home

these two days have been rough. i have so many things i want to whinge about that i dont know where to start, so let me just talk about this thing called "home”.

for some reason lots of people around me dislike japan a fair bit. i hear way too often that they’re so homesick, they miss this, they miss that, they dont like this about japan, why is japan like that, back home we.. etc etc etc. Home is spoken about fondly and favourably when compared to japan, and people talk about missing this or not liking a certain aspect of japan as if just because we’re all on the same programme living in the same city i would understand how they feel.

at dinner today, some were chatting about how it sometimes is necessary to go abroad before you realise how good home is. this statement makes absolute sense, until it’s narrowed down to my particular experience, where it then doesnt quite hold true.

it’s taken coming to japan before i realised what i’d miss out on if i moved back to singapore after JET.

for one, going back means definitely living with my parents, and living on my own is one of the most wonderful things about being here. i can do whatever i want, whenever i want, however i want, and no one is going to say a thing about it.

singapore is too hot, and the heat lasts forever. i’ve been criticised by friends for being “snobbish” and dissing our weather just cos i’ve been overseas, but seriously, having seasons in a country is amazing. i can get through the terrible osakan summer knowing that it’ll end in 3 months; the cold is tolerable cos i know that soon it’ll be spring, flowers will be in bloom and everything will be nice again. seasons bring with them a natural way to mark the passage of time, something which i never really managed to do in singapore, except by the year of school i was in, which doesnt apply anymore. and frankly, it’s winter here now and i think i’m liking it more than the heat of summer, cos i go out and the air is cool and crisp and fresh, and you kinda feel good in it. and in winter i have spring to look forward to; in summer, autumn. winter means you can have nabe (steamboat) to keep warm, and the sweet delicious crabs are in season. seasons mean that my year is varied and a little more exciting.

i have more mobility here too. i cycle so often, and it really gets me when it rains cos my poor skills means i have to leave my bike at home. i can get to places more easily and i dont have to walk, whereas i cant really do that in singapore cos there’re too many people and the pavements are a lot narrower too. the persistent heat also means that if i want to wear skirts which are cooler, i can’t cycle, and if i want to cycle, i cant stay as cool. why do i have to choose?

i dont think my eating habits have changed that much either, which i think is a big thing for quite a lot of them. i get green leafy vegetables here (although more expensive and of lesser variety), i get rice, i get almost everything i want – and whatever’s not available, like chilli, i dont consume all that much of either. also, i eat extremely well; food here is good, and i get some kind of service when i go to restaurants. alcohol is everywhere, which makes me happy, as i like being able to drink without having to pay through the nose for it the way i would in singapore.

of course, lots of things dont make sense about this country; i get frustrated too when i cant communicate and so on, but hey, a sales person in singapore didnt understand me either, just cos i was speaking in full sentences with proper grammar. the city is crowded, but orchard road on weekends is awful, and absolutely frightful when it’s a rainy sunday. plus, if i get sick of Osaka, 1 hour by train will bring me to a more suburban (or even semi-rural) part in some other prefecture which makes for a nice change, but getting to JB is quite a mission – tampines to lavender, then bus for 1 hour just to cross the causeway? and to pulau ubin, you need to get to changi village, then wait for the boat to fill up with enough passengers to depart? W.T.F.

when i went home in december, what occurred to me was that somehow along the way, i’d lost the sense of “this is home, truly, where i know i must be” thing that kit chan sings about. everything felt familiar and i slipped back into old routines and old habits built up over 23 years so, so easily, but that didnt mean that i FELT something for those habits.

definitely, being back among friends and family was great, and i loved it; being able to just chat about stuff – conversation flows so much easier, for sure – but apart from the people… i’m not sure. if “home” is associated with some form of nostalgia and deep emotional feeling, then i have to say that most unfortunately i have no idea where it is. i wouldnt go so far as to say that i like JAPAN more than singapore – japan’s a big place, and i wouldnt even like it this much if i were living somewhere else in osaka city – but i can definitely say that there are things out there that i want at this point in my life that singapore cannot offer me. things might change – like if i want to start a family, for example – but as of now.. nope.

which really sucks considering what i’ve learnt about working in the UK – near impossible, and that’s one thing i want to whinge about – as if i were forced to go back to singapore i would KNOW what i am missing out on. of course my search will not end with the UK, but the likelihood that i might have to go back has become EXTREMELY REAL. and it’s terrible considering going back might mean me losing out on more than just working overseas and stuff like seasons, and it’s awfully depressing.

so the question is, why not extend my JET contract for another year?

simply because despite all appearances, my job is pretty crap. and given that there are few JETs who would (could?) actually say that, and given that a fair number of aspiring JETs come across my blog, i have to say again that i dont really like my job all that much at all. i’ve never mentioned this before, but i think i should because my experience is a JET experience even if it isnt the JET experience, and if you’re unlucky this might well be your experience, so forewarned is forearmed.

but that’s for another day in another post.

back in singapore

i didnt miss home when i was in japan, but it’s undeniably nice to be back.

lying in bed half asleep in the morning with the sounds of other family members moving around outside my door, it’s as if i’d never left. it’s the same being in my grandma’s house – the same place where i’ve spent lots of time since i was born – it feels as if japan never happened.

singapore is the same though. i’m still waiting for the culture shock that EVERYONE says is going to happen.

no doubt, you see things with different eyes. when i came out to the departure lounge at the airport, i was struck by the number of indian and malays around – a sharp contrast to japan, where virtually everyone is fair skinned and east-asian looking.

i’ve grown used to the smooth, soft japanese toilet paper, even if it crumbles and dissolves or tears when you’re trying to wipe.

the service standards back here are quite terrible, and i really wanted to slap the teenager working at sistic today, when i got NO eye contact, a slight slam which accompanied my tickets being placed on the counter, and a surly, barely murmured “thank you”. someone should teach that young punk better manners.

i’ve also, today, experienced the quietest bus and train rides that i’ve had in a long time. commuter noise i can deal with, but it was very different not having countless announcements bombarding you throughout your ride.

i was once told by one of the japanese women i interviewed by my thesis that singapore’s trains are slow, and i didnt believe her back then. but now i do have to agree that our trains are slow compared to those in japan. haha. it’s like sitting on the tsurumi-ryokuchi subway line in osaka, which everyone hates cos it’s so slow. heh.

 

NB: i went out again the day after i wrote this, to tampines mall and central, and received far better service. I feasted on mussels at Brussel Sprouts at Robertson Quay too, and the service there is EXCELLENT. I attribute that to its location in the expat area of singapore. 

differences (and similarities?)

i was out today with W.Y. who’s in nagano and his 2 singaporean friends who’re here on holiday, and for the first time in a long while i was out with a bunch of people for dinner on a weekend and there was no alcohol involved at any point in time.

i do like my alcohol, but i dont drink when no one else is drinking. and of course, since i enjoy it quite a bit, if someone’s having a drink i’ll have one too. but it just occurred to me that drinking has become so standard that the reflex is to sit down, order a drink, and then order food.

perhaps japan, and hanging out with caucasians, has trained me well.

after dinner – which i will blog about another time – we sat down and chatted over coffee and cake, and one of the guys said something which made me realise that hey, this is what i used to do all the time back home. we used to socialise over food and drink, rather than socialise over alcohol. it just didnt register quite so clearly that singaporeans hang out over coffee and stuff, cos i’ve gotten so used to chatting with people over alcohol after a year here.

and it’s nice too. there’s something different about hanging out when you’re sober.. you get none of the cheeriness that comes as an influence of alcohol which affects your attitude and behaviour, and conversations arent quite as loud. in a way it’s more calm, relaxed.

it might also be because it’s singaporeans whom i was hanging out with. somehow things are different. not quite as stressful, and the conversation just flows, and there was never a point when i was bored or feeling like there’s a cultural reference that i’m not quite getting or having the sense that i’m not quite ‘in’ the conversation.

and writing that, it occurred to me that i never really had as much trouble talking to guys back home as i do here. it’s not quite ‘trouble’ per se, but it seems like here, unless you’re a lot like them or have the same interests – mainly games, computers, movies (perhaps tv shows too) and women – there isnt much you can do to get into a conversation among guys. whereas i never felt this way back home.. men seemed to just talk crap about random stuff which i could contribute to and enjoy, and oh. it makes me feel like i’m missing out on the comfort and familiarity with which conversations occurred. no stress whatsoever, nor boredom.

people are always saying that singaporeans dont know how to have fun and all that, but thinking about it, i’m not sure i’m having more fun per se now either. it’s definitely a different kind of fun; senses are heightened in some ways due to the alcohol (and dulled in other ways too, of course), and there’s this enhanced sense of gaiety that perhaps leads one to think that they’re having more fun. but there’s something simple, direct and real about the interactions that i had today, and probably the interactions that i used to have when i was still in singapore too. and that’s extremely enjoyable too. it feels meaningful – probably because among singaporeans, we sit down and we talk about stuff, while among caucasians you socialise, flitting from person to person and mingling with most of the  people present.

i dunno.. i cant imagine living in singapore forever from the time at which my JET contract ends, but living somewhere else would mean more of those interactions that are interesting but sometimes somehow not quite fulfilling in some ways.. which makes things difficult!

i really am looking forward to going home in december… will probably view things with new eyes and have lots to reflect upon!

JET related news

OMFG

there's now a CIR position for Singaporeans!!! see here.

i've also recently learnt that someone from the Board of Education will be making a formal announcement regarding the number of JETs the city will be receiving in 2009 during the principal's meeting that we have on the 6th of April. i guess this means that the confirmed postings will be out pretty soon, so keep a look out people!

:)

"25 random things about S'pore youth" (from an American's perspective)

another fellow Singaporean JET posted this on her facebook page, and i couldnt help but steal it cos it's so funny and interesting!

 

The Straits Times Digital, March 16, 2009
By Daniel Reimold

----------------------------------------------------------------------
WORLDWIDE, randomness has reached a tipping point - and you can blame Facebook. The social networking site has got millions generating a list of their innermost quirks called, somewhat unimaginatively, '25 Random Things About Me'.

In the past six months that I've lived here, I have worked with, observed and come to respect one native group more than any other.

Youth.

So to my friends and family back in the United States, here in Facebook lingua franca, is a list of '25 Random Things About Singapore Youth':

1) They speak to me softly in perfect English, then turn around and scream in Singlish to their friends.
2) They SMS with a speed and frequency that makes my own thumbs sore from sympathy pains.
3) They admit they are apathetic, and speak about it passionately.
4) They complain about the lack of culture on their school campuses, then immediately go back to studying.
5) They wear their emotions and intentions on their chests in the form of T-shirt sayings. A few of my favourites: 'Little Miss Giggles', 'I SMS Your Mum' and 'Are We Having Any Fun?'
6) They are extremely quiet in class, but downright chatty one-on-one.
7) They love David Beckham. They lust after George Clooney.
8) Apparently, procreation is not their forte. At this point in their lives, they could not care less.
9) Marriage is not yet on most of their minds. Instead, they say they want to keep getting red packets of some kind.
10) Romance is not an art many young males here have mastered. I recently overheard two young women complaining that their boyfriends had surprised them on Valentine's Day with gifts - a schoolbag and an external hard drive.
11) They are incredibly, falsely, modest. They know they rock. Just don't tell them to their face. They'll look at you like you insulted their mother.
12) They are way too polite. I asked a young woman to take my picture in front of the Merlion. After she snapped the shot, she thanked me - apparently for the once-in-a-lifetime chance to capture me on film.
13) Speaking of photos, they pose for them everywhere. I recently saw a group of students smile for multiple pictures with their taxi driver at Clarke Quay. He was smiling too. The meter was running.
14) A few engage in 'serious blogging', but most just blog about their friends and pets and upload pictures of last night's dinner.
15) They are very productive during classes - at catching up with friends on MSN Messenger and updating their Facebook status.
16) They remain sceptical of their country's growing global status, often asking me 'Why would you want to come here?'
17) They already express nostalgia for days gone by, at the ripe old age of 17.
18) The few young men who have long hair seem to be teased mercilessly by friends, and hit on frequently by strangers.
19) They catch catnaps at the most unlikely locations - bus stops, campus canteens, even the school library.
20) Their eyes have a tint of worldliness to them, especially the young men who have been through national service.
21) They passionately watched something called 'The Little Nyonya' until recently, but not all will admit it publicly.
22) They think it is funny that Singapore has a professional basketball team.
23) They love their parents, but they definitely do not tell them everything.
24) They love to dance ...
25) But it does not mean they have rhythm.

This list may be random, but they make modern Singaporean youth truly an enigma - a mystery I cannot help but gawk at and adore.

Dr Reimold, 28, is a Fulbright research fellow serving as a visiting scholar at Nanyang Technological University.

cold.. and busy.. and hard pressed for ideas..

i dont understand how my students havent gotten used to the cold by now.. i walk into class and students who say that they're cold over and over, and i see big(gish) boys shivering and muttering that they're cold.. one of them was even clutching a hot water bottle in class the other day, on top of the 4 layers of clothes that he was wearing. and i was only wearing 3 but feeling cool..

plus they wear the same amount of layers both in school and out of school, and although the corridors are indeed chilly due to the draft, it's nowhere as cold as it is outside in the open, and i dont understand how they can survive outdoors if they feel that indoors. more unfathomable mysteries, i guess.

speaking of mysteries, it really seems like the kids that drive u nuts sometimes can be the sweetest (note that that's a relative term though.. heh) ones too.. the two noisiest and most disruptive kids in class today actually said bye to me proper as they walked out of the class cos this is our last lesson this term.. and one of them even wished me a good week too.. so sweet rite? although they're in high school they're sometimes really nothing more than children in teenager's bodies.. were we like that back then too?

* * *

i've also been getting busy lately.. and forgetting important stuff like birthdays! and having no time in school to try to study japanese when i was previously so bored i had to try hard to occupy myself till i could go home. time in school goes by a lot quicker these days, and i have no idea why. having begun yoga and calligraphy classes at the community centre nearby has made me a lot less free outside of school too. havent watched tv or dramas in quite a while!!

the weekend was spent in hiroshima, and pictures will be up soon..we took neoprints too - i still cant call them purikura, which is the proper japanese term - and it's really wonderful how you can now get digital copies of your prints :) i really love the way we all look so good and airbrushed in neoprints too!

   

 

i dont know if i've posted pictures of all of them before, but anyway there's the korean-american girl, the indian-american girl, the philippino-american girl - who's the only JET around who doesnt drink alcohol, and it's really nice to hang out with her cos she's more like me than quite a lot of the rest, plus she's such a nice darling - and the only guy there is the irishman who lives in the flat above mine. the philippino-american girl lives in the same building as us too.

* * *

meanwhile, i've been invited to one of the teacher's house for a christmas get-together, and The Brit will be bringing a christmas cake that his sister brought over with her.. i'm trying to think of something from singapore, but am kinda stuck, especially if i want to at least match The Brit's extremely appropriate gift.. so please share with me any suggestions and ideas that you might have please!!

like a fish out of water - part 1

it's really late and i'm really tired, but i'm too full to sleep so i might as well blog..

a bunch of us went to this fish-themed izakaya restaurant for dinner today, and urgh. it was a great experience -  more on that in the upcoming part 2 - and it was fun seeing everyone again, but sometimes it does get me how people can get so surprised (sometimes even aghast) that their culture and the things they're used to isnt the only culture around.

like today, i was telling The Brit about this brief discussion in class regarding how this student found the way couples "talk intimately" - that is, 撒娇 and/or talk in that 暧昧 manner - on the trains annoying, and i mentioned how it's gross to have people making out in front of you on the escalator - especially when it's a down-riding one and the couple is on the step in front of you, making their faces almost exactly at your eye level - and he was like "What?" in disbelief, and went on for a bit about how you should be happy for them cos they're happy and that it's not gross at all.

how do you explain to angmohs who're used to public displays of affection that you just dont do it here? well, of course there are people who do it - and i do think that many people would find that kind of behaviour disturbing and shamless, sort of - but then there are also many who dont approve. how do you make them understand that in certain societies, things that happen between lovers is more or less a private affair that goes on behind closed doors, or at least some place where you dont have a human audience to your actions?

and also today at that fish restaurant.. ok. imagine this super fresh, until very recently still very much alive, perfectly done salt-grilled fish that came FREE to your table because the people at next to you got the fish but had to leave and so decided to give it to you instead as a present. couldnt be better right? and the fish was SO fresh, and tasted like.. well. the fish had nice crispy fins and tail like deep fried garoupa and soft, fresh, tasty meat like steamed sea bass at wedding dinners. it was THAT good.

a fish like that, you have to make the most out of it right? and the skin was grilled to perfection, and was especially delicious due to the salt and slight smoky flavour. but these angmohs were quite absolutely amazed - and not entirely in a good way - that instead of fighting with them for the meat, i settled for the bones at the side of the fish and the area just beneath the head and around the gills and stomach because those are, in my opinion, quite definitely the best parts of a fish.

they were totally amazed that i could eat that! and when i said that actually the head can be eaten too, i think their brains probably just burst with the idea of that then. and the fact that i was totally serious - "I'm serious! you can really eat the head!"; "Yes i know you're serious, and that's the thing!" - made it even harder for their minds to accept that fact.

it's just crazy! the way this is so totally new and entirely foreign to them is just crazy.. and sometimes i just dont get it! like, i know you do things differently in your country, but do you have to be really so surprised that some people in some other cultures might perhaps do things in another way?

i guess it's goes both ways too, because hey, 22 and a half years of eating all the meat and skin off the bones of a fish and fighting with relatives at wedding dinners to get the best bony bits of steamed sea bass conditions you to look at a beautiful, whole fish on your table and clean the meat off the bones without a second thought. like, that's what you do with a fish! you eat everything that can be eaten, so that at the end what you get it a nice, meat and skinless pile of bones on your plate. that's what you call eating a fish! and never in my entire life have i received so much attention - in fact, i've never received any attention - eating a fish till today. it was SO WEIRD. and the thing was that the fish reminded me of how long it's been since i've eaten fish like that.. you know, the way it's nicely done with melt in the mouth flesh, and the flavour of the fish somehow, in some very vague way, reminded me of home, and the bones on my plate made me think of the sea bass at my cousin's wedding dinner that i'll be missing cos i'm here. i wasnt quite sad or anything, but i was just reminded of home and the way things are in singapore.

but yeah. somehow it got a little on my nerves. all that fuss about fish! and their absolute inability to comprehend how anyone might eat the sides of a fish and the bony areas. i mean, what do they do then with those parts of a fish? throw it away? there's still tonnes of meat and skin there! it's almost like throwing away a whole pile of food if you leave those bits out!

if you ask me, i bet the reason for that is because "fish" to these angmohs probably mean "slices of meat in supermarkets", so they perhaps have never seen a whole fish in their entire lives and therefore dont quite know what you can do with the rest of a fish.

i'm committing the same crime of making a cultural judgement, but whatever. i'm up to here and have reached my limit for today. i actually have something i want to say regarding fried fish - and how it's absolutely amazing and i love how you can eat EVERYTHING if the fish is deep fried crisp enough - but that will have to wait till part 2. and if i do forget to talk about fried fish, please do remind me.

i think i should assert my culture more, to be honest. i'm getting all this exposure to american and brit culture especially, and i think it's high time i asserted my cultural heritage more strongly. you know how singaporeans can actually be really rather adaptable overseas cos of the weird mix of east, west and dunno what else in singapore? at least speaking from a singaporean-chinese perspective, we have these chinese practices that have a singaporean twist to them, plus exposure to this global "western" culture.. most singaporean-chinese know full well that chinese people do lots of things that are seen by others as weird (like eating pig innards for example. i talked about it the other day and shocked the angmohs, especially when i started going on about how delicious it is), so we're pretty aware that there are many people out there who dont so all these weird (i frankly think the things that chinese people do are really cool though. many things - like eating skin and flesh clean off a fish - make tonnes of sense to me) stuff, and cos we have all these "western" exposure through the media we kinda know what things are like "over there". so things arent as foreign as they might seem, i feel, cos it's all kinda familiar in a way.

and on the other hand, you have these angmohs that well.. i dont know. the brit for example, being a londoner and having gone to many many different european countries, he has really really broad knowledge about many things in europe and certain aspects of south asian culture, but when it comes to certain asian stuff.. it's like a total complete blank to him. cant blame him really, cos of geographical location, but it's just interesting how the angmohs come to japan and are so totally astounded and taken aback by how different things are, whereas the whole bunch of us who've been on exchange to here and there dont quite have that "oh my god things are so different and foreign here" kind of experience.

i really dont mean to say that we're culturally superior or anything like that though i know it might seem so, but it's just something that has been at the back of my mind for a while and i'm sort of beginning to think about it a bit more. i dont even know why i'm talking about this, since what i wanted to say was that i've pretty much been culturally 'neutral', in the sense that i havent quite exposed my singaporean-chineseness much, and that i probably seem to be something like this vague entity to whom you cant quite pinpoint any cultural stereotypes to. like, you have loud americans or crazy americans - and many of them here are sort of specimens of that -  but i'm pretty sure the rest cant quite identify much of me apart from perhaps the asian stereotype of being "boring" (just because i dont happen to like partying, clubbing and drinking that much. dont me started on that topic though, cos that's something else that i have a fairly large bone to pick with and one day when i'm really pissed off i'll talk about it).

and also, with JET being about cultural exchange and so on, if i'm getting all these from the other nationalities around me, i feel i ought to assert my cultural identity more strongly and show these folks that things are different in other countries. i really want to do that. plus all this shock and disbelief that i experience or observe either from things that i do or things that the japanese do which the angmohs find really strange and weird but seem perfectly normal and (east) asian to me is beginning to get on my nerves. also, i think people have to realise that japan isnt equivalent to asia? like foodwise and cooking especially.. i was telling them that how my mum cooks radish is to slice it up and boil it in soup with carrots, and i think that befuddled them cos radish to them means the shredded and chopped up conical mountain of daikon you get as an accompaniment to your tempura sauce or sushi (and i didnt even mention the dried scallops, cuttlefish and ikan bilis that you throw in for flavour!). the brit couldnt even identify radish in the radish salad that we had. you certainly cant blame them for this lack of knowledge simply cos they havent had a chance to be exposed to it, but i think there should definitely be an increase in awareness that asia itself is rather diverse in so many ways..

but aiyah. they should just get a grip and suck it up man. i cant promise that i wont scream the next time someone gets all completely bewildered at me doing something perfectly normal in my culture. i dont make a fuss about the things they do - at least not to their face - and i dont get all aghast, so just get over it already. their way isnt the only way to do things, so deal with it and accept that fact!!!

*grrrrr*

ikea in osaka

yes, there is an ikea in osaka, and it's actually rather near where i live. i made my first trip there today, and i have to say that while mcdonald's has often been cited as The corporation that brings standardisation and sameness to local landscapes, i think IKEA beats Macs in this regard, in that while Macs does actually localise in terms of menu, slight decor, etc, the IKEA here is exactly the same as the one back home!

as the free shuttle bus pulled into the IKEA compound, i felt as if i were back home and entering the tampines IKEA, because the one here is one huge blue and yellow building in the middle of an otherwise deserted big grassy field too! the decor on the inside, layout, products and so on were exactly the same as well, and i really felt like i was back in singapore. very very weird. the only difference was that there were japanese words of course, but cos all the signs had english too, it didnt feel too much like japan either.

needless to say i had meatballs for lunch, although they did something to the meatballs and they're smaller and less juicy than before! with this deterioration in standard and taste, i conclude that the most truly wonderful thing about IKEA meatballs are the sauce and the soft, creamy potatoes :) i wonder if the meatballs in Singapore have changed too. there was also a smoked salmon salad, and i splurged and had that too, costing me a total of 1045yen for lunch :S off-days are spend-money-days... haiz.

the next time i go back there though, i'll definitely bring along a cooler bag to purchase their cheese - cheaper than the cheese that i see at my supermarket! - and the very delicious looking salmon and crayfish pate. yumm!

 

PS: it has been brought to my attention that IKEA in sweden looks EXACTLY like the one in tampines as well. "talk about synchronicity"!

i love singlish *

i feel the need to talk about what has happened in the past two weeks of my life.. the folks have come and returned, and they left the flat feeling empty and too quiet on sunday after they flew. i was feeling rather out of sorts that day, cos i wanted to go out and talk to people, yet didnt want to socialise at that time either. like.. i think if my friends from singapore were nearby it would have been fine, but the comforts of home in the form of friends werent available. i think that only means that i have to go out and get to know the rest of the ALTs better till i can call them friends whom i'm comfortable with, rather than people whom i'm still in the process of socialising and getting to know.

but somehow i think it's rather different.. back to the whole idea of culture and so on.. i totally understand what another JET wrote in her facebook note about how good it is to meet another californian - more specific even than another american - because you just 'get' each other.. like seriously. i think the whole lingo matters too.. after having communicated and socialised in singlish for the past 22 years, that's my native tongue and there's actually a huge difference between talking to people in english and talking to people in SINGLISH. compounded by the fact that the people whom you speak to in english come from different cultural backgrounds and different experiences from your own, the gap that has to be bridged is actually somewhat significant, and doing so takes effort, which is tiring. to be honest it only just struck me, after the fun time today and reading my friend's post on facebook. maybe i'm not adapting well enough! haha. i have to work harder and try to overcome all these stuff :P

anyway, yes my parents also left me tonnes of stuff like mooncakes, bakwa, durian cake, cornflakes (which is tmdf-ing ex in japan)**, sambal chilli, haebi hiam, wolfberry and dried longnan. yummy! i can more or less eat like a singaporean with my sambal chilli, which i will use with care and prudence.

then yesterday there was an enkai - japanese party of sorts - for the australian teachers who accompanied the students from my school's sister high school down under. it was fun, as i sat with teachers whom i hadnt had the chance to interact with before, and they couldnt really speak english so i was forced to use japanese. it actually felt good and i enjoyed myself tremendously! for some reason - maybe it's just being polite haha - they tend to comment that my japanese is good (when it's far from that) because i know enough for normal everyday life here. and i guess it's true that my current level allows me to get through life in japan without too many difficulties (which frankly isnt all that difficult since there're apparently people who've been here 16 years without speaking any japanese), but the thing is, as a language, i still feel very constrained by my lack of proficiency. like there are so many things that i'd want to say when talking to people, but because i dont know how to express myself i can only convey a fraction of what i'm feeling and thinking.. same thing when it comes to listening in on conversations going on around me. and i cant read the newspapers either! and all the advertisements and blah blah.

nothing much else has been happening actually. bringing my parents around has allowed me to orient myself around osaka station - which is a HUGE help - and i think i've definitely adapted to the place. the challenge to overcome now is the social aspect, and i think that's of course going to be more difficult. i need to really get myself going for japanese classes and hopefully yoga or dance classes soon, and i must definitely exercise. i will try to force myself to go jogging this week. yup. anyhow, back to the social aspect.. i think i've been doing so much talking about it to people over the past couple of days that i dont have to go over it again, but yes. that's definitely something i have to work on. that and the need to find some free time to sit down and think about stuff in general!

*: i apologise if the title has nothing to do with the post itself!

**: i didnt request for cornflakes, but somehow my mum decided that i needed cornflakes - bless her warped sense of logic this time - and brought me 3 boxes. frankly i'm EXTREMELY thankful for that, as it was a very pleasant surprise - i requested all the other stuff that came over! heh.

i am a product of singapore..

more than 22 years of indoctrination and social conditioning has rubbed off me in more ways than one..

my brit colleague has been hard at work drawing a map of the UK with nice pictures for certain chosen parts of the UK (like he drew the welsh flag, a haley coo - highland cow - the beatles for liverpool, etc), and finally put up his finished product on one of the doors of the room we're in today. and i was jealous cos that door doesnt have anything singaporean on it, at which he suggested that i put up some singlish phrases.

which is a really great idea - i'll elaborate more on that later - that i have undertaken with much enthusiasm. however, i was going to do a 'title sheet', and when i read out what i wanted to write - "Singlish: the colourful world of English in Singapore" - he laughed out loud and it then occurred to me just how TOTALLY Singaporean campaign-like that sounds!

i'd previously put up quite a few singapore posters, and we had a good laugh at the somewhat cheesy and exaggerated taglines on the postcards - like "a city with its head in the future and soul in the past" or something like that - but i'm doing this sort of cheesy stuff myself!

urgh.

i think i'm going to stick with it though. haha. i suspect that despite the cheesiness and his amusement, he thinks that it has a somewhat nice ring to it, and i cant really think of anything better than that either (that's unfortunately how unimaginative i am). and i'm guessing that it would work rather well in the japanese context too, because goodness knows that only the japanese can read really corny stuff and think that it's somewhat cool. haha. but still, if anyone has good suggestions as to what i can write as a nice 'title', please let me know before monday, as that's when i'll resume my little project :)

well now about singlish. considering that he's now the person i talk to the most (and i know what all of you are thinking about: sorry, he's taken, and i have no romantic interest in him either) - we're both working everyday at the same school and the room is like a private office cum pantry for both of us - my singlish and singaporean accent is slowly reappearing in bits and pieces ever so occasionally. and he's really good at languages too - he knows french, some japanese, italian, spanish and icelandic (he did study abroad in iceland for about a half a year or more) - and is interested in them too, so i've been teaching him a bit of singlish too.

i realise that i've talked about this before, but he's REALLY REALLY amused by some of the phrases like "dont talk cock" and "itchy backside" and "vomit blood", and he says all these with such a RIDICULOUS accent that i laugh non-stop when i hear him say all of them. haha. i have at least 1 term to teach him some proper singlish intonation, and i hope i succeed. it will be sweet success to corrupt someone who speaks Queen's English - and he speaks the middle/upper middle class London accent to boot. but i told him that i should make a recording of him trying to speak singlish as a sure-fire laughing 'potion'.

maybe i should bring my mp3 recorder into school tomorrow and do some recording. and if i do, i'll post it on youtube or something so that all of you can hear it too! :D

singlish and singapore

today was the 3rd day of school, and i need more cool facts and observations about singapore! especially things that are unique to singapore or things that are different from japan, like the fact that we have double-decked buses and so on. the brit guy who's in the same school as i am has quite a few cool stuff, and i musnt lose to him! it's a matter of pride as a singaporean, and i have to do my best to showcase my wonderful country!

so i would be really thankful for any ideas!

things are ok so far. some of the students are really fun, but there are 2 really small classes of 4 and 8 students, and it's difficult to get the mood up in those classes as there're just too few people. i've been mainly doing self-introductions, and i think i need to be more interactive so that it'll be more interesting.

meanwhile, we've been placed in the english language resource room which is a wonderful place! while the other english teachers do walk in and out occasionally to get stuff, it's pretty much our private office, and it has a microwave, fridge, kettle, computers and just about anything we'll need, which is amazing. we dont have to leave that place except for the toilet, for classes and to get water to boil for tea. damn shiok lah!

and meanwhile i've been looking at the coxford online dictionary of singlish, and have been having a great time looking at all the singaporean english phrases! i'm going to teach the kids some of them, especially "catch no ball", which will be handy for them to use when they totally dont get what i'm trying to say in class. haha. and i've noticed that i say "yah" a lot, which is a TYPICALLY SINGAPOREAN expression! i didnt realise it till some kids were imitating me.. heh. i'm teaching my brit friend some singlish phrases too, and it's extremely entertaining as hearing him use them totally cracks me up. the angmohs simply CANNOT MAKE IT when it comes to getting the correct tone and expression for singlish!

JET Programme Singapore Souvenirs

this title should be the puzzle for "Before and After" on Wheel of Fortune! (and i bet no one got what i mean..)

anyway, i attended the JET farewell reception on thursday, and it was really nice to get to know some of the other singaporean JETs better before we leave, and just as nice to have had the chance to meet some JET alumni and learn more about what's in store for us :)

but perhaps the most interesting piece of information was regarding the JET applicants for 2008. contrary to rumours that there were more than a thousand applicants, the actual number was far far less - about 168 applicants in all. from these 168 applicants, about 40 were shortlisted for the interview, which means that how you appear on paper is extremely important. all the more reason to put in more effort for the statement of purpose and application form!

i also discovered that i'm the 2nd singaporean to be posted to osaka! whee! feel quite privileged :) the first one was also the very first singaporean on JET, and went as a CIR. there arent any CIRS this year, although we're the biggest batch so far. i think the previous 2 batches numbered 18 people, and the good news is that the number of singaporeans going on JET has been increasing steadily.

meanwhile, the bunch of us have been sharing what we're bringing over as omiyage too, and i just feel that i ought to make a public service announcement here regarding buying souvenirs of singapore. do be careful when buying souvenirs from lucky plaza! i'd say that apart from those stuff that are going for 2 for $10 - most of these are being sold at roughly the same price elsewhere, like in chinatown - some of the others are priced really high! for example, this rather beautiful mug featuring scenes of Singaporean culture that i bought at chinatown for $9.90 was going for $12.90 at one shop in lucky plaza, and at $18.90 (!!) at another shop in the same place! this is so clearly a ripoff, and i'd advise all to exercise caution when buying things from there.

better still, just dont buy from lucky plaza unless you've shopped around at other places or if you dont want to inconvenience yourself by travelling elsewhere. i'd say that chinatown is one of the best place to buy souvenirs due to the sheer number of stalls - even then, do check out the stalls nearest to the road along which sri mariamman temple is located before buying anything as they're generally the cheapest - although i heard that arab street and mustafa are great places as well. i dont go to the other 2 that often because they're a little out of the way for me, but i agree that the shops in arab street do sell some pretty nice things that can't be found elsewhere.

oh. and the ultimate ripoff? the souvenir shop at merlion park. buy from lucky plaza if you want, but DO NOT, i repeat, DO NOT EVER buy from the shop at merlion park. and please announce this to every other person who visiting singapore too. if some things in lucky plaza can be a ripoff, just about everything in that shop is CUT-THROAT. check out that place for yourself and you'll realise that i'm not exaggerating at all!

A singaporean in akihabara

I just came across this really cool article about this Singaporean,Jane Fong, who forsook her MFA Masters scholarship to set up a company in Akihabara, and is currently giving free guided tours of the area with another Shanghainese.

More about Jane and the guided tours can be found here, and i think that her business savvy and passion is really admirable!

too bad the tours end on 20th August..