Castillo, Jasmine Bianca A.

NSTP MWX
2015-05575 October 10, 2016

As discussed in the first module, our society and culture plays a very important role in the formation of
our identity. It’s also something that is crucial to nation-building. Which is why it is a must for us to know,
understand and respect not only our culture but also the culture of others, especially in an archipelagic
country like ours that is so culturally diverse. This might be seen as something disadvantageous because it
emphasizes difference, but it is hugely beneficial if we were to embrace it and practice cultural sensitivity.
After all, what says “Filipino” more than jeepneys, pandesal and barangays. Due to our diverse culture, we
Filipinos are flexible and quickly adapt to different situations and even different places with different cultures.
People from other countries come to our country in order to witness the colorful and diverse culture that we
harbor. Whether it is the ​ ​sarimanok, the fiestas or the folk dance, we cannot deny that our culture is
beautiful.

In order to bridge the gap set by cultural diversity, it is necessary for us to practice cultural sensitivity.
It is in my opinion that nation-building cannot happen otherwise. Of course to be of service to our fellow
countrymen, we must first be aware that their customs and traditions are possibly different from ours. Simply
knowing about the different culture in our country isn’t enough, we must also learn to respect them. More
often than not, we become prejudiced to the people whose culture are different than ours and this hinders us
from helping one another. From a young age, certain stereotypes about different cultures were already
imposed on our minds. This causes us to be closed-minded, which is something that we should avoid. How
could we be of service to our nation if we can’t even get along with our fellow countrymen? It saddens me to
see that we embrace the culture of other countries more than our own. And even I am guilty of that act. It is
no secret that most people are very familiar with pop culture, something that is based off the Western
culture. If we are that eager about learning the culture from other countries, then we should be twice as
eager in learning our own. We seem to be taking our culture for granted because it is something we’ve been
immersed to all our life. But we must see that in our country which has 7,100 islands, there is so much more
to our culture than we think. Our current education system lacks proficiency when it comes to the cultural
diversity in our country, as well as the importance of cultural sensitivity. Overall, it wouldn’t hurt for us to start
taking a look at ourselves and taking necessary actions in practicing cultural sensitivity.