★Dealing with Cultural Differences
Tuesday, 24 April 2012 • 20:54 • 0 comments
Now, I want to share my experience during my studying at one of local universities in northern Malaysia. During my studying there, I’m having difficulties in adapting myself to mix around with students and friends that majority of them came from northern Malaysia such as Penang, Kedah, Perlis, and Langkawi. I admit that I cannot understand well especially in communication as their way of speaking (dialect) is totally different than mine. I used to mix around with friends who have same dialect before this and it makes me more comfortable to understand and communicate.
During my time at the university, I found hard to understand at begin but later I managed to understand after several months I mixed around with them. It is hard for me at beginning because I’m still in adapting process to understand their culture, background, and dialect. Mostly, my group works allow me to work together and deal with friends who come from northern. I try to adapt myself by learning their dialect slowly and communicate with them when I having problems in my study. This adapting process needs patience and strength to improve myself to understand other culture background and dialect. I found it is interesting to know other culture background. They have different ways of communication and lifestyle than mine. I came from Southern Malaysia (Johor). I respect their lifestyle, background and dialect. Most of them are very kind, friendly, humour, and understanding. No matter who they are, I respect them because they all are unique. They had attracted me to get closer with them because of their humour and that’s made me feel more comfortable and close. At the same time, I never forgot about my friends that come from other part of Malaysia.
Now, I have a best friend, came from Penang. I’m very lucky to know him for three years. He has totally different background than mine. I’ve learned lots of things from his culture. He is kind, very friendly, enthusiasm and humour. He taught me a lot on how to respect and mix well with people who have different culture. He always persuades me to meet his friends and family, and always talking about his culture lifestyle and background. His family and friends are very friendly and kind. They treat me very nice and well. I’ve learned lots of term that I did not understand before this. Now, I understand almost all the terms and dialect that he usually use when speaking with me. It is so meaningful moment for me to understand other culture background and lifestyle. I love to learn other cultures! Absolutely! Thanks to him ;D
As we are growing older, we should use our time and opportunity to know other people who come from different country and background. As a future counselor, we have to learn lots of different culture because later we will meet those people and it will help us to build comfortable relationship between counselor and client. Here, I attached several tips to deal with cultural differences in a relationship (or friendship).
1) Understand and explore
2) Respect differences
3) Look for commonalities
4) Don’t make assumptions
5) Be patient
Labels: immersion
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You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them. By Ray Bradbury.