Thursday, February 10, 2011

Short Story: The Identity of a Singaporean

Short Story: The Identity of a Singaporean (revised)

“We the citizens of Singapore, pledge ourselves as one united people…” I never imagined myself, as a former US citizen, to be reciting this pledge of allegiance to Singapore. It has been an exciting decade since I set foot on this “Little Red Dot”. Everything changed, from my taste for food to my strong American accent. And this is how my story goes…

Mark Sullivan, division manager of BCAIC Inc. , hails from New York, USA, has 2 young daughters and a loving wife. I have just been seconded to Singapore, with a task to expand the business locally. Having heard many horror stories about Singapore, I thought I would be in for a rough ride. Nevertheless, I had to put food on the table for my family, so I can only proceed as planned.

“Good morning passengers, I am your captain for today!” A broadcast was made over the PA system. With both hands filled with bags, I chucked them into the overhead compartment and plunged into my seat. The flight was smooth and the service was excellent. The air stewardesses were all helpful and meticulous, every one of my needs was satisfied, I believe my family enjoyed it much as well. This was my first taste of the professional, award-winning, Singapore International Airlines, which I would never forget.

Our first week in Singapore was all on administrative matters. After that, it was all about work and living the life as a Singaporean. Our family went to all of the renowned places such as the Zoological Gardens, Sentosa and Botanical Garden, etc. We experienced a variety of activities. Together with Singapore’s efficient education system, my daughters were both enrolled in a local kindergarten in no time, while my wife stayed at home and kept herself busy with other expatriates wife and of course our household chores were all taken care of by our Filipino helper. This was when my time in Singapore got interesting.

During a meeting with one of Singapore’s well-developed organizations, Mr Bean, I realized that Singaporeans were very efficient and professional and what they call it, kiasu. The representative that conversed with me shared with me about Singapore’s way of working, he even told me about the word “kiasu”, which from what I understood is known as being afraid of losing out to others. For example, Chinese New Year is coming up; many “kiasu” families have multiple bookings with several restaurants even before they were open for reunion dinner reservations.

There was once were my colleague introduced my family to this unique pastime called “prawn fishing”, from what I had understood it was a time for relaxation where anybody could come and fish for prawns in an enclosed pond for just thirty Singapore dollars every three hours, I was something which my family enjoyed a lot. We never even knew there was such a thing in the world! At the prawn fishing area near East Coast Park, my family decided to take up the three hours of fishing as it’s something we would not be able to do again. The stall owner was so kind that he allowed us to have another hour free! My daughters were ecstatic when they had caught their first prawn. To our surprise, we only realized after we were done that we allowed to keep the prawns we caught! The friendly and kind stall owner even threw in a few more for the trip home. We ask the stall owner for things to do at the beach just next door. He told us that we could utilize the “free” barbecue pits at the beach. My family was stunned by the fact that a barbecue pit was free! Nothing, I mean nothing was free in New York, even tissues. We were all really happy with Singapore’s way of life. That day, we spent the day at the beach. Barbecuing our fresh prawns, swimming at the ocean, having a whale of a time. I’ve never seen my family this happy before! It made me feel great. However, that night my younger daughter fell terribly ill being under the sun for most of the day and not being hydrated. At 2am, my wife and I brought here to the nearby hospital, Raffles hospital, to our surprise during the wee hours of the morning there were still many people working there, always on the watch, always ready. My daughter was prescribed with medicine and within a few days, she was back in top form.

My impression of Singapore had already started to change. Not only were the people friendly and easy to converse with, they were also kind and helpful. Unlike in New York, it was like the survival of the fittest; colleagues were pitting against each other and never helping one another out with work. After only being exposed to the Singapore style of work, I finally realized that life here was not that bad. In Singapore, people work together as a group and not individually.

Surprisingly, I have developed an immense liking for chilli. Similar to all other Singaporeans, I have started to eat chilli with basically everything. One day after work, my wife and I gathered the children and went out for dinner at this special place near my office which was highly recommended by my Singaporean colleague, Lau Pat Sat. At first, the one thing that captured all our eyes was the portable stalls that were lined up at the entrance of the food centre. The distinct smell of barbecued chicken and mutton kebabs filled the air, which later I was told that they were called satay. The atmosphere of the hawker centre was amazing; people from different races and background were coming together and enjoying the food they love. Their love for food was just indescribable. One of the favourite Singaporean pastimes is eating, especially eating out. Stall owners were friendly and helpful, from what I observed, they gave me a larger portion compared to the other locals; I guess this is their way of showing their generosity? That night, our family had a whale of a time, unexpectedly there was an elevated stage right smack in the middle of the hawker centre which was used for musician to entertain the patrons with soothing music, which was something very creative, on the contrary in New York there’s no such thing as a hawker centre.

One more thing that I noticed was that Singapore’s cleanliness is highly commendable. I was told that the cleanliness is due to Singapore being a “fine” society. Apparently, imposing of fines is a common thing here, from littering to jaywalking to speeding. I’ve also caught on the Singaporean way of speaking, Singlish. Apparently, the use of expressions such as “la”, “lor”, “hor”, “ah” is extremely common among the locals. Over time, I soon find myself lapsing into the use of these expressions. I enjoyed every bit of my stay here and soon I realized that my older daughter is eligible for Primary 1 registration and thus decided to take up the government’s offer of Singapore citizenship to secure her a place in a reputable local school.

“I, Mark Sullivan, hereby renounce my US citizenship to become a citizen of Singapore.” Today, both my daughters are in renowned secondary schools with fluency in both mandarin and English. From then, I never looked back.

Done by: Tan Wei Jin(24)

2o3

5 comments:

  1. Hi Wei Jin,

    Very well written. I would like to highlight the point that you should add a little more characterisation. The company name should have quotation marks, like: "Mr Bean". As Singaporeans, we do not really frequent tourist attraction areas, so that is not the life of a Singaporean. The ending is rather weird. "From then..." When did you start? I feel that it should be more like a resolution. Very clear and crisp organisation of the essay. Good job!

    Gregory

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  2. Hi Gregory,

    I would just like to add that I ended my story with" From then, I never looked back" as I wanted to show that Mark was happy with his decision to take up the Singapore citizenship and nothing more.

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  3. Well all i can say it is quite interesting but I like to highlight that it should be musicians and musician and in hawkers nowadays do they play just soothing music what about hip hop or other forms of entertainment and I would like to say that from what i have noted foreigners do not catch on singlish well of course its just what i have noted also about the hawkers you could have pointed out what do they have in America also there is the cafeteria which also offers a variety of food in America but still its uniquely singapore in context

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  4. Hi Wei Jin, I think your story is okay. Your story had no climax. You were basically describing what you like, and how all this made you a singaporean. I think that if you had created a conflict in your story, it would have made a greater impact on how you have developed you identity to becoming a TRUE Singaporean. Also, in your second paragraph, it was very confusing as in the first paragraph, you were writing in the first person narrative, but then you changed to a third person then back to a fist peron narrative. I suggest that if you want to tell your name, you would want to put it in a speech where other people are calling you. Overall, I thought that it was a great effort put in.

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