The hardest mental hurdle that I have to take every single day is the cultural change of Singapore. It’s one thing to say that we’ve Westernized our Asian culture, but the truth of it is still a huge apprehension of what that really looks like. More than that, I think most people actually don’t want too much of a foreign approach, and they want the comfort of familiarity.
That’s hard when I’m trying to walk up or down and escalator.
Here is my escalator issue:
The diagram for standing on an escalator states that you should stand on the left side to hold the rail, and the right side is for people to move past, if they are in a rush.
However, in a lot of scenarios, Singaporeans like to travel in groups. In a Singaporean group movement, it is key to be in a swarm of some sort, and having to walk ahead is seen as being unfriendly. It is also key to have visual connections to everyone around. This means that on an escalator, it is impossible to stretch a conversation among 4 people in a row. Thus, they will stand two by two, so that the conversations can still take place.
Then I might come along, wanting to move past, but there are two people blocking the way, and there is usually no space to move past two people. Moving past one person is still something that can be squeezed. But two is just too much.
So I end up standing behind this set of people, and listen to their conversation (OR LACK OF) and just wait my turn to get off the escalator.
In this scope: the Asian mindset of “everyone else” is focused on their immediate group. The Western mindset of “we’re on our own but we’re together still” is not there.
I’ve seen non-Asians be separated from their group, and they would wait at the end of the escalators if they need to walk ahead because of the lack of space.
As I’m writing this, I also recall the complete ignorance of groups on the escalator when in the London Tube, or in Paris.
So perhaps
all people are not able to read signs
and in a group, no one really cares about the people that are not together with them.
Ok this post didn’t really go the way that I thought it would. but hey, I learnt something new again today I guess.