We had 8 hours worth of cultural training yesterday for our move. The guy who was helping us understand Singapore culture was born in Indonesia, lived in Singapore, moved to Canada, back to Singapore and back to Canada, for a total of 14 years in Singapore. I like that he was not Singaporean by "blood" but yet he definitely felt that Singapore was his country.
Singapore has a very diverse mix of culture on one little Island and understanding how the different cultures think and the things that are important to each culture can really make your time in Singapore easier. Here is one example, it is a good thing to bring a small gift to your host if invited to someones home an example of the gift would be some pears or some oranges. If you are visiting a friend who is Chinese, you should bring and even number of pears as even numbers are considered good luck, if however you are visiting a friend who is from India you should bring an odd number of pears as this is considered good luck. You have to think before you go who am I visiting and what is meaningful to them.
Oh and don't forget the feet are dirty but the head is considered sacred so do not touch the baby or a child on the head! That might be a hard one for me, I am really going to have to be on my game to remember that.
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