Before class, I never realised how the English language was sexist. Personally, I don't see a Ms as more professional than a Miss. And I happen to be one of those whose impression of a Ms was someone who was divorced. Additionally, I did think about whether the Chinese language was as sexist as the English language and I read up a little. (I saw some Chinese words on the whiteboard when I came to class late but haven't found out what was said)


Mandarin Terms used in Marriage
I feel that certain situations and practices are so rooted in culture that it didn't matter anymore whether it was sexist or not. Regarding how a woman had to be 'given away' by their father to their husband during a marriage, I've asked a few friends and they don't think much about it. Although they had never thought about a marriage ceremony in this manner, they felt it didn't affect the status of the marriage or how the couple would live their life. Come to think about it, even in mandarin, a lady 嫁给(gets married to) a guy. However, a guy 娶 (gets married to) a lady. In Chinese, 给 means "give/given to". However, the impression of 娶 is such that the lady is married into the guy's family. Does that sound sexist to you?

Bachelor's Degree?
Also, most of us are studying for our Bachelor's degree. Haven't heard of a Bachelorette's degree yet. However, because it is so rooted in tradition, does anyone really bother making a fuss out of it? Or perhaps we are just too passive?

Discourse in Mandarin - Sexist or Not? Or a mixture of both?
The prescription of generic masculine terms has led to many debates about linguistic sexism in English. However, such a problem does not seem to occur in oral Chinese discourse because the third person in oral Chinese does not distinguish females from males. The Chinese words “他” (ta), meaning “he” and “她” (ta), meaning “she” are pronounced exactly the same so there is no need in oral Chinese to distinguish a male from a female when referring to a third person singular. However, this “gender neutrality” in the oral discourse does not occur in written discourse because the Chinese language distinguishes a female from a male. The generic masculine “他” (ta) in Chinese, like the word “he” in English, generally stands for all human beings in communication.

Gender-related Order in Expressions
The arrangement of male and female syntactic ordering, in many cases, appears largely fixed in Chinese. If we look at the simple examples I thought of (sorry my Chinese vocabulary is very limited), we realise that the "male" component in many cases comes before the "female" component.

男女 (nan nu) - men and women
父母 (fu mu) - father and mother
兄弟姐妹(xiong di jie mei) - brothers and sisters
儿女 (nu er) - son and daughter
夫妻 (fu qi) - husband and wife
太阳月亮 (tai yang yue liang) - sun and moon

To reverse the syntactic order by placing female ahead of male would render the phrases very odd or even wrong to native Chinese speakers.

For example, let's take the phrase 男女 nannu, (men and women). If the order was reversed, 女男 nu nan (women and men) would sound incorrect to the speakers of Chinese language. Another example would be if you change the order of the phrase 儿女 er nu (sons and daughters) into女儿 nu er (daughter), the meaning is totally changed. For the second phrase, if you change the order of the two characters 父母 fu mu (father and mother) into 母父 mu fu (mother and father), the term sounds grammatically wrong. A check of the Chinese dictionary I used for my exams in secondary school does not even have the phrase 母父 inside. Interestingly, if the above set phrases are in English and put in a reversed order, they are quite acceptable even to a native English speaker.

So, the Chinese language is sexist as well, not just the English language!

Have a good week everyone! And all the best with your research reports.

This week's class was so much more familiar to me. It felt much easier to grasp the theories. I think I could interpret the internet lingo and abbreviations almost instantly, and definitely much faster than Dr Deng. =)


The thing that left an impression on me most was the analysis of the MM or FF instant messenging logs. Although I've never seen a FF conversation, it became so obvious from all the emoticons and the expressions of emotion. Things like using the terms "pressie" to mean "present", it's just so.....girl.

The Webcam Pharmacy
Anyway during class, what came to my mind was how CMC was reaching the pharmacy world. Guardian pharmacy is now introducing the webcam pharmacy, where if a pharmacist was not present to attend to a patient, he would be able to speak to a pharmacist at another location through a high definition broadband webcam, or so they call it. To ensure that the correct medication is being dispensed to the patient, a "well trained" store assistant would have to show the "online pharmacist" the medication before giving it to the customer. The only requirement is that customers need to have a proof of their identity and age (it is a legal requirement that customers purchasing Pharmacy-only items need to be 18 years and above). All these information will be recorded.

Personally, I am highly doubtful about the effectiveness of this strategy. CMC has its pros and its cons. Of course, the pros are that when a pharmacist is not at the counter, the patient will always have access to a healthcare professional to get the advice he requires. However, I personally feel that patient safety is being compromised. I wouldn't trust a sales assistant to pack the correct medication for the patient. Also, what makes a patient counselling session successful is the ability of the pharmacist to connect with the patient. If I were a patient, I wouldn't feel good speaking to a flat computer screen to tell him my exact ailment. Also, what if I have a sensitive issue that I need to speak to the pharmacist about? What if it were certain women's issues that we frequently (without a webcam) lead the patient into the counselling room where there is more privacy? I doubt that the pharmacist can be "transferred to another computer in the counselling room. In fact, most counselling rooms don't even have computers. Having said all that, if I simply want to buy some over-the-counter medications and I'm not interested in what the pharmacist has to say, then I'd support the idea. But wouldn't we be sacrificing the quality of our services to ensure the patient gets the right medication while understanding the correct side effects/precautions?


Webcam Hospital?
Then again, I read some articles on the web and I realised that even hospitals are using CMC to connect with patients from the rural areas who cannot afford to travel, but are still covered by Medicare and Medicaid, the US Health System's health insurance plans.

source: 10/14/09 - St. Anthony, OSU make rural medicine wireless: Health care: Doctors will be able to work via webcam, bus in remote towns [The Oklahoman, Oklahoma City]

Webcams to Solve the Long Queues at Polyclincs?
It's amazing how people around the world are using webcams and CMC in general to communicate. It's even spreading to the healthcare world. Perhaps in a few years time, we could have doctors communicating with patients in their own homes using webcam technology. Wouldn't that solve the problem of long queues at the polyclinics?

(Come to think of it, that would decrease compliance of medication. Patients might not even bother to collect their medication from the pharmacy, and I doubt the pharmacy has enough resources to deliver medication to our patients' homes. What's more, with the greying population of Singapore, it is highly recommended for the elderly to get some "exercise" by making their way to the polyclinics to see their doctors. Once again, the pros and cons of computer-mediated communication.)

Have a wonderful week everyone =)

E-Learning is tough for a module like this. I don't like it at all.


Anyway, this week's lecture notes are about the different politeness maxims, as proposed by Leech (1993).

It didn't take long for me to realise how important those politeness maxims are, especially in a hospital/community pharmacy setting.

1. The Tact and Generosity Maxim
One way that the tact maxim is used is through minimizers - reducing the implied cost to the hearer. To our patients, we will always say, "please hold on for a moment while I help you prepare your medication". In actual fact, with all the checking/labelling/packing, it always takes more than "a moment". However, I guess by saying that, it gives us a lot of room to maneuver because "a moment" to us (pharmacists) may be different to the patient's "a moment". As such, we didn't lie, yet didn't tell the full extent of the term. Also, we would usually "maximise cost to self" in the Generosity Maxim and verbally state that we will help our patients prepare their medication. It would be terrible to say "Just take this and this and mix it on your own. Then pay at the cashier". It would be seen as a customer service disaster.

2. The Approbation Maxim
This generally is to heap praise on our patients first before we make a request or inform the patient on a change of medication. It is done even when it was a really bad reading compared to the most recent reading in the previous month. For example, a pharmacist would say "Mr Tan, your blood pressure is better since I first saw you many years ago. However, there are lots of room for improvement this month and so we have to increase the dose of your medication". Here, we attempt to "maximise praise" and "minimise dispraise" to the patient.

3. The Modesty Maxim
This is slightly more sensitive because this sign of modesty could be interpreted as not being professional enough to know our drugs and the relevant knowledge. For example if we made a mistake in our recommendation, we could never "maximise dispraise" to ourselves and say, " Oh how could I make such a stupid mistake!"

4. The Agreement Maxim
We always try to agree with our patients to a certain extent, to give them encouragement about their knowledge of their medication and to continue adherence to the regimen, especially for long term medications. For example,

Patient: Why are there so many medications! How on earth can I remember so many drugs?
Pharmacist: Mr Tan, I agree that there are many drugs. However, all these medications are good for you and prevent multiple organ failure due to your heart failure.

Here, the pharmacist tries to "maximise agreement" with the patient to show concern and provide some assurance and encouragement to the patient.

5. The Sympathy Maxim
The sympathy maxim aims to "maximise sympathy between self and other" or to "minimise antipathy between self and other". It is one of the most important steps in patient counselling, because it gives the patient confidence that you can understand how difficult it is for the patient to be in the situation that he is in. That would lead to greater confidence in your recommendation and increased compliance to your proposed drug regimen. It is simply done by acknowledging what the patient says or repeating part of the description he had narrated to you.

Patient: The headache is killing me! I can't eat, I can't sleep, I can't do anything I want to do!
Pharmacist: I'm so sorry to hear that, Mr Tan. It must have been a difficult time for you.

6. On/Off the record
If we were preparing medications and needing to cut blister packs in the pharmacy, and I wanted to borrow a pair of scissors from a fellow colleague, there are many ways I could do that.

Off the record: How come I keep losing my pair of scissors when I need to prepare medication?

Bald on record: Lend me your scissors please.

Face saving act - Positive Politeness: Hey bro, could you lend me your scissors please?

Face saving act - Negative Politeness: Sorry to keep troubling you, but erm...could you lend me your scissors for one more time?

Haha so yeah there are so many things that can be applied to a pharmacist's life and his interaction with his patients. Every week I seem to be able to link the lessons to my life in pharmacy.

That's all for now, see you at class on Wednesday!

Oh dear i forgot to click publish until now -_-


Anyway, class this week was interesting! Especially for the videos in the front =).

Singapore is a Low Uncertainty Avoidance country? Nah.
This week we learnt about the different components and representation of cultural systems. It's interesting to see where Singapore was placed in the various categories according to Hofstede's dimensions of cultural variability. The one I disagree the most is that Singapore is a low uncertainty avoidance country. Personally, I feel that most Singaporeans are not big risk takers, even the government had to step in provide incentives for Singaporeans to venture out and become entrepreneurs. I personally don't feel comfortable taking huge risks, especially now since times are really bad. Just a sudden thought: Could certain situations force a country to go against their "pre-existing level" of uncertainty avoidance? For example, in the times of the economic downturn, won't most people be focusing on getting a secure job first rather than risking their family savings to start a business?

Anyway back to my point about Singapore's standing on the "uncertainty avoidance" chart. Based on the slides,

1. I don't think Singaporeans are comfortable in ambiguous situations. Most risks taken are calculated risks.

2. Tradition plays an important role in the rules taught to children. Since young, I was taught that I couldn't do lots of stuff. And the rules were laid very clear to me: No sticking your chopsticks upright in your food (because it looks like joss sticks and considered unlucky), no cursing and swearing etc. Of course, I don't strictly follow it now. I think it's like that for most families, just that some are stricter than others. Whether the children obey the rules is one thing, but for most chinese parents, they are quite strict and firm on what should/should not be done, especially when dealing with a child.

3. I think students in Singapore are more concerned with getting the right answers rather than good discussion. It's a result of the culture being so results and grades - oriented. Take me for example. I really really enjoy the process of studying and doing my projects, interviewing people, analysing stuff. However, most of my classmates are different. They hate the discussions, they hate people beating around the bush, they think doing role plays (which was meant to liven up classes ) is a waste of time. All they want is the correct answer for the question, they go back, memorise the steps, practise practise practise, and tada. CAP 5. Me? lol. Fighting to get honours. It doesn't pay off, does it? (alright i'm sure that there are other factors involved)

4. With my usual coursemates, teachers who say "I don't know" are seen as being weak and unfit to teach. Unless it's a totally ridiculous question, they're expected to know everything, or else they're a bad teacher and they probably don't know what they're teaching and what's in their slides. To me, I do admit I do feel like that sometimes, especially when it is a basic question. However, I'd rather a teacher say he doesn't know the answer and that he'd get back to us later, rather than beat around the bush to escape the question. We know when it happens and that's the end of his reputation.

5. This is one point which I agree that Singapore is a low uncertainty avoidance country. I think the statement that Singaporeans are comfortable feeling when lazy and hardworking only when needed is very true! Most people wouldn't work if they could. Probably it is due to the fact that standards of living are going up and that there is no choice but to work. It is even more so if you have a family. If someone had an abundance of money to retire early, I'm pretty sure he would. It's only when they need to work to kill time that they appear in desperate search for a job.

6. Citizen protests are NOT acceptable to this current Singaporean government. Protests and demonstrations are banned. There is so much red tape before anyone can speak at Speaker's Corner. The only way we can speak up is through the newspaper forums. Even so, lots of sensitive stuff are censored, for example sensitive racial and political comments.

As such, I don't feel that Singapore is really low uncertainty avoidance. One must really ponder about the methodology of this survey, or how outdated the study was.

Is It the White Coat Syndrome or are Asians Simply More Collectivist by Nature?
Just final thought about something pharmacy-related. I did mention in my blog posts previously about the differences between Asian and Caucasian consumers visiting a pharmacist at a community pharmacy. Just a slight recap, it's about how Caucasian customers are more outright with their questions for the pharmacist and are more inquisitive and upfront with their comments and criticisms, while Asians are more obliging and generally accept what the pharmacist says. I also mentioned about the white coat syndrome where patients don't dare to criticise the pharmacist just because he/she is wearing a white coat and is seemingly more in power. Could it be due to the "Western" countries generally being more Individualist and being more concerned about themselves, rather than being concerned about "maintaining harmony" and "avoiding direct confrontations", which are more characteristic of the Collectivist "Asian" countries? Or is it that Asians generally experience the white coat syndrome more?

That's all for now! Have a good e-learning week!


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Pharmacy Year 4 student. I love playing squash! Come have a game with me some time soon =)

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