The Iceberg Concept Of Culture

Using the Iceberg concept of culture, culture is commonly divided into 2 categories: surface culture and deep culture. Deep culture, just like an iceberg where the majority of the ice is found below sea level, is the majority of culture. To lay down the difference between those 2 in the simplest of terms, deep culture consists of beliefs, values, assumptions, and thought processes which are much harder to detect and identify, while surface culture, on the other hand, consists of behaviours, words, customs, and traditions which can be easily identifiable. Seeping into the very core of our society, deep culture organizes our thinking and the world's. It is the symbolic and intangible aspects of identity, and is the subtle interpersonal relationships …show more content…
How diverse is your country? Explain.

For a relatively small and young country, Singapore is a tremendously diverse country. Singapore's diversity can be explained in 3 parts:

1) Race & Ethnicity or Race & Diversity
According to the Population White Paper released by the government of Singapore, the percentage of citizens with the following ethnicities in the year 2016 are as follows:

Chinese - 76.1%
Malays - 15.0%
Indians - 7.4%
Others - 1.5%

Chinese can be seen taking up the majority of the races in Singapore, followed by the Malays and the Indians. However, it is good to note that despite the fact the the Chinese make up the majority of the population, the language compositions show that English is still the most prominently-used language in Singapore, with 70.9% of the population speaking it. Chinese takes up 21.4% and Malay, another 9.9%. This shows that the languages used in Singapore is quite diversified due to the different languages used. With a multi-cultural society, Singapore has to accommodate to people from all around the world and that has resulted in foods and cuisines brought in from all around the world. One can easily find Chinese, Malay, Indian, Western, and other cuisines all in one place. This makes Singapore an extremely diverse place to live …show more content…
For Singapore to be a melting pot, it has to be a place in which homogeneous societies develop. People of different cultural backgrounds and religions have to be combined so as to eventually lose their discrete identities, yielding a culture of uniform values, beliefs, and norms of behaviour. In the past, we were considered or called a melting pot. However, with recent years, especially the past century, the influx of immigrants have resulted in our country becoming more and more diverse. Most of these immigrants with different cultural backgrounds and religions are looking for economic avenues and are susceptible to better offers abroad. The lack of will to stay and help homogenize our societies makes it extremely difficult for Singapore to be a melting pot when everyone's only keeping a lookout for themselves. This can be observed by comparing the past to the present when we would get along with neighbors who are from a different race or religion. But now, we would hardly go as far as to greet them whenever our paths would cross. As for a salad bowl, I wouldn't consider Singapore a part of it. With many more immigrants coming in, Singaporeans seem to be more conscious and protective of their national identities. This has resulted in the host culture's unwillingness to interact with the immigrants. Even though there are attempts to help the immigrants better integrate into our society, many Singaporeans are