Sunday, February 4, 2007
Societal Issues: Integration in a Foreign Society – Foreign Influence

URL: http://www.todayonline.com/articles/169743.asp

Originally from the (bigger) island of Britain, Neil, who had initially decided on a temporary three-month stay in Singapore, settled down here for ten years before moving to Australia last year. Rather than hold himself apart from the multi-racial and jumbled-up mix that is Singaporean culture, he immersed himself in it, and even now in Australia, he still curses in Singlish, and refers to his fellow Caucasians as “that ang moh there”.

Assimilation into foreign culture for a prolonged period of time likely would make the person involved adapt to the environment and be influenced by it. He inserts various little anecdotes into this newspaper article, in which he describes his laughable attempts to use Singaporean vulgar language so that his Australian conversation partners do not understand that he is in fact cursing at them. In showing off his Singlish vocabulary, he is in fact a prime example of a foreigner being influenced by Singaporean culture, instead of the usual kentang (a non-westerner who is very westernized).

On the other hand, our very own Singaporeans, the cream of the crop, who go overseas to study in prestigious universities, are also influenced by the local culture there. Sometimes, we have cases of scholars breaking their bonds and choose instead to work for a foreign company, and they are viewed as “traitors”. Sometimes, they come back to contribute to Singaporean society. Being in one of the top schools in Singapore, we stand a high chance of being one of those who will receive scholarships. Thus we cannot escape from the fact that we might feel for the foreign country where we might be studying in, and choose to stay there instead, like Neil. Still, I have never stayed for a long period of time in another country, thus I do not know whether other countries affect Singaporeans in the way Singapore affected Neil.

Even though Singaporean culture may be part-and-parcel of our lives, the rojak (mixed-up) nature of Singaporean culture might at first be so intimidating and different that it is a wonder foreigners do not have xenophobia when they first step into Singapore. However, Singaporean culture got to Neil, and he stayed on for ten years. But the fact is that not all foreigners do feel the same way for Singapore as he does, and feelings are uncontrollable, so we cannot simply assume all foreigners will be intrigued by Singaporean culture like Neil was.

We always say that Singapore is our heartland, and when we migrate to foreign countries, our heart still remains with our little red dot on the globe. However, from his very close-to-heart anecdotes, we can see a “foreigner” missing Singapore, proving that there are indeed exceptions to the cold British stereotype. After ten years of living here, he has grown close to Singapore, and remembers it as fondly as he remembers being chased around the house by his mother back in England.


Ang Guo Wei (2)
Secondary 3R