The world’s competition has undergone enormous changes. These changes were marked by differences in culture and different nations. In responding to these differences, SMA Muhammadiyah 1 Taman brought guests from Sri Lanka, namely Mr. Delano, and the theme is “cross culture”.
The event was held on Thursday (4/11) by inviting students from class X, XI, and XII Excellent. The students were gathered in the SMAMITA Conference room. Mr. Emil as the organizer of the event has prepared this event with the purpose of getting to know other people’s culture, according to the Qur’an it is stated that humans were created to know each other, nations and tribes.
In addition, the organizers of this event also have several benefits, being able to create students who are tough and brave in dealing with foreigners. Mr. Delano prepared a short film describing some habits of Sri Lanka’s people. From that short film, it can be understood that the customs of the Sri Lanka people are not much different from the habits of the Indonesian people.
The speaker of the event, Mr. Delano also said that judging a person it is not only physical or appearance, because cultural or racial differences can create barriers or difficulties in communicating. In general, we can consider this in situations that involve meeting people from two different countries. However, it can even be seen among people in the same country but from different islands, provinces, or even villages. Sometimes the way people greet you, the way you shake hands or greet an older person can also be the cause of misunderstandings. We should always be open minded and try to understand why other cultures do what they do.
Messages and impressions from today’s event are, “Don’t judge people, try to accept and adjust people, cultures are different, people are different, try to see where they are coming from, we need to understand the background, keep an open mind, try to communicate because communication is the key,” said Mr. Delano.
The event organizer also said that we can make friends with anyone, get to know anyone, because SMAMITA’s tagline is Global Insight. We can’t just be confined in our circle, we have to get to know everyone. (Dhidan/ Jurnalis Smamita)
