One, Land, Cultural Interactions
Patricia Ferreira
When Clovis Ribeiro, 24, first stepped in Macao he felt he was in a different world. Everything was too different from his hometown in Cape Verde, an African country. The city, the people, and the food were totally new to him.
Everyone may experience cultural interaction once they are in contact with another cultural group. The ability to communicate and share other’s culture is how the interaction begins. Students from different countries and cultural backgrounds come to study in Macao, a place where many cultures can be found.
“I remember the first day I arrived in Macao and everything seemed so different. I told myself that I was in a different world, and I was surprised with the city, people, food and everything,” said Ribeiro, a foreign student who has studied at University of Macau (UM) for four years.
He is one of those students who experienced the culture interaction once exposed to the Macao culture. The integration into the community was not easy at the beginning but with time he started to get used to his “new home”.
Moreover, adapting into a new place was not the only challenge. The traditions and food also took him time to be familiar with. The different tastes of dishes were not what he was used to as he had never tried the Chinese cuisine before. “The taste of Chinese food is sweet and salty at the same time,” he expressed.Chinese festivals were all new to him. It aroused his interests towards Chinese culture, and thus he started engaging in various discussions and activities with his Asian friends.
Clovis was not the only one facing the cultural interaction. Halen Nappoco from Guinea Bissau, another country in Africa, also had difficulties in interacting with the locals when he first came to Macao. He graduated from the University of Macau majoring in Law, and he has been living in Macao for six years.
For Nappoco, language was a key problem as he came from a Portuguese speaking country, and it was complicated for him to communicate with the locals.
“Once I wanted to go to somewhere in Macao, but I had difficulties to communicate with the driver because I didn’t know the name of the place in Chinese,” he said. He is now learning Chinese with the help of his local friends.
The difference in the students’ backgrounds brings different cultural impacts on them. Dalila dos Santos, an exchange student for one year from Brazil studying business administration, found that the integration was not a difficult process.
“I’m very open-minded in making friends here. I met many exchange students that know a lot of local students, so it was quite easy,” Santos said. She admitted that Chinese people are really shy to make friends, but she understood that it is part of their culture.
Santos has learned a lot about Chinese culture from her local friends who are also curious to know about Brazilian culture. “Once you start making friends and engaging in conversation with Chinese people, you will discover that they like to learn about your culture,” she expressed.
Foreign students now feel more comfortable with the Chinese culture and they are more accepted in the community. They frequently hang out with their local friends in different places like nightclubs (MGM, D2, Belini, Cubic), dormitory at East Asia Hall of UM, Mc Donald’s, and Chinese restaurants in Taipa. In addition, the students share their cultures through different activities like barbecues, soccer games and students’ parties.
“We have so much fun and share many things with the locals and other foreigners during the barbecue and the party. Sometimes it does not seem that we are from different countries,” Nappoco added.
Sharing their culture background through dances, food, language, and traditional games is a way they feel related with the locals. There is a new era of interactions.
“We share our culture. There is nothing more enriching than interacting with students from different cultural backgrounds,” said Ribeiro.