Personally, through this trip, I hope to immerse myself in the Vietnamese culture. By immersing, I mean that I want to live like a local and understand the local culture better. Vietnam is a very interesting country. Not only do they have many religions, their rapid pace of development has led to many different impacts which I want to see for myself. This will be my first trip to Vietnam and I hope that it will be one that is unforgettable.

 

The reason why I want to immerse myself in the Vietnamese culture is because on many overseas trips that I have been, I feel that I have not really immersed myself as a local and instead, acted like a tourist, going to various shops to find the cheapest deals as well as visiting various tourist attractions. This feels like a very shallow activity for me, whereby the only reason I go overseas is for material gains instead of understanding the culture of the country better. Being a USP scholar, I feel that it is important for me to be less shallow and become a more proactive global citizen, whereby I not only find out more about other countries but also be more inquisitive of the culture and find out the real reason behind the various behaviors of different cultures. In my latest trip to Penang, I was glad to be able to interact with the locals near my hotel and it was interesting to find out how the area has developed. We lived in Muntri Mews hotel which used to be a horse stable. From a local living nearby, we found out that the horse stable used to supply horses for the various lottery events in Malaysia. This was interesting to me as we no longer see horses roaming the streets in Singapore.

 

Being a Singaporean, I am very thankful for the multi-racialism that is unique to our country. The different races in Singapore have different customs and practices that is very interesting to me.  To expand my knowledge on the various customs and beliefs worldwide, I think that going to Vietnam will be beneficial. Not only that, this trip, which allows first-year USP scholars to investigate multi-disciplinary issues in a foreign country, will increase interactions with the locals which will provide me with first-hand knowledge of the Vietnamese culture. The different perspectives that the locals provide will also be a bonus as we do not solely rely on our literature review which is subjected to the researchers’ bias. The experiences gained in Vietnam definitely could not be achieved through a normal classroom-based college education and I am glad to be given the opportunity to gain knowledge of the 21st century, which is not just limited to our country. I hope that this trip will provide me with valuable insights into the Vietnamese culture and also expose me to a multitude of perspectives which will make me a better rounded global citizen.