Tan Kin Lian's Blog: Culture and behavior of people

Wednesday, May 05, 2010

Culture and behavior of people

People are shaped by their culture, education and way of life. They develop certain common traits - generous, selfish, open minded, closed minded, positive, negative, courageous, cowardly, honest, deceitful.

Although the traits are quite common to most people in that culture, there will be exceptions. A statement of trait does not mean that it will apply to 100% of people in that culture. If I say that the X (a certain nationality or people) are hardworking, there will certainly be some who are lazy. It is not necessary to say that "most X" are hardworking, as the word "most" is understood.

In Singapore, there ae certain people who will challenge your observation by asking you to prove their point. They wil ask "Do you have statistics to prove that X is hardworking? Did you conduct a survey? What percentage of X are hardworking? Is your survey reliable?"

After a while, most people learn to keep quiet. They have no opinion. They will let other people make a statement and they can then throw the "statistical" challenge.

I open my eyes and make my observation. I see what are the common traits of certain people. I know Singaporeans well and have observed their traits - which are shaped by our education and environment. Some of these traits are positive. Some are negative and should be changed. I will try my best to point them out.

I hope that Singaporeans will develop the open mindedness to see our positive and negative traits, be willing to laugh at ourselves, and have the strength to correct our negative traits.

Serenity prayer.
God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference

http://www.cptryon.org/prayer/special/serenity.html

Tan Kin Lian

9 comments:

Anonymous said...: wau lau, hey You mention God, suddenly so 'holely' is it or are you horny..lau tan, waiting for the black & white horse face to come to you is it..for u, surely cannot see Holy God face..wait long long lar.; May 05, 2010 2:34 PM
Vincent Sear said...: To: Anonymous 2:34PM

I think that's very unfair and personal attack against TKL. I do disgree with him at times too, even when I was his subordinate.

Anonymous personal attacks carry no weight and benefits nobody.

I don't know you have have nothing against you. Just a neutral post.; May 05, 2010 5:01 PM
Anonymous said...: Hi Mr Tan,
I notice that a lot of people like to say that you are NATO, only speaking on your blog and not running for office.

but i feel that running a blog like yours is meaningful too, and the good point is you put in general knowledge, philosophy view and sometime jokes. and I know of a few senior citizen friends who will come to read your blog for 1 hours everyday while having their afternoon tea, the blog will entertain them, increase their world view, and make them feel happier, and they can interact with other by putting comment.

i feel that although running for office is important and serious matter, it does not mean that making a few old people happy everyday, have a positive impact on their lives is not meaningful. and I am sure your blog serves a larger purpose.

I hope you will continue to manage your blog to have a positive impact on more people life.; May 05, 2010 5:08 PM
Anonymous said...: People will be forced to change by circumstances. There's no way this process can be accelerated by anyone. The government had been masquerading Singapore as a China city, and pay time is coming soon, although unfortunately, that will probably be after the elections.

2.34 pm -> Why would you bother to reply to these? I always ignore crazy people.; May 05, 2010 5:15 PM
Anonymous said...: Dear Mr Tan,
Just do what you are doing best and trust your heart's intend.What you are saying may not be nice song to hear,well at least you do speak your mind and is your blog.
Stand strong and tall and we are behind you and yes, at times some thing that you wrote may not be nice or like fair but is spoken out with no malice.ignore those that are out to get you and if you are ready for office or higher calling,just believe your heart and go with it.; May 05, 2010 5:39 PM
A Singaporean said...: Hi Mr. Tan,

Like Rex, I would also encourage you not to use statements that are too strong when you don't have data to substantiate it. I suggest you use statements like "Singaporeans tend to be hardworking", "a number of people cannot think for themselves", "many workers have to work long hours", and "most citizens appear to be apathetic". Such statements still convey the same message, but more logically accurate and therefore more convincing. In my opinion, there is a significant pool of people who would question on too-strong statements, myself included, mainly due to the education we receive. Therefore, please don't let reader skepticism from too-strong statements cloud the actual message you are trying to deliver.

Otherwise, you have a great blog, and I look forward to more posts from you.; May 05, 2010 5:39 PM
Anonymous said...: Mr Tan,
I agree with you that people are shaped by their culture, education and way of life.
There is one point that we can all think about is. If there is a person that have worked as a general manager for the last 25years and if he were to leave his job and go and work as , let say a normal operator at a production line, and there is a high chance that he will be ask to leave within one week for reason like not following instruction, because a lot of the time as a production operator , you are not allowed to have any variation of the process, even if you think it is better or even if it is really better. Does this mean that the manager does not know how to follow instruction? no, it is only because after twenty five years of being general manager, he is used to thinking on his own and making decisions on his own.
so sometimes, our observation are really just perceptions of our experiences and standing in life.; May 05, 2010 11:52 PM
Anonymous said...: Rex comments as follows,

For a day, I was hesitating whether i should say something on this new thread. I can't resist anymore.

I find problem with the logic: "A statement of trait does not mean that it will apply to 100% of people in that culture. If I say that the X (a certain nationality or people) are hardworking, there will certainly be some who are lazy. It is not necessary to say that "most X" are hardworking, as the word "most" is understood.

I disagree with the above proposition that "most" is understood. In the specific context above, it might appear so, simply because it does not harm to consider it true, as everyone enjoy being described as "hardworking"!!!
But what happens, if i say "xxx race group are lazy"? What if i say "those with surname XXXX are power crazy and cannot be trusted"? Can you still say, don't worry, the word "most" is understood? In my opinion, this is very dangerous thinking, to protect a clearly sweeping statement.

The word "most" will not be happily understood in these cases because if you are one of those XXXX named you will feel offended, how are you supposed to know that you are on which side of the description the writer is saying - you begin to wonder what is the message being conveyed.

The funny thing is that when the adjective used is postive, it is fine, but not the opposite. Humans are sensitve, we don't think logically sometimes.

I think that we should always design our sentence constructs so that it leaves no opportunity to offend anyone. There are tigers out there who will destroy you if you so much as miss a dot in your sentences.

rex; May 06, 2010 7:47 AM
Anonymous said...: Mr Tan;

please contribute your wisdoms to enlighten others and as You can see; many are thankful and supportive of yours contributions and efforts.

HOWEVER, do steer clear of religions and their teachings, shall we say that religion is the most controversial subject in the human world.

patriot; May 06, 2010 10:15 AM