This summer, I was lucky to get a chance to go to University of British Columbia (UBC), Vancouver, Canada for a shor-term summer course jointedly with the UBC students. We spent three weeks in Vancouver for project before returning to Singapore together for staying for another two weeks. At the end of the course, some of us joined the Canadian counterparts to pay a short trip to Bali island for a relaxation. During this nearly two-month long intinate mingling with the Canadian peers, some of the cultural difference emerged during the trip, project between the Singaporean students, Chinese students (there are 4 from NUS side), and Canadian students (just nationality, if categorized by races, it would be more complex ranging from Italian, Pakistani, Korean, Chinese as well as Vietnamese).
One of the obvious differences in culture would lie in the life style for leisure and travel. I perfectly understand that the life style is very personalized, varying with individuals not necessary connected to the culture. However, the colleactive behaviors of the Canadian students are so aligned and when I compared that with what I reflect as a common and traditional Chinese lifestyle and way of travelling, I was still surprised and intrigued by the cultural differneces.
The first difference I encountered that the Canadian were extremed enthusiastic about party including endless of clubbing and drinking. I know it is also happened in Singapore and China for the young generation as well, but what I was surprised was the frequency. There could be three to four chances in one week for drinking in the evening, either a drinking session held in the dormitry lounge back in UBC or going out for clubbing. It seems that the minlging time with the UBC students were mostly spent with alcohol. For me, I probably have finished the whole year's quota for alcohol if there is any. From the observation on NUS side, only several people accepted their invitation for drinking either in Vancouver or Singapore every time. None of us is actually a party monster who went for every session arranged. Sometimes this created some perceptions on UBC people that they thought the students from NUS were not active and open enough. On our side, rejection for the invitation every time seesms a little embarassment for us as well especially when we were guests in UBC. Even thoigh in the whole course, there was no conflict occured but I could smell slight uneasiness is present on both sides.
The second difference occured when we were in Singapore and Bali. The UBC counterparts seemed only passinate and enthuastic about the sunshine, sand and sea which they spent most of the trip on the beach either sunbath or surf(in Bali), of course the other time was spent withe alcohol. It was probably normal to understanf for tourists to come to Singapore and Bali for the beach but I meant the two places were not all about beaches. In a Chinese way of travelling, we visited every place of interest and took pictures of the scenary and us hastily before rushing to the next spot. Beach is just one of the spots in our journey and mostly we spent the time walking and taking pictures on the beach rather than lie down to have a sun tan. It is just not our way to enjoy a trip like the Canadians valuing the beach and relevant activities as their major objective visting the Southeast Asian island, like Singapore and Bali.
In this experience, the differences in life styles and beliefs of travellin which I included in the culture forced me to take different approaches in communication and perceptions. For example, I went for clubbing for my first time in life so far and I had no idea why they were so crazy about it. But I tried not to judge them by that and accepted their life stlyle even not agreed with that. Upon the travelling issue. it was a difference case. As they were so aligned in their interest and beliefs, it would difficult for me to express my feeling that I didnot feel like spending all the time on the beach only when there were so many things to explore since it would ruin the group plan. Therefore in the whole trip, I followed their arrangement and tried to enjoy the Canadian way of travelling.
