The world and its differences

This funny video clip which I am sure most of the world has seen, is one such example of cultural difference. I asked my boyfriend, who is Canadian, if he used to get beatings from his parents as a child. He said never. I, on the other hand, treated caning as a habit of my parents'. My brother and I used to get light beatings from my mother everytime we talked to much over dinner and not finished our food. It didn't hurt, and we brushed always brushed it off with laughs. Nevertheless, the mere sight of the cane made us quiver with fear.
This is only one tiny aspect of a difference in culture. When I moved to Taipei three years ago, i suffered great culture shock. We were all Chinese and we all spoke mandarin, but their rationale and mentality was something that I had to get used to. Even their slang is different. They use Mandarin words that, prior to my move, I have never heard in my life. If you watch a typical Taiwanese variety show such as :



you will find that there are many words that we do not normally hear on the streets here in Singapore. It really took me a while to get used to it. I did however manage to pick it up and it was really fun trying to adapt to the culture and use their language and learn their mannerisms. I think it is quite important for everyone and anyone to be able to adapt to new surroundings. You also get to learn so much more about different cultures and it is always a fun experience trying to fit in.
When my boyfriend first moved to Singapore, he couldn't really understand why it was so hard to look for a place to stay. Most landlords he called said they 'only wanted Chinese people'. He immediately took this as racist. In the landlord's defense, the government has imposed this rule in HDB areas that a certain quota must be met. And because Singapore encourages, a multi racial environment, certain areas are only allowed to accommodate that many indians, malays, Eurasians and Chinese. I had to explain that to him over and over again but he still insisted that it was clearly racism.
For Christmas last year, I went over to Canada to meet his family for the first time. Because I have eliminated red meat from my diet for over a year now, there were many things that I could not eat over the dinner table. I also tend to be really picky with my food and I try to avoid high calorie foods. As we all know, Christmas is the time lots of desserts and sweet things. As chinese, we do not have the habit of refusing things. Naturally, when a chocolate sticky pudding was given to me, I accepted it politely, only to secretly give it to my boyfriend when we are away from the dining table. He questioned why i had taken it if i didn't want it. I told him i felt it was rude to refuse. He thought i was being silly and reassured me that it was perfectly alright to just say 'no'; no one would have gotten offended. I could go on and on about all the cultural differences I have experience. i spent the last couple of years travelling a lot and I have gotten to experience so many different cultures and places. There are, however, certain cultures that I know even if I tried I would never get used to. Like the openness of plastic surgery in South Korea. I hear that parents there save up so that when their daughters turn 16 they can buy them new eyes, or a new nose or a new chest. It baffles me.