It’s amazing how Singapore has managed to become one nation with so many different cultures, and each and every culture does shine. When you go to any food courts in Singapore, the option of food ranges from Indian, Malay, Indonesian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and more. While local residents of Singapore are officially Singaporean, they still do maintain a large part of their original culture. In most cases, people learn their home language first, but start to learn English as a second language from the age of 3 onwards, meaning pretty much everyone in Singapore is bilingual and keeps their previous cultural ties. In many cases, both English and Chinese are spoken, and it is common for people to speak to me in Mandarin before realizing that I actually only speak English.
From a cultural standpoint, Singapore feels similar to the US in that many US residents (like myself) are bi-cultural. Although I still have strong ties to my Korean culture, I do relate heavily to American culture also (I’ve never thought I’d crave a hamburger so much until I got here). Each culture even has their own hotspot in Singapore, such as China Town, Little India, and Arab Street. I’ve visited each of these places and it feels much different than the China Town in the U.S. Everything actually feels very local as if I’m actually not in Singapore but in the respective home country. I’m constantly amazed by the cultural diversity of such a young country, and hope to see more.
Sultan Mosque in Singapore, Arab Street.