In his recent speech at the International education Summit in Toronto, Education Minister Dr Ng Eng Hen said “We believe that students will need 21st century skills – knowledge, skills and a value system. Students need new skills today, such as the ability to handle information. They also need the requisite language skills and a more expansive world-view, coupled with the ability to work in diverse teams. And finally, knowledge and skills must be anchored by values and strong character development – the aptitude for lifelong learning, resilience, integrity and compassion.”

Dr.Ng Eng Hen also reiterated that Singapore’s education system is well in its next phase, having progressed from a well-oiled and extremely efficient machine from the early 1990s, one key pillar of the next phase in Singapore’s education system would be having a global outlook.

The advantages of an overseas experience will help students achieve an expansive world-view and by getting them out of their comfort zone and experiencing other cultures, this will not only enrich their life experiences but also go a long way in terms of their personal development.

an out of the classroom experience

For this article, we interviewed Joel Fong, a final year student from the National University of Singapore (NUS). He will be sharing with us some of his invaluable experiences during his one year stay in Shanghai. This trip was part of NUS Business School’s Entrepreneurship programme.

Verztec: What is one thing you found that you appreciate about Singapore when you were there in Shanghai?
Joel: I can say that Singapore is a really safe place and my things are safe, one simple example is that I can leave my belongings at the table while I leave to order my food at a coffee shop and still expect my things to be there. However in places such as Shanghai or any other parts of the world, we definitely can’t take such things for granted, I experienced it first hand when my money was stolen while I was not paying attention.

Verztec: Did you experience culture shock when you there initially?
Joel: Yes definitely, language was a huge barrier for me, and when I was first there, I felt that there was a huge lack of information as I had too many options and limited ways of finding things out. An example would be issues such as buying stationery, in Singapore we would usually just go over to Popular or any neighborhood stationary store and prices for such stuff are usually around the same. But over there in Shanghai, there are simply too many places that sell the same things and the problem is, the prices vary so much, you wouldn’t know where is the best place and when you make a purchase you will start to ponder if the shop owner has actually ripped you off.

Verztec: After spending about a year in Shanghai, what do you think has changed in you?
Joel: I learned to be a lot more independent. Initially I did feel lost without my family around. A lot of things which I had depended on them previously, I had to learn to do it myself.  For example, things like planning my own finances. I had also understood the importance of networking, being alone in a foreign land, I had to learn how to to leverage on my network of contacts.

Verztec: What are some things you loved about being in a place like Shanghai?
Joel: Not only is Shanghai a very beautiful place, it presents plenty of opportunities for entrepreneurship, as there is so much more you can do. Another thing I love about Shanghai is the night life, it’s much more vibrant as compared to Singapore, i.e. there are much more options there, and not to mention, beer is cheap over there!

Verztec:  To conclude this interview, tell us some of the important events that have defined this overseas experience as a whole.
Joel : It would have to be the chance to work with the company which I was attached to during the course of the trip, from which I really learnt a lot from my colleagues there, their corporate culture and the way business is done there. The fact that I’m so far away from home and having to live away from my family would also be another thing that defined my overseas experience. All in all, this overseas experience has certainly pushed me beyond my comfort zone and I believe this sort of experiences can never be replicated in a classroom or campus.

When it comes to preparing for a multilingual website, one of the most important aspects to consider would be color; color is seen as a universal language that communicates feelings and beyond that it also represents different meanings in different cultures. Thus it is essential to understand the meaning of colors in their localized context.

In this article we will revisit the three primary colors: Red, Green and Blue, most of you are probably familiar with these colors, but you may be surprised by what they can mean.

Red
In Europe, it represents danger i.e traffic signs, love (hearts) and excitement (for sale signs).

In China, red is the traditional bridal color, it is also associated with other positive traits such as Good Luck, Celebration, Happiness, Joy, Vitality and Long life.

In places like Japan it represents life.

From a design perspective, red can be a powerful accent color, but it can have an overwhelming effect if it’s used too much in designs, especially in its purest form.

It’s a great color to use when portraying power or passion in a design. Red can also be a very versatile color, with brighter versions being more energetic and darker shades being more powerful and elegant.

Green
In the Chinese culture, it represents Exorcism and the term “Wearing a green hat” is used when a man’s wife is cheating on him.

It represents Hope in the Islamic culture – the cloak of the prophet was thought to be green and virtue – only those of perfect faith can wear green.

Green is a symbolic color for countries such as Ireland, and in other western cultures some associations are Spring, New birth, Go, Safety, Environmental Awareness, Saint Patrick’s Day. It also a representation of Money in the USA;

In design, green can have a balancing and harmonizing effect. It’s appropriate for designs related to wealth, stability, renewal and nature.

Brighter greens are more energizing and vibrant, while olive greens are more representative of the natural world. Dark greens are the most stable and representative of affluence.

Overall, green gives a modest feel of earth, beginnings and growth. Green is great choice to be used in design that is related with nature, processes in development or money. Similarly, darker tones represent reliability and lighter tone can be used to portray a feeling of energy.

Blue
In the European culture, Blue represents a soothing feeling, “something blue” and also bridal traditions.

For the Native Americans, it spells trouble as blue is a color associated with defeat.

In Middle Eastern cultures, it represents protection and also mourning in Iran.

Blue is also considered a holy color for many beliefs,

• Judaism – represent holiness
• Christianity – represent the color of Christ
• Catholicism – the color of Mary’s robe
• Hinduism – the color of Krishna
• China – represents Immortality

Of the members of the primary colors alongside Red, Blue has two different meanings. One is associated with negative emotions like dullness or sadness. While the other one represents more positive traits like strength, reliability, calmness or responsibility.

From a design perspective, lighter blue tones can be refreshing and friendly, while darker blues are often used as corporate colors, symbolizing reliability.

Therefore, different shades of blue convey different meanings or provide a new perspective for the readers.

Source [Crystal-cure, Sibagraphics and Smashing Magazine]

But the good news for businesses is that we’re living in the era of social media; more specifically social networking; which is fundamentally shifting the way the world communicates and how we look at information, with the advent of social networking sites, this new movement has paved the way for businesses to connect, engage and listen to real people on a global scale.

One name that is instantly associated with social networking is Facebook. Having only started in 2004 as an internal university network, it grew exponentially in the next couple of years. Presently, it offers more than 70 different translations and has recently hit 500 million registered users.

But before you start planning extravagant strategies using Facebook, it’s wiser to have an overview of the other social networks out there, especially the dominant social media networking sites in your target markets. Even though Facebook is generally the most popular social networking site in the world, a host of similar social networking sites still dominate the local social networking scenes in some of the most populous nations in the world.

Take China for instance, the most populous nation in the world. Its social networking scene is being dominated by QQ and Renren, with QQ boasting an astronomical number of 300 million users and counting.

Although Google’s Orkut never seemed to have hit off in most parts of the world, it is the number one social networking site in Brazil, which is listed in the fifth most populated nation in the world. Orkut was also previously the number one social networking site in India (2^nd most populous nation in the world), but according to statistics from comscore, Facebook had recently overtaken them as number one in India.

In the far eastern world, Mixi is the number one social networking tool in Japan and in South Korea, the crown belongs to Cyworld.

In Russia, the scene is dominated by a few local names with Vkontakte heading the pack with Mail and Fotostrana coming close behind.

Another competitor of Facebook, Hi-5; leads the charge in countries such as Mexico, Peru, Romania and Portugal.

Friendster who has lost its leadership position to Facebook, still holds a strong social presence in South East Asian countries like Indonesia and the Philippines.

According to statistics from socialnomics.com, 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations and only 14% trust advertisements. Businesses can now look into leveraging on the prevalent usage of social networking sites as a tool for analyzing social and cultural trends of their target markets.

The revolution of these social networking sites has certainly helped to erase borders and allow people from around the world to be easily connected, making the world a much smaller place.

Such is its ease of use that anyone with basic or little computer knowledge can easily sign up for membership on any of the available social networking sites and place their profile online for the whole world to see.

In terms of cost, it is perhaps the most cost effective platform out there for businesses to utilize as the cost of joining any social networking site and creating a business profile is usually free or at a low cost

With the participants of social networking sites being expected to grow even more exponentially in the next few years, the potential of social networking looks promising; considering the significant opportunities and the extent of its reach, businesses can tap on social networking sites to help expand their global presence.

[Source: Cindy King, Brain Solis - Engage]