Cultural differences are aplenty in NUS, where people from all over the world study together and interact with each other everyday. I have been in NUS for less then 3 months and I have already come across many situations which proved to me how much a person’s culture influences his/her behaviour and thinking.
One of these situations happened in the girls’ changing room one night. It was after my cca training and my friends and I went to the changing room to shower and freshen up before heading home. Many of the girls in the shower area were Caucasians. When we were waiting for our turn to shower, some of my Singaporean friends and I were shocked to see the Caucasian girls taking off their clothes in front of everyone. They were completely naked!
They did not seem to think anything of it at all. That made me curious to find out more.
So, I went on to ask one of those girls, also form my CCA, if it was normal in their country (Australia) for everyone to take off their clothes before going into the shower. She said yes and that it was common throughout the Western world. She also said that she was surprised that over here, the girls were all so shy and hesitated to take off their clothes in front of other girls.
I got used to it and eventually did not think much of it anymore. It is just their way of life.
Through this incident, I learnt to appreciate that people from different places, have quite different thinking and practices.
We do not have to follow them, but we most definitely have to respect them to co-exist peacefully.
