Being friendly will help foreigners feel more at home
Tue, Nov 30, 2010
my paper

By reader Ms Tian Guiqing

I AM a 21-year-old student from China, and I find that Singapore is the best place to live in Asia - not only is the city safe, but the greenery also livens up the urban environment.

There are people from all over the world living and working in Singapore, and this is helpful in fostering cultural exchanges.

However, there has not been enough sharing between cultures. People here need to communicate with one another, and learn to understand the social customs and habits of people from different backgrounds.

If we understand and respect people from different countries, it is easier to be friendly with one another.

Perhaps we should start from the basics - with commuters practising courtesy on public transport.

A friendly smile or a hello will be a nice gesture to fellow commuters, instead of being plugged into headphones all the time.

This takes only a few seconds but will go a long way in making the atmosphere in trains and buses friendly and will help foreigners feel more at ease.

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1. why would we want to make foreigners feel at HOME?

2. why must we share between cultures? cultural integration takes centuries to accomplish, its not something we can simply check off in a to do list.

3. who the fuck are you to tell people not to listen to music just so we can smile at you and make you "feel more at ease"?!?!? do we not even have the right to exercise freedom of what we want to do?

stupid idiots. just go back home if you don't like the way we do things here. or else shut up and be grateful.