me. How could someone as refined as her not possess the basic courtesy to greet the parent of a friend whose home she was visiting? After much thought, I concluded that she might have been overwhelmed by the number of people that were already there and forgot her manners at that point of time in a haste to be accepted into the group. But if I was wrong; if the reason for her behaviour was due to the lack of manners and respect, I must say that no amount of wealth, education and status can guarantee one’s upbringing and values.