Singapore - a clash of worlds

"So how?“
This was the first Singlish I learned from my Singaporean friend back in Paris. It means something like „So what are we going to do now?“ and she would use it in every fifth sentence – no im just kidding ;)

If you look up „Singlish“ on wikipedia, you will find even more „Singlish“ expressions like:
„Can lah“ – it can be done,
„Gimme can?“ - Can you please give that to me?
„The ticket seriously ex leh.“ – Argh, The tickets are really expensive.
"How come lidat one, arh? "– Why is it like that? / Why are you like that?

funny huh? ;)

Its Singlish (a combination of the words Singaporean/English) already reflects the many cultures that come together in Singapore and that have shaped this city significantly. Singlish is a mixture of English combined with elements and grammar structures from the Chinese, Malay and Indian languages. In public you will always find signs written in English, Chinese, Malay and Sanskrit and as the different languages exist next to each other so do the corresponding cultures as well.

A street sign in the four languages used in Singapore


What does this mean for every day life?

In Singapore you can find a Chinatown, a place called „Little India“ as well as a street called „Arab Street“ proving that Singapore is not only a multicultural city, but also permits its citizens to keep following their own traditions, food and especially their religion. This was one of the most striking thing in Singapore.

I went to China Town the other day and I could not believe my eyes when I was on a street where there was a Chinese Buddhism Temple some meters next to a Hindu Temple which again was next to a Islamic Mosque (only the Catholic Church was missing on the street :-)) in Chinatown.

Chinatown: modern building next to Chinese Temple, next to Hindu Temple, next to a Mosque on ONE street


I am impressed how the various religions can peacefully exist next to each other without any fight or dispute. How people live together on this tiny island, being tolerant and respectful to the person next to them. In fact, Singapore celebrates the most important holidays of all religions, so there is Christmas, Chinese New Year, the Buddhist holiday Vesak Day, the Muslim holiday Hari Raya Puasa and the Hindu holiday Deepavali.

Singapore is truly a multi-facetted city.

Welcome to a very modern and fast-pacing, high-tech metropolis with one mall next to the next mall in Orchard Road. You totally forget that you are in South of Asia.
How modern Singapore is? One example: They do have rain and day in Singapore, but you can go out and experience neither of those two things.

How so?

Everywhere there are tunnels, pathways with rooftops, even the malls have up to 4 stories underneath the earth, so it is easy to spend the entire day either underground or under rooftops. The question remaining is: do people like this artificial world?

But step out of Orchard Road and you will find yourself in - lets say Little India or Chinatown, which gives you the impression to be somewhere in India or China due to the many local people, the respective language as well as traditions around you. And then you remember that you are still in an Asian country
–but this is just so hard to believe at times.

Singapore sometimes reminds me of the United States...

It has residential areas which are connected by big avenues. People normally drive or at least use the public transportation. You will rarely find someone actually walking somewhere. In fact, I wanted to walk from city hall to a touristic spot at the bay, which was five minutes away. I asked a local girl in a coffee shop, if she knew how to walk to this spot. The first five seconds, she looked at me in disbelief

– Walk?! Is that even possible?!

She looked at me as if I was crazy. How can someone possibly consider walking through this kind of weather (33°C, sunny)?! Then she started to shake her head. She advised me to use the metro – the spot was toooo far away to walk (5minutes!) and besides she did not know the way.
In addition there are other details that reminded me of the US. For example, Singaporeans also have someone packing your stuff into bags in a grocery store (they do not do that in Germany at all!), or their traffics signs are also painted green, the gas is cheap, they have all the newest US TV shows including American Idol ;-) , the newest movies, the latest Club music Ne-Yo, Taylor Swift etc., my friend even had Skippy Peanut Butter and Hershey Chocolate at home – duuuuuude seeing all those things just lets you think you are somewhere in the US -with the only difference that you have black-haired people around you ;)

And on the other hand Singapore is also very British. I keep forgetting to look into the right direction since Singaporeans drive on the left side and they have a lot of British clothing stores.
Singapore is a very efficient and comfortable country ;)

Why opening the window of your car to get the ticket from the car parking lot machine, if you can just have a device attached on your front window which automatically charges the parking fee.
Why climbing stairs to get onto a bridge that connects two sides of a road, if you can just have an escalator getting you up to the bridge (sweating in this hot weather would be deadly...). SMU – one of their business schools even has escalators (and entrance gates like you find at metro stations oO) as well for its students. Wow.

...and then Singapore is very Asian at the same time.

In their hearts, Singaporeans remain Asians. They love good Asian food (and me too btw!;) ). They even come all the way to the Red District Area in order to have a tasty meal (supposedly it is one of the best places to eat good Asian food). Singaporean food consists of Chinese, Malay, Indonesian and Indian food. I think I have never eaten this much curry in one week – but it was very very good and really cheap!


Geylong Red Light District


Furthermoree, Singaporeans also want to be white and not tanned like a lot of people in Asia. They use whitening cream and have their sun-blocking umbrellas with them (they are tanned nevertheless!). And although eating is one of the preferred activities in Singapore, Singaporeans still manage to stay skinny and petite like most of the people in other Asian countries.

The thing that impressed me the most during my stay, was Singaporeans government (or Singlish: Gahmen).

The one-party government regulates a big part of every day life in Singapore. If expressed negatively this reminds me of George Orwell’s 1984 with it’s harsh regulations, fines and control system. If expressed positively the Singaporean government takes it very seriously to care for its citizens, always trying to protect its people and to make a fair and secure life possible.
In any case, I suppose it is only possible to have this kind of system as Singapore is fairly small and has only 4,1 Million inhabitants.

Singapore is known for being a „fine“ city.

It is known to most of us that you cannot purchase chewing gums in Singapore (and to my inconvenience!!) and that you have to pay a „fine“ fine, if you litter. Well, here are some other rules which I find very amusing :-) :

I was wondering why I would not get bidden by mosquitos, especially in the tropics they naturally come to me as I have really sweet blood (no kidding ;)!). Well, the government also has a fine for that. Singaporeans may not have water puddles in the backyard or else they get fined for breeding mosquitos. The goverment even has people controlling houses and backyards from time to time. Funny, huh? But it is very effective at the time and I am thankful for this fine!

Another thing the government does and which I find interesting is that they encourage events where medicine students and law students are involved together and can meet each other.

Why?

Well the idea behind it is sort of letting smart people meet other smart people (that is the underlying presumption that medicine and law students are smart ;-) ) in order for them to get together and make smart Singaporean babys. Crazy huh? But in a way effective as well.

Some other government influenced impressions: Singapore has buildt a big casino over the time (and is currently building another one!). For foreigners it is free to enter, for Singaporeans: 100 Sing $. Well, locals should be protected from any gambling because it is baaaaaaad!

I wanted to make a poppy cake as a farewell gift for my friend. Poppy for all the Germans: it means Mohn, for every other person: it is a flower or seed, out of which you can make Marihuana. Of course I could not find it anywhere to buy :)

Besides these impressions, I also experienced a very individual Singapore, I really fell in love with.

My good friend took me to this Café, where they had jars decorating the ceiling. She told me that they bought these tomato sauce jars to make Spaghetti Napoli which they gave to poor children for free. Nice, huh? They also had other nice details in their store like messages from the Bible or a photo competition where they emphasized on environment issues/topics.





Another individual place my friend recommended to me was this bookstore which really was made out of love for details. See the pics for it!




Back in Paris I would make fun of my friend that she is from this boring little island – who wants to be here? (Of course I did not mean it seriously!)
But actually coming here has opened my eyes and gave me a whole different perspective on Singapore. I am still very impressed how it is possible to fit this much diversity into one small island. It is a very modern city but at the same time it succeeds to guard the respective traditions and cultures and to evenly pay attention to all of them.

I can see myself live and work here for 1 or 2 years, although I would not stay here for my life.
Unfortunately this island is nonetheless a bit too small for me ;-)

One last thought:

I suppose that a main reason for the strong Western influence in Singapore –besides its history with Britain, is English, which permits to communicate and connect to the rest of the world. That is the reason, why companies can easily come and settle down here without a language barrier.

In a way Singapore has proved to me how important it is to master in languages and the question I posed myself was:

If you learn a language, are you influenced by the country’s culture and tradition at the same time?

– Yes.

After this long entry I would like to thank Nic for this amazing trip –we have been through soo much –the good and the bad times.haha.
It was a wonderful time staying with you and your family.

I hope that I can welcome you in Germany soon!