What this lesson teaches
I can explain why individuals and countries accept or reject foreign culture to different degrees.
Syllabus K336, Issue 3, Guiding Question 3, Responses to cultural impacts of globalisation. Varying degrees of acceptance and rejection
Make a guess
A teenager loves Korean dramas but disagrees with how some show family roles. What do you think this shows?
- The teenager should stop watching to protect local culture.
- Watching a drama means accepting the ideas in it over time.
- People can accept some parts of a culture and not others.
Show the answer
People can accept some parts of a culture and not others.
Responses are rarely all-or-nothing. Someone can enjoy a programme's storytelling while rejecting some of its messages.
People can accept, adapt or reject different parts of foreign culture while keeping the traditions they value.
Picture a viewer who enjoys an overseas drama's storytelling but disagrees with how it shows family roles. Enjoying a programme does not mean accepting every idea in it.
Individuals may welcome foreign music, language, food or ideas because they bring enjoyment, learning or new choices. They may adapt an influence to fit their own lives. Or they may avoid some content because it clashes with their values or tastes.
Responses are rarely all-or-nothing. Someone can support both local and foreign artists. They can accept a technique while rejecting a message, or turn down one product while welcoming others from the same country. A whole nationality does not have one fixed response.
People can also keep their culture alive by learning a language or skill, using it, supporting local artists and teaching others. This does not require avoiding foreign culture. Time, cost, access to teachers and interest limit what someone can do. Buying one local product does not preserve a whole tradition.
- Accept
- Welcome a foreign influence.
- Adapt
- Change it to fit your own life.
- Reject
- Turn away content that conflicts with your values.
Real examples to use
Accepting
Many young Singaporeans enjoy K-pop and Korean dramas, and some learn Korean because of them.
Keeping local culture alive
Some young people take over their family's hawker stall. Others join a Chinese orchestra or a Malay dance group. In these ways, local practices continue.
Worked example: Enjoying a film, questioning its message
Nadia admires the visual style of foreign films and learns editing techniques from them. She disagrees with one film's message that only men should make family decisions. She also joins a local language group to help younger members practise.
- She accepts the film techniques.
- She rejects a message she disagrees with.
- She helps keep her own language alive. All three responses happen at once, though other viewers may respond quite differently.
Watch out for this
To protect local culture, you must reject all foreign culture.
People can enjoy foreign culture and still keep their own traditions alive.
Check your understanding
Nadia uses editing techniques from foreign films in her own local videos. What is this?
- Adapting a foreign influence to suit her own local work.
- Accepting the values shown in the foreign films she studies.
- Rejecting local film styles in favour of foreign ones.
Show the answer
Adapting a foreign influence to suit her own local work.
Right. She takes a technique and uses it in her own way.