If i may continue..

Hello class!

As you all know, I ran out of time during my group's peer teaching session earlier today. Since we'll be having mock job interviews next week and like I said, non-verbal communication accounts for 90% of what you are trying to convey in your job interview, I feel that is quite a disservice to you that I did not manage to cover what I had intended. So here are a few pointers picking up from where I left off. This is a long post but I hope you'll find it useful!

In the hot seat
Politeness
-don't yawn
-don't keep glancing at your watch
-switch off your cellphone
-do not interrupt the interviewer

Eye contact
-in a panel interview, establish eye contact with the interviewer that posed the question and when you're done delivering your answer, establish eye contact with the rest of the panel
-looking down is only acceptable when taking notes

Posture
-enter the interview room with your head up and walk in a self-assured manner (indicates confidence)
-sit down with your legs crossed at your ankles or feet placed flatly on the ground (indicates professionalism)
-sit up straight and slightly leaned forward (indicates attentiveness and interest)
-sit on front portion of the chair, but not on the edge
-do not slouch (indicates sloppy work ethic, carelessness, low energy)
-the further up you cross your legs, the more defensive you appear
-refrain from raising on leg/ankle on the other leg (appears casual or even arrogant)
-refrain from placing your feet to far apart or stretching your feet too far in front of you (appears casual)

Gestures
-limit your gestures (otherwise, appears unprofessional and dramatic)
-body language experts say that the less your hands are waving around, the more confident and in control you are
-refrain from crossing arms (indicates negative attitude, closed personality, defensivesness, even aggressiveness)
-arms should be loosely placed with hands clasped loosely on your lap or the table
-smile and nod when appropriate (keep the smiling under control if the interviewer appears very no-nonsense and serious)
-if interviewer says something amusing, it is appropriate to laugh only if interviewer laughs first

-do not fidget
-refrain from touching face or hair (indicates discomfort and is very distracting and unprofessional)

Mannerisms

-know your nervous ticks and suppress them (e.g. twirling hair, shaking leg, clearing throat, picking nails etc.) or you will appear awkward and nervous
-interviewers will expect you to be nervous but make sure that when you are answering questions, try to keep your nerves under control so as not to take away from the strength of your answer

Voice-adopt a clear, controlled voice delivery
-refrain from being monotonous (appears unexciting)
-instead, vary your tone and pitch (appear engaging) but do not overdo it!
-when posed a question, breathe (always a good idea), pause (as mentioned by Titus) and react.
-you should act as if you are an equal to the interviewer, not a subordinate. consequentially, do not take on an apologetic or defensive tone during any part of your interview

Read the interviewer's body language
That's right. Turn the tables to help you determine how to gear your response.
-hand fiddling, loss of eye contact are signs of boredom. wrap up what you have to say and ask the interviewer if they require further details
-finger drumming or rubbing one's face indicates irritation. bring your point home and clarify that you are indeed answering the question.
-crossing arms or leaning away shows the interviewer is uncomfortable. perhaps you are invading his/her space. shift yourself to create more space between the two of you.

Lastly,
PIE! - Poise Interest Expressiveness

Poise: appear confident, comfortable, in control of yourself, in control of your nerves and attentive

Interest: exude interest in the job, the company, the interviewer by establishing eye contact, refraining from behaviour that makes you look disinterested and maintaining good posture

Expressiveness: demonstrate high positive energy by being enthusiastic, smiling and emoting (not excessively though!) your answers. however, refrain from expressing negative emotions (scowling, or frowning) when bringing up negative things.

#4 Evaluating Intercultural Behaviour

It was 8 o'clock as Claudia* took a morning jog with her chihuahua, Fifi*, at her neighbourhood park. Along the way, they encountered a young lady. Just as they were about to cross paths, an excited Fifi charges toward this stranger. Much to Claudia's shock, the young lady immediately shouted vulgarities at her before screaming hysterically and running off frantically. Infuriated and baffled by the incident, Claudia did what most teenagers would do- she whipped out her handphone and updated her Facebook status.

(Disclaimer: Language has been altered to remain conducive to educational purposes.)

This is where I come into the picture. The instant I saw her status update, I knew this was the case of an intercultural conflict. Like any other minor-league keyboard warrior, I spent the next 1.5 hours going through a cycle of crafting a comment, adjusting the tone, and then deleting it completely. Ultimately, I decided against commenting at all since I rarely talk to her. Besides, I figured that surely a friend of hers would correct her. Sadly, this was not the case and within hours, being the influential person that she is, she managed to amass a legion of "likes" on her status update and a slew of snide -bordering on racist- comments.

So what was the underlying issue in this perplexing intercultural conflict? The thing is, apparently Muslims consider it impure to come into contact with dogs' saliva. It is viewed as akin to touching a pig and requires of Muslims to cleanse themselves seven times, one of which with mud (which is considered pure).

To those of you who knew it, kudos to you! To those who didn't, you are not alone. This is one of the lesser known Haraam (taboos in the Islamic faith) and to be honest, the only reason I know this is not because I am Malay or Muslim (in fact I'm a Filipino-Indian Roman Catholic), but because I have a Mum who knows such things and makes it a point to impart such knowledge to me to prevent me from accidentally offending people.

Come to think of it, at a very fundamental level, intercultural communication is just about making sure that you do not sabotage a relationship from the start by inadvertently offending the person. The lesson that I learnt and want to share from reevaluating this incident with respect to  professional communication class, is that being culturally-unexposed can lead to serious misinterpretations which can irreparably damage a relationship (professional or not).

I believe this severity is particularly extreme compared to other non-intercultural situations simply because of the nature of culture. The sentimental idea of culture involving shared values developed over generations can cause many of its members to become emotionally invested in its observance. Moreover, in a multi-racial society, there seems to be an inherent right to expect that people belonging to other cultures should be wary about how they affect the former group's abidance of such customs.

This explains why the Malay lady did not care to suppress her emotions- her outburst suggests that to her, ignorance on Claudia's part was not excusable. From Claudia's perspective, however, her chasm in understanding led her to feel that the lady was just grossly over-reacting to a tiny dog and that her behaviour was rude, irrational and unacceptably melodramatic.
____________________________________________________________________
In case you were interested to know what is so unclean about dogs' saliva, well, that's something neither Mum nor even my Muslim boyfriend knows. From what I pieced together off websites, Islamic scriptures have it that Prophet Muhummad had an intense aversion towards dogs and as a revered figure in the Islamic faith, his bias against dogs became elevated to edicts.

*Names were changed to protect the identities of the involved real-life persons. Also, profile photo and facebook status pictured above were fabricated. In fact, I think it's Zooey Deschanel, lol.

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