A friend mentioned to me that he read an article which was written by an expatriate about culture shock. The title was very interesting – “Complaining about the complaining culture of SingaporeExpats have a right to complain”.

According to him, there are 3 stages of culture shock when one first moved to a new country.
1) You are intrigued by the new cultures and the people.
2) You are constrained by the differences and are upset about it.
3) The final stage has 2 options: either you accept the difference or reject it. Acceptance means you stay longer in the country while rejection causes you to leave with bad impression.

I can relate to this article very well. I was very depressed for the first 6 months when I moved to Singapore. I used to complain to my mom that I always wanted to leave this country.

Every weekend, I complained how crowded it was to go anywhere. I complained about why young people refused to give up their seats to the elderly on the mrt or bus. I whined about how people cut queue and yet, gave me the stupid look when I questioned them.

Suddenly, I became a person who complained a lot and I hated it!

Just as I started to doubt my attitude for making a fuss about this country, I heard the local echoing my views. Then, it made me think again if I was actually right to complain because even the local spoke the same voice as me.

I could have chosen the other route in stage 3 of culture shock – rejection but I didn’t. Everything started to change when I found a church and attended since then. I came to realise that complaining made me overlooked many beautiful things. I should be grateful instead. Finally, I came to accept the differences.

When I was asked which country was better the other day, I told my friend that it was like comparing apple and orange. If one prefers apple, of course he/she would think apple is better in every way.

Now, I have learnt to see the beauty of this country. Undeniably, there is always flaw in every country but I guess the most important thing is still being grateful and blessed with everything I have. I am much happier now….

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