The Italian Job

It really sounded absurd to me when I heard this in class: A tourist was scolded by an Italian lady for not eating spaghetti the ‘correct’ way in Italy.

well, this is suppose to be the RIGHT way:


I’ve always believe that it is up to my own discretion to eat the way I want. But of course, I would eat gracefully and not gobble the food down greedily. It was truly an eye-opener and very informative for a culturally insensitive person—like me~~!

The Italians are known to be very proud of their food. I have ever read that it if you do not like one of the ingredients listed in an entree or the way it was prepared, order something else. Never ask for the dish to be modified because, the restaurant owner or a family member will take it as an insult. To him or her, you are suggesting that the food is not suitably prepared or the recipe they use is wrong.
From the above cultural information, we can deduce that the Italians bears the utmost respect for their food before eating them. Something like: military funeral—saluting the deceased before burial or crematory. Well, quite a bad analogy but it brings the point across!

So, if anyone were to ever go to Italy and to any other country, please do remember to follow the societal expectation otherwise, you would be frowned upon. I think in the end, everyone has to remember that in different societies, there will be different expectations which we have to adhere to. It is a form of respect to the people living in that society but also respect for you.

WHY?

Because, it shows that it matters to keep yourself abreast of certain trends and norms. Can you imagine that kind of positive impression you would leave on your new friends?

Are we picky?

Wooh..!

Anyway, let's get to the main point.
.
.
.
.
.

What is going on?

Lately, there has been a decrease in marriages in Singapore. This inevitably leads to low birth rate. There are many reasons for this phenomenon but I believe one of the more interesting reasons is that people are not willing to marry those who are not equally qualified. Therefore, I would like to research on how a women and men’s qualification affect his or her chances of getting a partner. Ladies would only want to marry up i.e. be married to men with better or at least equal qualifications. Men, similarly, would want to marry women of lower or at most equal qualifications.

What’s the main question?

In this modern era, would a man marry someone with higher qualification and similarly, would a woman accept a man with lower qualification than her?

What’s my take on it?

If people were given chances to look beyond qualifications, there might be a higher chance of ‘inter-qualification’ marriages.

What is the objective of this study?

The objective of this study is to determine how important is a person’s qualification in his or her love life and thus how can it increase the number of courtships which would eventually turn into marriages-- the first step to having children.

Who is it for?

I believe that readers from SDU and matchmaking companies what benefit largely from this research. They can use the knowledge obtained to plan their activities in such a way that it solves or at least minimize tension occurred due to this problem. In the end, it would aid in match making couples who might get married and have babies.


Is doing a survey on this necessary?

It is crucial to conduct a survey in this research as many people will have different takes on this issue. It is important to look into the different ideas put forth so that compelling solutions can be derived. Thus, a comprehensive survey is needed so that we can see how the targeted population reacts to such an issue. It would eventually yield an accurate result, thus pin-pointing solutions to resolve problems faced.




Who will you choose?!