Charles Lau dot Com

Last week, I just had a corporate culture shock since my first job in 4 years. Though this is not new to me, I never expect it to be worse than I thought. I can tell you that the only time I remember this thing happens only when I attended seminars in Singapore. Now, I can tell you that this is just Singapore style. Ok, to all my friends and readers from US, Canada and other countries (including Singapore), asking too many questions in Singapore means you are incapable! What???

Any one of you attended Singapore’s seminar before?
Most of the seminars (in fact it’s at least 99%) held in Singapore are always very passive on the audience side. I always get to see the usual no response from the crowd where the speakers are asking if there’s any questions. And when the speakers are stepping down from the stage, Singaporeans will then start to ask the speakers one-on-one… I always thought this is just because Singaporeans are shy by nature… But I was totally wrong when I started my sales job! In my opinion, the reason why Singaporeans refused to ask questions during the seminar is because they are afraid of losing face.

I believe many American speakers might have a very big culture shock when they found their audience very “obedient” in Singapore! The event organizer has to inform the speakers about getting the response that they need….

Dear Speakers who are coming to Singapore to give your talks,

if you wish to have some response, you have to ask for it! And the question you ask must be easily answered with a “yes” or “no” from everyone of us here..

And if you tried to ask “Any question for my presentation?” where you require individuals to stand out and ask…

Please expect to see the audience looking around if there is anybody who wishes to ask questions…

And also, please expect to hear some noise and see nobody asking you anything!

But, don’t be despair!

Because when you are off the stage, please expect to see Singaporeans approaching you… The real business comes from here!

Asking too many questions makes you look unprofessional
Ok, I actually don’t really agree with this… But it seems like a common thing in the mass. So, I tried to find out more and arrived to this meaning. Whenever I always ask questions everywhere I go (be it stupid, silly or just crazy), I meant it well to give my understanding a boost. But it turned out that asking questions is making the answerer feel you are not professional and hence losing your own face… Hence, if he is answering too many of your questions, he may feel losing face because of your “shameless” questions.

Asking questions is making myself look inflexible?
Haha, I am catching the actual meaning of this topic more and more now… While I may ask silly questions, I don’t mind being commented as unprofessional so long as I get the result I want. If I don’t ask you, I will ask somebody else anyway. And if somebody else don’t answer me, I will then look around for answers.

I remembered Aaron once told me about what a Singaporean told him when Aaron asked him too many questions about the trip to overseas for further studies. Aaron squeezed so many details from him until that Singaporean refused to tell him anymore and said that he should go and feel the experience himself and try. While I know Aaron is a very result-oriented person, he dislikes to waste time trying out things. If he can just tell him what he wished to know, isn’t that going to give him an edge to learn even more about something else? Instead of spending the time doing the same mistake again, we could have spent even more time making other mistakes not yet known…

In Singapore, maintaining your “face” is the most important thing in life
Ok, “face” means reputation in translation from Chinese word. Yes, reputation may be important to us. What’s the link in your reputation with your inquisitiveness? As I go deeper into my findings on the Internet, I found this UK website talking about Singapore’s Language, Culture, Customs and Etiquette in doing business. While I am not sure how the copywriter from UK manages to inteprete Singapore’s culture, it seems quite true anyway after I had bumped into my first barrier.

Being Street Smart in Singapore?
The whole idea about being street smart in Singapore is probably to keep quiet and act smart. Being street smart seems to be referring to someone who is a very solution-oriented person… It sounds like you are a knowledge base, ready to tell anybody anything that they need. And if you start asking questions, it makes you look “unprofessional”…

Oh come on… Just answer my questions… If I am wrong, I will change… I am very professional person, ok? hehe