4th post: Describe in writing the intercultural scenario that you observed for that task and present an interpretation in light of your understanding of cultural norms and values and the fundamentals of effective communication.
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Cultural conflict - Who's right and who's wrong?

It all happened when this Malay male driver was driving his family in his big car on the road. (I was looking because my dad is driving and I'm only a passenger idling). All of a sudden, a seemingly-professional cyclist (a Caucasian) came along, cycling very closely to this big vehicle. Drivers know that the blind spot area is highly prone to accidents and this bicycle just kept on closing in, after dangerously cutting lanes. Until the car stopped behind the red light, the driver got down his car and started his aggressive questioning on why is he cycling so near him? There is a pavement and the cyclist can actually use instead of cycling at his own pace on the road and road hog and be a high-potential road hazard. The cyclist calmly put his hand out to try to shake hand with the driver to apologise or "shrug it off". Apparently, the driver is not taking it lightly. He ignored that totally, and when saw the action, he was disgusted. However, the Caucasian seemed to just ignore the "crazy" guy and rode off even before the traffic light turned green. After which, the Malay driver changed from left lane to the farthest right lane to avoid the "road hazard".

Interpretation:
I was rather appalled at the act of the Caucasian riding on the road, behaving as if he's the king. It was understandable why the driver acted that way. However, I thought that was quite over-reacting. So much so that I felt embarrassed that the Malay driver (whom I think he is Singaporean) was giving such a huge reaction. I did not exactly hear the entire conversation but I heard some parts of it, because the driver was clearly shouting his lungs out and there seemed to be vulgarities. The part that made me stunned was the cyclist's reaction. It had been slightly too "cool", so much so that he did not react at all. All he did was stretch out his hand and seemed to expect a handshake to "shrug things off". This, in a way, showed how a Singaporean is calculative and petty as compared to Caucasians.

Caucasians are often seen to be more open (not conservative) and do not take things to heart. This can be seen from the cyclist's reaction of not shouting back to the Malay driver when the Malay driver reacted.
All in all, I feel that it would be more effective if the Malay driver could just talk to the cyclist nicely and not shout at him to convey the message that it is not safe to cycle in that manner (by cutting into and out of lanes on the road). In this case, I felt that both were in the wrong but it was not hard to resolve the conflict if both parties were cool and calm at that moment.