The writer talked about a junior college classmate's 40th birthday party, where their close knit bunch of classmates were invited, along with the birthday girl's other friends. The classmates had been together through two years of junior college and into university in UK. After that, how different their paths have taken them. Yet, the friendship remains, after about 20 years in between.
Thanks for Facebook, one of my primary school through to secondary school classmates found many of us. We've had several reunions in the last 2 years. We've all gone our separate ways. Some of us have embraced different languages, different accents when speaking English, different cultures, ... but at the heart of it all, we're still good friends.
Perhaps what lies behind the solid friendship is the common school culture that we share: education in a convent school. My friend said to me that "convent girls in India are the same as convent girls in Singapore. They're articulate and outspoken." At that moment, I put it down to our shared heritage of British colonialism. Maybe so. Maybe not. Regardless, a common culture (not always tied to ethnicity) can bind us together in friendship for the long haul.
Sometimes in business, we may not always speak the same brand of English or share the same ethnic culture, but if we went to the same family of schools (e.g. Catholic school), we could well hit it off and build not only a business relationship, but also a friendship, for life.
Culture is an interesting concept. Let's not limit it to language and ethnicity alone.
Happy adventures in exploring other cultures!
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