Intercultural Understanding and Sensitivity

Intercultural understanding is a combination of skills and knowledge that embraces personal, interpersonal and social aspects. It is imperative to appreciate individual cultural perceptions and traditions, and also appreciate others’ culture and tradition through interaction with others.

Students working with people that come from different backgrounds face various challenges and often might not know how to react or don’t understand why people react in a certain way. Students working on SMU-X projects will learn to work in diverse teams comprising different races of the local community as well as international students from around the world. Further, the SMU-X Overseas (SMU-XO) programme motivates students to understand, appreciate and accept differences among cultures and to produce a positive outcome from intercultural interactions. Students work on overseas projects which require them to travel for a week or longer in duration. The SMU-XO projects allow students to work with overseas industry partners as well as students from partner universities. In order to propose a set of implementable solutions to the challenges, students have to develop a deeper understanding of the culture in that location.

Why is this important?

Culture is intimately embedded into an individual’s identities, leading the way for how we learn, grow, work and live. Understanding culture creates an awareness to become responsible local and global citizens, who can live and work in a world that is increasingly interconnected. Intercultural understanding and sensitivity enable individuals to interact with people of other cultures and remain aware of cultural differences (and similarities).