I first arrived in Singapore about a year ago for my
undergraduate degree. Initially, I felt culture I would not have much trouble
adapting to the culture of Singapore. However, I realized without understanding
culture it would be very difficult to survive in an intercultural environment.
In my home country, you have to buy a ticket to
travel to a particular destination and people stand in a queue. But people rush
to board the train at the station and they don’t stand in a queue for boarding
a train. In Singapore, people stand in a queue and wait for people inside the
train to come out and stand on the sides of train door.
An embarrassing situation occurred during my travel
in the MRT within the first few days of my arrival. In my home country there
are no reserved seats for old people. As I was new to the country, I did not
know about the concept of reserved seat. I rushed to occupy a seat in the
train, which turned out to be a reserved one. I received quite a number of
stares from the people in the train. Wondering what was wrong, I looked around
struggling to understand the situation. To my surprise, I realized after
looking at the picture which had information about the reserved seat that I
should not have rushed to occupy that seat.
In conclusion, I feel it is mandatory to know the
cultural differences especially when you are travelling to a foreign country.
It helps you blend successfully into the society. For cultural conflicts, that
occur unexpectedly make an effort to understand the situation and act
accordingly. Maybe, even asking a question to the people around you may help.
