!Not part
of actual blog!--First I shall thank everyone for take his time to read my
blog. I shall also apologize here for uploading my blog late due to medical
reasons—Haotian
As you can see from the title, this blog is
about Cultural Differentiation Elective(CDE), which studies how the western and
eastern cultures differ and relate to each other. I am new to CDE as it is only
introduced to us this year, but in two lessons, I am fascinated by it. The CDE
module makes its objectives super clear as it focuses on using case studies of
the different aspects on the two cultures to compare and contrast. This give us
a platform to study this differences, and discuss what resulted in this
differences(social, believe in freedom etc.), which I understand as studying
the bigger picture from a smaller example. I also understand how CDE is
important to Singaporeans, especially those like me in the Bilingual Special
Program, because if we cannot even identify how the differences and
similarities between the western culture and the eastern cultures, we cannot be
scholars that excel in both cultures. Thus, my goal for CDE this year will be
to have a clear grasp of how the East is different from the West, and how this
will affect the way each people do things and think in their own nations.
I shall conclude my first lesson as an amazing
appetitser. By watching HSBC commercial videos, I learnt how the lack of knowledge
of other cultures can result in awkward situations(sometimes even damaging to
your wallet and your personal image.) It reinforces the idea of the power that
cultures and deep-rooted traditions can have. For me, it also give me a
question to ponder: that is understanding the culture of place you are going to
important, no matter what reasons you are going there for? After a short time
of internal brain-storming and analysis, I decided that it is favorable to
learn about the culture of the place you are visiting or going for a vacation
as the extra information can give you a more enjoyable time there. But it is
essential to understand about the place you are travelling to for business and
its culture, since displaying a good knowledge of the culture and help you to
build up a good image of yourself in your future business partner while a lack
of knowledge will leave a long-lasting mark of disrespect in the opposite party’s
minds, which may even endanger your deal.
During our second lesson, we studied about
the Core American Values that determined how Americans think and how America
works. I learnt that America is consisted of a pluralistic society, which is
evident in its fifty states and represent various social values. According to “The
American Way” by Sociologist R. Williams, America is – about individualism; emphasizes
on success and active engagement in any activity; values efficiency and practicality;
passionate about science and technology; demands progress and materialistic
comfort; is a Humanitarian nation; and ironically being a nation that is racist
and view some other races as inferior although America almost being a synonym
for freedom, democracy and equality. Other aspects that people relates to when
thinking of America is religiosity and romantic love. Such is the basic
information I was taught but through guidance from Mr. Karplus and some
discussion, I can infer from the information and learn even more. For example I
learnt how the different American Core Values are inter-connected, like the
value on practicality causing America to be interested in applied science and
how the demand for progress result in technology in America to rapidly develop.
Also I understood how the values affect America in their way of thinking and doing
things, such as many American’s opposition to the abolishment of gun ownership
partly due to thinking that their “freedom” is being violated and many American
movies having only one hero who is infallible and capable of everything due to America’s
individualism(大英雄主义). Lastly, I have some personal views on the subject of America being
racist and the whites viewing themselves as superior: this maybe partially due
to the whites is not natives of the land of America and thus had a desire to
show that they are the rightful rulers of this plot of land, being racist to
people to other races(native Indies) so as to gather self confidence. And this
marks the end of the second lesson.
