Globalization had taken over the world today. Cities are turning into clones of each other and the masses are converging into fake stereotypes. The cultural differences which makes society unique are close to gone. The ancient cities which carry historical value and culinary diversity are being demolished, or modified into what is being projected as superior. Traditional practices are carried with respect as rarely as a shooting star is seen among the night sky. In the midst of the advancement in technology and human evolution, people are losing, what matters the most, their identity and uniqueness which are evolved out of their traditional beliefs and culture.
A high school senior, Anusha Shivram was interviewed along the lines of this issue. This is a good example of how society can make people feel that their race, culture or language in inferior to others. This indirectly provokes the sense of inferiority in people, thus causing them to hide their beliefs or change the way they were taught to look at life. Anusha was asked if she has ever felt that her race is inferior to another, and in response she said that society indirectly says that her race is inferior. ‘’Despite claiming to be a racially equal society, the way the population is divided into different races is unjust,’’ said Anusha.
This is true since the population of Singapore is 75.9% Chinese , 12.1% Malay and 9.1% Indian. Additionally she had mentioned that despite being told so, she does not get equal opportunities. This is because languages such as Hindi, Punjabi, Japanese and Korean are not taught in Singaporean local schools and student have to pay to learn them out of school.
When students study higher mother tongue, they get extra points in their board exam. However, the languages mentioned above do not have 'higher mother tongue.'’
Hence, students who study these languages do not get the extra points, and sometimes cannot get into the schools they want.
She has also talked about how some schools have a clear segregation between the major races. Schools such as Dunman High, Hwa Chong International and many many more are schools designed mainly for the Chinese. There are no other languages offered there, their school song is in Chinese and the school population is made up of mostly Chinese.
‘’If I wanted to go there, I would find it immensely uncomfortable and uninviting. Hence, where some races may have these choices open, I am deterred from them. The chinese make up the majority in my school, the teachers, themselves talk in Chinese, my classmates talk in Chinese and ask questions during class in Chinese. This is despite me being in the classroom, ‘’she added.
‘’It almost makes it seem like without learning their language, I can go nowhere in this society,’’ she says to sum it all up.
There are many causes of the loss of traditional culture, one being mother tongue. Many children in the world today can only speak english and not their mother tongue. This can cause problems if the grandparents reside in the same household. This produces a language barrier between the two generations.
Do parents in today’s day not value their mother tongue as their parents did in the past?
Will English dominate Asian households?
Many feel that this is a major loss to communities that were once bound together by language.
Another cause is the lack of cooking in modern society. For south asians, cooking and meals is a significant part of their lifestyle. However the tradition of cooking freshly everyday, eating ethnic foods and encouraging and passing on the basics of cooking into the lives of youngsters, has begun to erode.
Is the move from traditional cooking towards ‘’quick’’ food substitutes a positive change?
Culture works as a backbone in society, which provides stability and security. It is similar to red lights at intersections. Imagine if there were no red lights, there would be a lot of accidents, the streets would be in complete turmoil.
Similarly if there were no culture and traditions, society would collapse.
This generation is the first to lose more knowledge then gained, around half the languages in the world are now gone.
According to the census bureau, current population survey, of 73,001, 000 children living in the U.S, only 49,903,000 live with both their parents, which means, around 31.6% of the child population in the U.S, live with one parent. This isn’t wrong, but it definitely means something.
The divorce rate from 1901 to 1970 has increased by 700%. In 1900, in America, there were 56,000 divorces and in 1992 there were 1.2 million. Isn’t this alarming?
The average individual is becoming more and more self concerned, this is the primary reason of most divorce cases. However, parents fail to understand the negative outcomes of their actions. As a result, around 63% of youth suicides are one parent children.
Change is inevitable, but not all change is irreversible.
A grade 8 survey conducted to shine light on this issue stated that 92.3% of students said that following their traditions and culture gives them a sense of belonging. 30.8% of students said that at some point in their life, they have felt that their race is inferior to another and 22.2% said that they would change their nationality or religion if they could, this is surprisingly quite a large portion.
The loss of culture and tradition are one of the main causes of the lack of confidence and self belief in the youth population of the world today. What can we do to stop this?
Having pride in your own culture and traditions, influences others to do as well. How can we forget the culture and tradition that has brought our generation so far? How will this affect the next generation?
‘’Culture dies from suicide, not murder’’
You have the right to believe in and respect your culture and traditions, no one can force you to disrespect your culture and change your beliefs, they can merely influence you.
As mentioned earlier, change is inevitable, but don’t be a victim of the cultural cringe, where one has an internalized inferiority complex that causes them to dismiss their own culture as inferior to the culture of other countries.
One has to be associated with some culture or the other to avoid losing their identity.
Treasure the notion of a global citizen, but don’t let go of your unique culture to adopt a unified and fake one.
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