German Monopoly (Warning: May contain culturally insensitive material)

What do I love the most about living in an international community? There is of course the food, the interesting cultural dress and dances, the different languages and all that stuff. But by far the best part is finding out that you can make cultural jokes (to some extent) without it actually being racist or offensive. Tonight, we were playing a good old game of Monopoly with a German, a Brit, an American and me, a Canadian. And every country has a different way of playing, different places to buy, different Chance/ Community Chest cards. A real good example of the differences is that in the German version the properties are places like “Czechoslovakia,” “Poland” and “France” and instead of buying them you just land on them and you get them. There’s also fun Chance cards like ‘Blitzkrieg!  Take any three properties” or “Repairs after Bombings, Pay $50 for each house, $75 for each hotel.” Have you done anything culturally insensitive recently? At home I never really though about it since my hometown is so white. Everyone was a third of fourth generation Canadian and had lost most connections with their home country, they’ve lost language, dress, and general knowledge of that country. Every now and then a grandmother will make a cultural dish, or some carried down family tradition. Speaking of traditions, it is almost Christmas time, I really love this time of year. My family has some good Christmas traditions and I’m going to miss them this year. For the first time in my life instead of seeing snow for Christmas I’ll be seeing a whole bunch of Singaporeans.  I wonder how you say Merry Christmas in Singaporean?

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