Table of Contents

Very Singaporean Lah!

1. The Infamous Singlish
2. We Cannot Speak Pure Mandarin
3. We Use English to Speak to Our Children
4. Load Our Children with Extra-Curriculum Activities
5. Avoiding Eye Contact
6. Obsession with Cleanliness
7. No Overnight Food Please

Very Singaporean Lah!

Singaporeans are a unique bunch of folks that have their own sense of identities and behaviours.

1. The Infamous Singlish

Although most of us can speak English and even more so during professional environment, many of us can’t help but use Singlish occasionally to emphasize our points especially when we are with our family members or close friends.

It seems at times that certain points or effects cannot get through to the other party without the use of some Singlish. The degree of using Singlish varies from person to person.

At times, the SMS from certain friends are full of Singlish and abbreviations that even a true blue Singaporean cannot understand. Singaporeans are good at coming up with their own lingo that only they can comprehend and very shortly, the new self-created abbreviation will spread like wildfire across the little red dot.

What amuses me is that some of my foreign friends even bought the book to learn about Singlish and its meanings because they think it is amusing and entertaining to show that we can formulate our own lingo using common words but these words are understood by all Singaporeans. Words such as “go fly kite” and “eat snake”, can you guess those meanings?

On the other hand, a French friend told me that after staying in Singapore for more than 10 years, he still cannot figure out some of our odd behaviours and words usage. It takes one who is born and bred in Singapore to understand another similar species.

2. We Cannot Speak Pure Mandarin

We always tell non-Singaporeans that we are bilingual. Sure, we are because our education system requires us to study 2 languages – English and our mother tongue – Mandarin, Malay or Tamil.

We are exposed brutally as Singaporeans because most of us cannot speak pure Mandarin without using English as language support to bring out what we want to say. Don’t believe me? Look around your house and name all the equipment and tools in Mandarin.

3. We Use English to Speak to Our Children

Among all the Asian races that I have come across overseas, Singaporeans parents have the highest percentage of using English to communicate with their children because all other nationalities use their own mother tongue to speak to their children.

Of course, with an emphasis to pass the English language in school in order to advance to the next higher academic level, it is no wonder that our Singaporeans parents are ‘kiasu’ and concerned that their children are not able to excel in this subject and prepare their children early for it.

Some of the parents come from older generations of Singaporeans who cannot speak and write in English because many from the old generation are Chinese educated. These parents are highly aware and more sensitive to the inconvenience of not being able to communicate and understand English well as seen from the experiences of their parents and thus,  emphasized the importance of English and do not want their children to follow the footstep of their grandparents.

4. Load Our Children with Extra-Curriculum Activities

Another ‘kiasu’ culture stimulated in Singapore as long as the pocket can manage, the more the merrier. Parents believe in exposing their children to as many activities as possible to discover their hidden talent and to develop whatever interest they have. Well, children can be quite fickle-minded and easily influenced by their friends and the media. Whatever someone has it, they want it.

It comes to a stage when it sounds strange that if the parents are not arranging classes of any sort for their children, they are probably not too concerned about the development of their children. I have not known of any family around me that do not send their children to classes on weekend. The parents are the happy chauffeurs on Saturdays.

5. Avoiding Eye Contact

Maybe or surely we are overpopulated that it is hard to give our eyes the natural freedom to hunt around for things we want to check out without bypassing a few pairs of wandering eyes. We would rather avoid direct eye contact because we do not know how to display our expression.

Shall I smile back if our eyes meet? If I smile at the person, will the person smile back or think that I am a weirdo and ignore me? “If I look at someone, will he/she think that I am desperate or trying to know her?” I better not look at that person so as not to give the wrong impression.

So many hypotheses run in the mind. When women look at women, it is usually admiration, envy, compliment or criticism in the head. When men look at men, ask them. Almost all of them will jump the gun and tell you that they would not look at other men, only women, with the exception of gays. Straight men would think that looking at other men are a very gay type of behaviour and they don’t want the men to misunderstand their intention.

What irritates me is when people are not looking at me directly, most of them will purse their lips to indirectly acknowledge that they know that I am looking at them. They feel vulnerable and uncomfortable. Pursing the lip is a body language to show displeasure or awkwardness.

We should learn from the friendlier western culture because many of them will give you back a smile and not have the time to reflect on how others would think. Smiling is an indication of confidence and being at ease. Come on Singaporeans, relax lah, be positive, give a smile or accept that smile gracefully!

6. Obsession with Cleanliness

We are raised in a clean environment where issuing fines for dirtying the environment is the solution. It is controversial whether it should be done in this manner but at least this solution provides a comfortable environment for everyone to stay. At least many Singaporeans think so and agreed, otherwise what kind of filthy environment would we live in?

We are so used to living in such a tip-top condition that we have low tolerance towards less than acceptable conditions when we travel out of Singapore. We criticise the environments if they fall below our expectations.

Many do not use accommodation such as Couchsurfing, Airbnb and cheap hostels because they wonder whether they are safe enough and whether the houses are clean enough. If they can afford it, hotels would always be the best choice. When Singaporeans travel, comfort and luxury would mostly be their top choice since they have spent most of their time working too hard and too much, pampering themselves is never too much.

Many would skip activities such as camping and trips like staying in a fishing kelong because the environments are mostly not so comfortable and not in a very clean environment. The thought of not brushing their teeth and skipping a shower for a day disgust them.

Too many that I know of prefer a shopping trip as opposed to a nature trip as one can guess, shopping is cleaner and easier than sweating out in a camping trip where more work is involved, such as pitching and sleepover in a tent as compared to a bed in the hotel. Not forgetting the cooking and washing of dishes in some instances.

7. No Overnight Food Please

Singapore has earned the reputation of being the most expensive country to live in but fortunately, we are still blessed with an affordable food centre where we have the luxury of not cooking every day. This means all of us can have freshly cooked food daily.

Comparing ourselves with our western counterparts where many of them stay alone, they have a habit of cooking one big pot of food and keeping the remaining inside the fridge for the next few days and reheating them when they want to eat. Sometimes, they freeze the food for weeks and months.

It may sound exaggerated to you when I mentioned weeks and months but I have eaten the same Tom Yum soup 2 times refrigerated in a freezer for 6 months and 1 year in a friend’s house in Belgium. Believe me when I said the taste was the same.

When I told this to some friends, they had this extremely disgusted face. Some said they would never eat food that was kept for more than 1 night and some swore that they would never eat food that was kept overnight.

I had stayed overseas for a year and knew how difficult it was to cook for 1 person. I had also prepared a bigger portion and kept the rest to be consumed under 1 week. While most Singaporeans find overnight food to be disgusting, it was others’ way of life far away from us.

At that moment I can’t help but feel that we have indeed a very good life in Singapore with fresh home-cooked food or cheap hawker food where we don’t have to worry even if we do not want to cook at all. I guess most families here would not have to keep overnight food often as they can prepare the portion just nice for a family to enjoy.