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.
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(Disclaimer: Language has been altered to remain conducive to educational purposes.)
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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.
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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.
First of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MATE!! <3 Hope you're enjoying it as much as I like seeing you smile and be happy (AWW)
ReplyDeleteI see that you're very proud of your heritage! Well, I am proud of your heritage too! It's cool to have a friend who is so culturally flavourful (;
Anyhow, I think what you mentioned is very true. You've provided a very sound evaluation of what happened, and I really like the approach you took! If only I could think like you do sometimes. Haha.
I too think it is essential to be cognizant of other people's culture. Like how apt you've put it, if we lack the knowledge, we end up subjecting ourselves to cultural clashes.
Knowledge to me, is still paramount in trying to avoid confrontation. However, in Singapore, we tend to assume that other people must have a certain level of awareness of our culture, which may be valid seeing how multi-racial a society we are. Going ahead with our assumptions allows others to potentially violate the norms of our culture.
Just like the Malay lady in your eg; the Malay lady should have told Claudia the reasons behind the fuss, that it was culturally inappropriate, instead of just running off hysterically. Until now, we can't guarantee that Claudia knows, and she might end up making the same mistake again.
hey doll! thanks <3 you know you were a significant part of my joy on that day. (AWW)
Deletelol. back to the post. thank you kristyn lol. you bring up some interesting points. indeed, it is quite valid to assume others to understand our culture, given the melting pot that Singapore is supposed to be, right?
but at the same time, that doesn't warrant acting inappropriately (e.g.using vulgarities). personally i don't know how the malay lady should have reacted. who am i to say that she was over-reacting or reeacting inappropriately, when i do not share the same views as her? would i have told her "hey that's culturally inappropriate!"? lol i don't know.
if she really thinks dogs are filthy and vile, perhaps she was just showing her unbridled disgust. is it wrong to express oneself? but i think time factor must be considered. it all happened so fast so maybe it's not reasonable to expect her to calm down and explain Claudia's err.
and you're right! i think claudia still doesn't know. which is sad. i would hope that at least dog owners in Singapore would be aware of this.
Hello Ariele!
ReplyDeleteYour story is so easy to relate to! I know that dogs are considered unclean to the Muslims as I've three dogs myself haha and I've been taught to be careful not to let my dogs touch them. Yah, like you, I would also think that the Malay lady did not suppress her disgusts as she expects Singaporeans to understand the Haraam as we are a multi-racial society. Being brought up in Singapore, and having countless of lessons on racial harmony, I would expect Singaporeans to be conscious of the different ethnicity practices in Singapore. However, I wouldn't blame Claudia for reacting in that way as it is impossible to know all the taboos in the different religion/culture especially since Singapore has more than 2 races/religions. But what I am surprised is that I'm sure Claudia has friends from different races but none of them explained to her what was wrong. Was it because they were afraid to be confronted? I really don't know.
i'm glad that as a dog owner, you are aware of this, gladys! and you brought up the slippery slope that shows its head in intercultural communication up.
Deleteknowledge of peoples' religiously-motivated diet restrictions is imperative in our fundamental knowledge of other cultures. it's safe to say that indicating obliviousness towards the fact that muslims do not eat pork and hindus do not eat beef is inexcusable. in that sense, there are certain taboos that are popularized while other taboos do not get much limelight.
like you said, we cannot be expected to know all the rules that different cultures abide by because that would be just too much! so in that case, claudia's action (or lack thereof) is a venial error.
yes, gladys, you're right. claudia is quite the social butterfly with a party girl type of personality. she has an entourage of culturally-diverse friends but perhaps not too many malays, or practising muslims to be specific?
Hey Ariele!
ReplyDeleteI swear I laughed out loud when I read "called me cb". HAHAHHA! Hats off to all the non-Chinese Singaporeans who swear in Hokkien!
I think the Malay lady was so angry not only because Islam forbids contact with 'impure' fluids like dog saliva, but also because it is really rude to let your dog off the leash and run towards a stranger! What if Fifi had attacked her? I think Claudia was totally insensitive and childish about the whole incident. It was clearly her fault as she is an inconsiderate dog-owner and an insensitive citizen.
That being said, it could well be possible that Claudia thinks that every person in Singapore is a dog-lover and doesn't mind being confronted by chihuahuas at every corner. But as a Singaporean (which I am assuming she is), being unaware or apathetic to the beliefs of others. I
Actually I've come across many people like Claudia. They tend not to mingle with people of other races, which I find to be very xenophobic. One of my close friends (who is Chinese) actually had someone come up to her and ask, "Eh, why are you friends with Tanisha? Why are you friends with an ah-pu-neh-neh?" Needless to say, I was so surprised that she found it weird that a Chinese person could have non-Chinese friends. The strangest part is that she studied in Singapore all her life.
I just hope that Claudia can shift her mindset and realize that she cannot live in her little bubble forever, and that there are so many different kinds of people in the world. If she doesn't care to respect the cultures and beliefs of others, how can she expect others to respect hers?
Thank you for the most stimulating read Ariele! I'm all riled up and ready to take on the world! ;)
Tanisha
lol. i'm glad this post seved as comic relief for you and thanks for the praise!
Deletewell tanisha, to be honest, when this incident happened (which was a couple of years ago, if i'm not wrong), i was like you, really angry at claudia. however, reevaluating this incident as i typed this post, i started to put her facebook etiquette aside and focus on the actual situation that took place at the park and after i did that, i wasn't too sure if claudia really deserves such a bashing (verbal or physical).
i think the basis for claudia's negative impression of the malay lady was the fact that Fifi is such a small dog (i can attest to that. it's a freaking small chihuahua, bless its soul.) if someone reacted so dramatically over a puny little puppy running towards them, i think i would find them quite the prima donna as well! unfortunately, unbeknownst to claudia, there was a much deeper dimension to what the lady was running away from.
so i think what's interesting about this intercultural conflict is that one party had no idea that she was in one! though i can't say claudia is apathetic of others' beliefs, i can say she sure was unaware at that time.
and lol at your personal experience tanisha (though it is quite sad at the same time)! as a higher chinese student in primary and secondary school, i didn't get to mix around with many non-chinese people so i can understand why some races stay within their own racial/cultural enclaves throughout the course of their education. sometimes, it's just the way school is structured and not that they are necessarily racist. however this gives rise to more people like claudia who are insensitive to other people's beliefs.
i think another thing to think about is about how other people might not have religious beliefs of their own or may have less stringent religions. this is shown mreo explicitly in the sex an dthe city clip you and loshini showed us last week. evidently, some people just cannot fathom the extents to which devout followers of certain religions detract from certain norms (as defined by american culture in the movie context) and so it is very difficult to survey people's reactions according to anything other than their own norms (i.e. the thought that the malay lady's was a religiously-motivated reaction did not occur to her at all).
i think we can actually take a pointer from the handout that you two prepared. (this line stuck out to me when i first read it. wise words, ladies!): When things don't seem to be going right...Remember: Don't take things personally!
Hey Ariel! :)
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you regarding "being culturally-unexposed can lead to serious misinterpretations which can irreparably damage a relationship."
I think understanding another's person culture is important for us to learn to respect another person/race/religion. Sometimes, we might just "accidentally" offend someone without even noticing it. If I'm not wrong, it is actually okay for muslims to touch dogs if they really want to, however it will be troublesome for them because they will then have to thoroughly cleanse themselves with holy water at the mosque (Is this accurate?). I come to know of this because I have a close muslim friend who actually doesn't mind touching dogs although he's a devout Muslim. :)
Understanding and respecting another race and religion's culture is extremely important in Singapore. Afterall, we are a multi-racial society and although the government has done a good job in ensuring that all of us are exposed to members of each race from a young age through compulsory education and mandatory racial ratios, we are still extremely vulnerable to racial conflicts. This is especially so in this modern age because of the pervasiveness of mass media! One wrong move on FB might actually start something big! So I absolutely agree with you that we need to be sensitive to each other's culture. :) :)
Well done Ariel! :D
hello jacq!! lol i'm not too sure if they have holy water but yep as i mentioned in the post, they have to cleanse 7 times, one of which with mud. so yes it's a troublesome process as well.
Deletei find it interesting that you talked about how some muslims find it ok to touch dogs. you're right. my boyfriend is actually one of them. he's even told me that we can keep a dog if i want to in the future haha!
but i think this idea goes with any religion. especially in modern times, religious laws are not rules to be held punishable by (at least not in secular Singapore) and we tend to take a more choose-your-pick approach with religion. there is what is told to us by scriptures and religious leaders and there is what we want out of life as a liberal person living in the 21st century and oftentimes, religion becomes the middle-of-the-road option between the two.
irregardless, if we should assume, we should err on the side of expecting orthodox adoption of religious beliefs. (just like how you asked your muslim friend if she had diet restricitions as opposed to bringing her to any restaurant right off the bat.)well as interesting a topic as that is, i think in this situation, the malay lady was clearly one of those who were strictly not ok with dogs lol.
and you're right. it is a fragile society. honestly i think the government's education on multi-racialism is a bit self-contradicting. on one hand, we are encouraged to celebrate our differences and on the other hand, we are encouraged to look beyond them. i think education should focus more on mutual respect. knowing the differences and respecting each other nonetheless. perhaps then, people like claudia will not create such inter-cultural conflicts?
thank you for your views on this sensitive topic, jacq!
Hi dear,
ReplyDeleteA really good rendition of intercultural conflicts, just what I wanted to expect when I opened your post. You handed up to me and I enjoyed learning about Haraam, the first time I'd hear about such a word in my life.
There are few problems that I find, and they are all mostly in this paragraph below.
"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)."
The first sentence above: I think you didn't say what you intended to say correctly. You rather mean 'intercultural harmony', right? Because what is intercultural communication? It didn't make sense the way you used it in your statement. You wanted to talk about harmony, not communication. Also please tell us why is intercultural harmony all about being aware of sabotaging and not sabotaging? Because I can find more fundamental cum progressive definitions for intercultural harmony than a retrograde or negative affirmation for it. Can you see that Ariele? You make intercultural harmony sound like a battleground, as if everybody easily sabotages everybody else, and that cultures are inherently pre-disposed sabotagers. Do you see that Ariele? Your statement isn't wrong, dear Ariele, but it isn't the best way either to define. It would be more accurate to say that intercultural harmony, at the fundamental level, is all about having a heart of love and understanding rather than simply thinking that doing intercultural activities together is enough. Intercultural harmony at the fundamental level is learning how to love to understand a new way of perceiving things, not about not sabotaging anything or anybody!!! It just doesn't sound right because cultures should be parts of the same goal, not same parts of different goals. If it is the latter, then every culture and its agents will move in hostile directions.
hello castro. i suspect you know that this blog is part of a communication module i'm reading. i accept the challenge that you pose in the spirit of communication. even though i do not agree with most of the points that you have brought up, i shall take the time to entertain them and shoot them down point by point. i shall now proceed.
Deletefirstly, this post was part of an assignment. you can refer to the title of the post if you missed it. it's an assignment on "evaluating intercultural behaviour". perhaps you might be familiar with this assignment yourself, but i shall not make sweeping statements as some people like to do. well anyway, the assignment asks one to focus on an intercultural situation, preferably a conflict.
as I had mentioned, this is a professional communications class. so i decided to save the pro-racial harmony pep talk for racial harmony day and keep it professional. that would explain my choice of the word "communication" rather than "harmony". my point is that a good professional should be cognizant of certain cultural taboos and this has nothing to do with whether he/she is chummy with people of other races or not.
let's take an example, shall we? i can hate the guts of people who are super annoying and yet, as a professional, i remain my composure and entertain them anyway. this has nothing to do with whether or not i have respect for the other person. it's just what i do to make a professional relationship work. do you see now, Castro?
you are quite the idealist, castro, perhaps you take a leaflet from your namesake. indeed, intercultural activities are based on love and understanding. but at a fundamental (let's realize my choice of words now, shall we?) level, we get along just fine if we don't step on each others' toes, surely you must agree?
you say i make intercultural harmony sound like a battlegound. well, that's absolutely right isn't it? how did the malaysian chinese react when their malaysian leader gave them white packets on chinese new year? now for that case, we might not know if that was really an accident or not. but you do see how gaps in understanding of other's cultures can lead to people getting majorly pissed off?
your last point: cultures are parts of the same goal. are you sure about that? cultures are about as complex as humans. whoever said different cultures share a common goal? in fact, on the contrary, cultures can lead to people being marginalized into enclaves. this is what happens in many countries all over the world.
In the 2nd statement, what is culturally unexposed? You mean culturally apathetic do you, that would be a better word to use. Unexposed don't sound right. Unexposed means protected/concealed. Being culturally concealed does not create misinterpretations , only apathy can do so.
ReplyDeleteFinally, I have doubts about irreparable damage. Consider that most intercultural understandings came about from some damage in the past first. I don't think you speak of abstract subjects like intercultural with irreparable. Make sense? Instead you say 'oh the mangled car wreck is irreparable' or 'oh the vandalized piece of Monet art is irreparable', something more tangible than culture! Make sense?
Finally to end, your second last paragraph suffers the same types of problems. I felt guilty reading it! There were lots of ideas presented by you which is fine, but somehow it wasn't made clear, at least in my mind, what you were trying to get at. Yes, it wasn't crystal clear! And that has something to do with perhaps many factors, word usage is one, the flow of your sentence from one to the other and how their reasons connect. You used connectors like 'moreover' but they wouldn't work properly if your reasons are not crystal clear. For example you wrote 'be an inherent right'. What's 'be' an inherent right? I don't understand, you need to use another word to describe inherent right. And whose inherent right? You assumed lots of things, Ariele. And even change inherent right to some other clearer phrase too. Then you wrote about 'former'. I don't know what former is and it caused anxiety in me as a result.
Then second statement of that paragraph, you wrote something about emotionally invested, but you didn't stay how is a long time period over generations giving rise to emotional investment. Why is time an emotional investment, dear Ariele. As I read that statement, I was completely lost. I read and reread that statement and couldn't find any sense at all.
Finally first statement, you used the word severity of what? I was completely lost again. I think you used the wrong word here, dear Ariele. Find another word to describe the effect of the last statement in your previous paragraph. I think the word is 'trend' not severity!! And then what 'non-intercultural' situations are you talking about? You mean football and rugby, sports and games, adventure rock climbing, or what? You did not specify and jumped straight to another idea in the next sentence, actually there were too many ideas in your first statement already. You had 'non intercultural' and 'nature of culture'. Decide on one and stick and explain it. Don't confuse yourself and audiences.
Besides these, the post was really helpful in making me learn about Haraam. Great job!
hello castro. alas, we meet again so soon. i am truly appalled that you are not familiar with the term 'haramm', castro? how can you be so apathetic towards muslim culture?? well, i hope you saw what i did there, did you? (say yes.) if not, refer to the definition of 'apathetic'. here, let me help you: [apathetic(adj)- Marked by a lack of interest. ]
Deletethat's right. you started off and ended your comment stating that you had "enjoyed learning about haraam". that is to say, you had not known about this term before but it intrigued you none the less, no? let's use some parallel words you might find familiar: prior to this post, you had not been exposed to that term but when you were, it interested you. why thank you for helping me prove my point, castro, how nice of you indeed.
but let's take an example to clarify this:
so if i have a yupi gummy (which contains beef gelatine fyi) and i offer it to a hindu friend because i don't realise how seriously wrong that is, i'm not being a crappy friend who couldn't care less about his/her religion. i just..honestly didn't know! but regardless, i'd deserve a slap for that, won't i?
to address your critique on the use of the word 'irreparable'. sorry to say that i might have a slight metaphorical nuance to my writing that some may find hard to swallow. but hey, for someone who brought up monet, i'd think you might appreciate metaphors, pity indeed!
Deleteon to the next casualty in my english essay(-oh sorry i meant informal piece of writing floating on the web). i myself am quite surprised that i couldn't achieve crystal clarity with my 300 word limit. nevertheless, i shall make do with a VVS grade (if i should be worthy of that).
well, castro. inherent right is composed of two words: inherent and right. inherent meaning inherited or ordained. right as in human right. well, what i mean to say is that as a multiracial society (i am speaking in singapore context, btw), we expect and even demand, each other to be aware and respectful of our own culture compared to other countries which do not identify themselves as a multi-racial country.
phew, i hope it's a lot clearer now? does my choice of words sit well with you now?
oh dear. i'm terribly sorry that you got lost, completely lost to be specific, in the mangle that was my post. perhaps i should clear that up for you. well are you a singaporean, castro? if you are, or perhaps you have stayed here, you would know time is an integral part of culture.
Deletelook at singaporeans (so sorry if you are not one. i might be taking you down the rabbit hole all over again if you aren't.) i am one by the way. we identify ourselves as singaporeans, but what does that mean? i think as a nation we have a long ways to go to define ourselves as something. why? because we're a young nation. we don't have much history. many leaders have brought that up in many a rally/national day speech. think about other countries like china, india, japan etc. they all have a rich, long histories- eras in fact, which gives birth to rich cultures.
maybe we should look at schools. i'm a chij toa payoh ex-student and that's something i'm proud of and i identify myself as. no, i have no blood connection with the french priest who started it all back in 1662 but i feel affiliated to him somehow. no i did not attend chij at victoria street but visiting chijmes makes me feel sentimental somehow. so if someone was to make an offensive comment about my school at some nightclub (filter), they're not only attacking a group of current students, they're attacking an entire heritage.
that's what time does. the complexity of culture coupled with its dynamism makes it increasingly vibrant and unique over the span of time which makes people feel more strongly about their own culture.
just like how people get supremely sentimental when it comes to their diamond wedding anniversary as opposed to 1 year anniversary.
it's hard to explain it. perhaps it's just a human thing (interesting that you don't understand it hmm).
finally, your last point. i'm afraid i've gotten you confused again. let's see what severity refers to. fret not, it's linked to the previous line, go figure! well, so if you trace it to the previous line, you may see that the severity refers to the extent to which damage may be inflicted to a relationship, so no, i do not mean 'trend'!!
Deleteand by non-intercultural situations, no i do not mean, rugby and adventure rock climbing, though i can totally see how you might have gotten that idea through my lack of mention of sports throughout my post.
what i meant by non-intercultural situations is well, just that, in a very general sense. perhaps i would offer a replacement of the word 'situations' with the phrase 'social situations'. basically, i refer to situation where inter-cultural communication takes place. put simply, it could mean two people of the same culture interacting with each other or just two people of different cultures interacting with each other in such a way that their cultural differences do not affect their communication.
in this post, the situation i bring up is a conflict, an intercultural one. a non-intercultural conflict would be less severe. let me exemplify this particularly complicated concept.
non-intercultural conflict: you hate char siew. just hate the taste. i give you a char siew pao. you are disgusted but you would probably forgive me instantly because, come on, how would i know you hate char siew pao right?
intercultural conflict: you're a devout jew. you think pigs are filthy animals and that it's sacrilegious to eat a cell of pork. i hand you a char siew pao. you have books of scriptures telling you that what i have done is grievously wrong. are you honestly gonna react the same way? think about it, castro.
so i hope i have cleared that up for you. i regret that there was a lot of acrobatics going on in my statements. it tends to happen when you have a word limit.
so thank you for taking your time to give me your feedback, castro. it was truly time-consuming though interesting to read and respond to what you had to say.
Deletea week ago i watched 'the devil inside' in which a character mentioned how you learn a thousand times more about exorcisms by witnessing one than by attending a month-long course on exorcisms. somehow i see the parallelism here, in more ways than one. but ah, i may have degressed huh, sorry, i know that can be a little annoying.
Thank you, Ariele, once again for a well-crafted, insightful post. You do a fine job of framing the cultural problem within the scenario of a heated facebook status, complete with screen shot, and your reaction to it! Kudos for that!
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the way you analyze the situation, too, focusing on the cultural norms. You've also gotten lots of interesting feedback (with and without merit!).
In any case, we've come to expect excellence in posting from you. Much appreciated!
thank you, Brad! i'm glad that you enjoyed the post and that you found thorough while others have not. indeed, a lot of interesting feedback haha. really appreciate the feedback. i try my best!
DeleteHi Ariele,
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure what to think of your comments, but I loved it, for being cute. Its my turn for saying thanks to taking the time to respond to my queries, even though it was too late post-wise. You see it would be better to have talked about your Haraam and just that only, so that you won't go out of words to actually make your post very clear in terms of conflicts concerning Haraam. Do you see the issue?
You spoke of Haraam but brought in a multitude of other ideas/opinions not directly tackling Haraam per se, and you didn't substantiate on those reasons because of the word limit. So you actually got yourself into lots of trouble when audiences like me try to read for close understanding rather than read for leisure and amusement. Let me tell you what you could have done even better. You could have summarized the first 4 paragraphs in 1 small one. Then you could have words to substantiate the points in the rest of the paragraphs.
Frankly Ariele, your post is not as bad as you thought I made it out to be, absolutely not, and please listen proudly to Brad when he says you are one of his excellent posters. I'm not sure what's the context for that excellence, but if it's within your class that certainly is the case, I agree, but there are different kinds of excellent posts, and maybe posts from classes from historical ES2007s might have more excellence to compare with yours, you'll have to check those out. There is always improvement with everything, and I can see how it could be done with yours as well.
In any case, you wrote an excellent post!
Cheers
dear caster (i realize i mistook your name as castro previously, my sincere apologies),
Deletei will not attack this comment much. i will leave it at the simple fact that being a professional communications class, i saw it fit to use obliviousness toward haraam as a possible source of conflict without delving into what exactly haraam is.
i wanted people that read this to remember that there are cultural taboos that we ought to know about, without elaborating on one culture. after all, this isn't a culture appreciation class. tunnel vision isn't good for a professional communications class, do you agree?
anyway, i'm glad you though it was cute (though cute was not what i aim for, in this case). i was feeling a little bad about coming off as rude and offensive (i'm not being sarcastic here). it's only because of suspicions about your true identity. perhaps we stand to be corrected about that.
in any case, it was truly entertaining having this dialogue with you and i do appreciate your critiquing though i must say you do border on dictative at times. you might want to watch that..it's not very acceptable in most cultures- just saying. in any case, hope you have a great day! happy trolling!
Dear Ariele,
DeleteYou were right in using the oblivousness toward haraam as a possible source of conflict without going too much into it. That was perfectly fine, and I was precisely talking about that when I said you should stick with the issues surrounding Haraam and nothing else. I just felt there were very good points made in the final 3 paragraphs that could have been better explained and clarified, rather than leaving audiences to try to assume what you were thinking. I thought I knew pretty well what you wanted to say but all based on reasonable assumption only. I understood everything that was written before you gave your comments, but I reasonably assuming I understood as compared to understanding only the text for what it is are 2 different things. In the blogging sphere it is perfectly fine to give the benefit of the doubt to writers'ideas, but not so much in critical writing, where every sentence is closely scrutinized. I suffered that in college as well, and thought it benefited me, and hopefully even if this is not a critical writing and thinking course, I can provide experience to that aspect. In fact if you'd think carefully, every genre of writing be the fiction, cover-letter, descriptive, argumentative and expository need elements of critical thinking and writing. A good fiction/story-teller/historical-writer is certainly highly 'critical' in the sense of concreteness, clearness and coherence to ensure vivid imagination in his readers, even if he doesn't need to argue and reason as rigorously as debaters in argumentative writing.
But I dont think you were rude or wicked or sarcastic, in any case it is not possible to be sarcastic about what you said, and from the intercultural post only, you read a nice girl!! I really like that about you.
Tunnel vision is definitely bad for professional communication, yet it is definitely good in some sense. That sounds like a weird relationship and not something that can be understood immediately. An entire debate on live TV can be dedicated to this notion. AHA! Why not I let you experience the truth of both answers for yourself rather than telling you a little now.
But let us refrain from discussing about names and identities if they keep intriguing you, and whenever some knowledge you acquired you didn't had in the past has taught some small good. Let us keep it at that! AHA!
Cheers
dear caster, you really are an elusive piece of work and that you shall remain haha! i understand the points you are trying to bring across.
Deleteyou want a piece of intellectual, critical, writing exploring all these deep concepts, while i'm just trying to balance a light-hearted anecdote by wrapping it up with a conceptual portion just long enough to be thought-provoking but not too long that it becomes too drudgingly boring to read. i'm trying to make it marketable, you see?
i think that's the problem we have here, really. there is more than one way to make the same chocolate chip cookie and the sad fact is, people are gonna disagree which cookie tastes better.
and honestly, unless you are the only client that the cookie is manufactured for, your opinions get dropped into the suggestions box just like everybody else. and the fact is that no, chips ahoy! is not going to make a pistachio-flavoured cookie just because you think pistachio is awesome. (i hope this metaphor sits tastefully with you.)
i honestly respect your opinion and advice, but how i have constructed my post is a display of my personal writing style and my choice of means of conveying my message. so i guess we will just have to agree to disagree, now won't we, caster?
in any case, thank you for your earnestness, caster. i have learnt so many lessons through our pleasant exchange that i think i might have grown a wisdom tooth. no hard feelings but let's call this a day, shall we? i sure feel like i've spent entire one on this discussion.