Culture influences everything, from body to mind and to our very own personality. Its mark is burnt into every way we can physically or mentally manifest ourselves. Culture is a defining factor for who we are and what will we become.
*What is culture? Culture refers to the relatively specialised lifestyle of a group of people consisting of their values, beliefs, artefacts, ways of behaviour and ways of communicating.
*. In this essay i will cover the following – Singaporean culture, our value system, the behaviour expected of oneself and our communication strategies. The effect of Singaporean culture on my communication. Blah culture, its differences and similarities and issues that may arise from communicating with a person from another culture.
Back in Singapore, we had a very different culture from here. Our culture was a fusion of many different cultures, Chinese, Malay , Indian and British. I came from a Asian culture and hence was brought up with traditional values, however Singapore is unlike any other Asian Country. We are less conservative than our neighbouring counterparts. We are neither Eastern nor Western, we are unique as our National Tourism Moto suggests “ Uniquely Singapore”.
We Singaporeans speak English as our main language and thus we are able to communicate with visitors from other countries comfortably. Being a ex colony of the British we are westernized to a certain extent and are influenced by Western systems. Our education system is modeled after the British Education system and take the same exams as British students, our law system was inherited from the British. Which is different here in New Zealand as you guys have your own education system.
Regardless of the many diverse races and religion, Christianity,Islam,Buddhism,Hinduism, we are able to live in peace and harmony. Everyone gets along with each other and have friends of different races. Churches can be seen built next to different places of worship, and cultural exchanges are often promoted in school.
Apart from English, students in schools here study one mother tongue language out of respect and for cultural reasons in school. As part of the multi-cultural ethos of the nation, one language was chosen to represent each of the four major ethnic groups. Malay is the national language but 85% of Singaporeans do not speak Malay. Our National Anthem is in Malay so is our national Motto and Military Parade drill commands. This is in recognition of the Malay people as the indigenous community in Singapore.
