Culture is the ways of thinking, the ways of acting, and the material objects that form a person’s way of life. It shapes how we act, think and feel. It also shapes how we interact with other people and it defines what is right or wrong in the society. Culture defines what “common-sense” to us is and will guide us on how to act appropriately. Therefore, culture is an important part of our life and we should learn more about it so as to prevent conflicts.An intercultural scenario that I observe quite frequently is the sharing of food, when we order both muslim and non-muslim dishes. As the group I usually hang out with are non-muslims, we do not really care about the utensils we use when sharing the food. Sometimes, we would get angry stares from muslim passer-bys, when we use utensils from non-muslim stores to eat from the muslim dishes. Muslims consider non-halal food and the utensils from non-muslim stores to be unclean, which is the reason behind the angry stares we get. It is not that we do not know about the muslim culture, it is just that we are too insensitive to it. If we continue doing so without trying to be more sensitive, we will provoke our muslim friends, if we were to have a meal together. Therefore, we should not only learn more about other cultures, we should also strive to be more sensitive to them. This will then help us to prevent intercultural conflicts from happening. 
With the world getting more globalised, it is inevitable that we will have to work with people of other cultures. Therefore, we should learn more about other cultures, especially culture of our team members. This will aid in reducing intercultural conflicts from occurring, due to our ignorance. It will also allow us to understand our team members better, which will result in better communication.
Leonard Lim (C06)
