Cultures differ from country to country, and even in geographically close regions, cultures can be very different. So the understanding of the fundamentals of as many cultures as possible, broadly split in this class into the Western and the Eastern cultures, is necessary to achieve multinational success, or at least to not offend the next foreign guest to come along, such as immersion programme students to my school. I think this class has the potential to give us that understanding, though there will not be much real interaction with the culture of the East, as it were -- Singapore is far too diluted in terms of culture, and anyway our own culture is popping up: tissue paper as "RESERVED" signs, sitting on reserved seats in public transport, complaining about others giving up their seats unwilling in public transport, and the list goes on in this land of complain-kings and queens, myself included.
The sweeping division of cultures into that of the West and that of the East is already quite inaccurate -- the West or East, strictly speaking has many different cultures inherent in them, since "West" could mean America, Canada, West Europe; while "East could refer to Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, China, Japan...
The West therefore refers to the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and EUROZONE COUNTRIES; The East refers to CHINA.
And isn't it strange that we are only learning the cultures of these economic giants? The point of this class can therefore be seen as a means of preparing us for the projected market of the future, in which we can use our cultural knowledge to please our foreign clients and others. But does it not seem to sideline other cultures of this diverse world that we would do well to know?
For example, we are completely missing out on cultures closer to Singapore: Thai culture, Malaysian culture, Indonesian culture, Indian culture, so on and so forth. Why? Is it that they are not worth investing in in future? No, Thailand is a great place to look to for business, with its low labour rates. Is it that they have less history than the 400 years of USA, the 2500 years of Europe, or the 4000 years of China? Perhaps yes to China and Europe, but India has a rich history too, what with the old feudal lords, and Buddhism, and Mahatma Gandhi with his famous pacifist fight for independence. Is it because of their political power and military might that we should learn to placate them? If so, India, Russia, the Middle East, North Korea, and more and more countries now have WMDs, so why not learn about them? And isn't the neighbourhood an easier place to invest in?
Perhaps it is because of time constraints, that we are obliged to learn about the world powers only; perhaps it is due to the influence they exert, that we learn to follow their cultures of millenia ago; perhaps it is for our roots that we should learn the insular Eastern culture of order and diligence, and for our knowledge that we should learn the dominant Western culture of enterprise and freedom. Whatever the case is, these cultures are important. But so are the cultures of the rest of the world, and I can only hope to learn more about them in future.
The point that you bring up is indeed pertinent, there are so many different cultures and why don't we learn the culture of nearby countries first instead we are learning the culture of China and USA. Perhaps is due to the constraint of time that you have mentioned, or it is probably because the study of cultures is an area that need to be explored in greater details so we are just learning China and USA which are the major players in this increasing globalized world.
ReplyDelete3B1 Chen Li 02
Hi Chong Han,
ReplyDeleteit is very interesting to see that you present a different viewpoint from what many others think. The questions you give in your post is indeed very relevant and something all of us have to really look into.
We can first look in the cultures of the countries in the Southeast region that is geographically closer to Singapore. There are a lot of special traditions and practices in countries such as Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia. All of these traditions should not be neglected and be classified as "The East" altogether with economic powerhouses such as Japan and China.
Similarly, many countries in The West are all clustered together with the US as "The West", not forgetting to mention that there is already difference in cultures of the states in United States.
Hence, I believe the reason why we are unable to classify a lot of systems and practices, such as the "Google Way" and Apple's management, is due to the fact that we have not simplified the term "East" and "West", and that we might not be specific enough that we cannot find out the characteristics. I would also hope that what we cover in our curriculum can include the breakdown of the complicated term of The East and The West.
Thank you for your entry and I do hope that you can also share some of your experiences and feelings of the CDE lessons we attended so far with all of us. I am sure that you will make everyone look from a whole new perspective that is fresh and room for discussion is ample.
Hi Chong Han, you bring up a pretty good question, may be you can suggest it to Mr Karplus. But I feel that it is not possible for us to explore every culture around the world, so that the major players in the globalized world, like China, USA, Japan and other European countries become our forcus. The other reason will be that in future, these countries may be the places that we invest in, so knowing and understanding their culture is very important for us.
ReplyDeleteHello Chu Yue,
ReplyDeleteI only say this because we are (almost) completely marginalising other cultures.
There is no need to know every culture, because cultures share similarities on their borders and inwards. E.g. China and Tibet have some common cultures and some differing ones. We can pick them out individually. But if we isolated certain customs unique to THE EAST (Asia) and compare them to THE WEST (USA, EU), then we have a much better understanding of worldly cultures. Simple things like dining etiquette can differ from place to place, so giving us a broad understanding then delving into deeper, individual cases would be better. Overview before lesson.
Thanks for the feedback.