Understanding the cultures

I'm a person who grew up in suburban places around beautiful Kandy,Sri Lanka,where culture played a big part in shaping up my life.Sri Lanka where we boast of a culture of more than 2500 years and a proud history of countless years always cherished it.United Sates a country with unique cultural aspects and quite a blend of friendly people boast of rich cultural aspects as well.Those things are unique to Americans and they are really proud about them as well.

I had the opppurtunity of meeting up with some of the expat Sri Lankans living here in US,where I thought many people are in kind of a dilemma to decide on what culture they belong to.Specially among the second generation expat Sri Lankans do not have a slightest of idea about the rich history and culture back home(I wonder how many will like to call Sri Lanka home)...With all due respect to English language,I always believe Sinhala was far superior than English..(I might be bit biased on this,my Sinhalese is far far better than my English skills)....but I rarely see second generation of expat Sri Lankans conversing in Sinhalese.Many of their parents want them to converse in Sinhalese,but as I feel Its up to the parents to have the initiative and encourage their young ones.

I always was really upset about the attitude of some of Sri Lankans towards the sinhala language,while they worship the English.Most of them will loudly say words "son of a bitch" in society with out thinking twice...that's alright for us because it is in English..but imagine how many will have the guts to yell out the pure sinhala meaning of those words???(of course I can do it here coz no one will understand it)....And I wonder what will be the situation If we are going to use the F word in sinhalese,with the frequency that it is used here.

Alcohol is an integral part of the Western cultures and I have nothing against it.Sri Lanka do have a worse record of alcohol consumption even with the religious background that we have back home.For me a person who drinks what ever foreign liquor at Hilton Colombo and a person who drinks Kasippu at some rural village are at the same level.And mind you at this rate number of girls drinking alcohol will surely exceed the number of boys in few years time in Sri Lanka.I don't know if it is something to smile or cry.....one reason most people do this is to move along with the so called high society....give me a break...why cant we have that villager who consumed kasippu to that society as well....

As far as I see we are entangled in between few cultures and most people are unable to sort out where they really belong.....might be a disadvantage of globalization...just a thought.....