Where cultures meet
How does culture affect our lives?
“Our culture is our routine of sleeping, bathing, dressing, eating, and getting to work. It is our household chores and the actions we perform on the job; the way we buy goods and services, write and mail a letter, take a taxi or board a bus, make a telephone call, go to a movie, or attend church. It is the way we greet friends or address a stranger, the admonitions we give our children and the way we respond, what we consider good and bad manners, and even to a large extent what we consider right and wrong.
All these and thousands of other ways of thinking, feeling, and acting seem so natural and right that we may even wonder how else one could do it. But to millions of other people in the world every one of these acts would seem strange, awkward, incomprehensible, unnatural, or wrong. These people would perform many, if not all, of the same acts, but they would be done in different ways that to them would seem logical, natural, and right.”
–Ina Corinne Brown, Understanding Other Cultures (1963)
Adapting foreign traditions to conform to and respect local Maltese culture
Maltese culture is generally considered to be a mix of influences brought to the island of Malta by the various rulers it has seen come and go over many centuries. It is a fact that the Phoenicians, Romans and Arabs all left their stamp on the customs and traditions of the Maltese and Malta’s history.
However, age-old traditions have travelled through generations and have allowed the Maltese to retain their roots. A likely reason for the survival of originally Maltese traits is the drive to establish an own identity in the face of foreign rulers, and more certainly the reliance on maritime trade has helped to shape and conserve what we know now as being Maltese culture.
A Culture of opposites
Malta is seen by many as being a nation of opposites and opposition. Whereas the Maltese people are generally friendly and welcoming, Mediterranean temperament comes forward in opposition of sides at many levels, but mainly in sports, politics and local band clubs. Opposition and choosing sides gives a sense of belonging and identity and this is something that is evident in Maltese culture, in which opposition sometimes flows into conflict. Followers of either side of the contrasting entities often lose touch with reality and conflict has at times escalated and become physical. This is not something that occurs regularly but temperament (and not aggression) is part and parcel of life in Malta, where something as subtle as whispering is a rare occurrence and where oral communication is often much louder than in Northern Europe.
wordcloud
That is what is it all about that is why it is so important to learn the host country.