INTERNSHIPS
Reports
Cultural Exchanges with Sri Lankan People
2019-09-20
鄭芷欣
CHENG Tsz Yan
招商局集團
China Merchants Group
斯里蘭卡
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, known as a teardrop in the Indian Ocean due to its shape, is a country with a long history and rich cultural heritage. Religion is deeply embedded in the social fabric as over 99% of the entire population are religious affiliates. My stay in Sri Lanka enabled me to dig deeper into their values and beliefs.
Sri Lankan people have a laid-back lifestyle. They have two tea breaks in a day. My colleagues usually had a small piece of cake with assorted teas, which is one of the major export commodities of Sri Lanka, at 10 am and took another break after lunch. Most of them either had a small talk with their colleagues or practised meditation during the second break. Unlike people in major cosmopolitan areas who work so hard to be financially wealthy yet end up feeling extremely stressful and miserable in a highly competitive environment, Sri Lankan people are family-oriented so they are eager to spend quality time with their family members, which is something we ought to learn from them in order to create a healthy work-life balance and to become emotionally wealthy.
In addition, my colleagues there considered bonding with colleagues to be a priority. In Colombo International Container Terminals, its human resources department organized monthly office birthday parties. They prepared birthday cakes, burgers and drinks. It is their tradition for the birthday person to eat the first slice of cake and share the same slice with others at the birthday party. They subscribe to the belief that by doing so, they will receive good luck.
Sri Lankan people had the most contagious smile and I was so overwhelmed by their hospitality. Prior to my arrival, there was a series of bombings in Colombo, which put me in a bit of a dilemma over whether to withdraw from the internship or proceed as usual due to safety concerns, but I am grateful that I made the right decision and gained such valuable experience.
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