Goodbye SMU?!

So I'm nearing the end of semester 2 at SMU and it's hard to believe that my time here is almost up =( Last Thursday it was the exchange students farewell party at Timbre, and Friday was Starry Night (above) marking the end of classes for the semester with live music and cheap drinks just before students start mugging for exams.

This second semester has gone by a lot quicker than last semester, it definitely doesn't seem like it's been 13 weeks since classes started again and all of a sudden they've finished! I didn't want to think about the end of my exchange in Singapore and it's almost impossible not to now. I've met a lot of nice people here, both locals and other exchange students from all over the world and each of them have made my experience here very enjoyable and given me a lot of memories to take back. Along the way I've also experienced a few problems (mainly to do with my estate agent and my accommodation. Advice for future exchange students: DO NOT USE ERA AGENTS!!!) and I've learnt a few lessons the hard way, being so far from home puts the real world into a completely different perspective. When you're pretty much left on your own you learn a few things about yourself. I never realised how naive I can be, I found out that I'm not as culturally aware as I thought I was, and, as the Singaporeans put it, I can be really "blur" at times.

I've experienced the SMU culture and have been taught in a completely different type of education system. The way SMU operates makes complete sense when you think about how it shapes its' students. It's no wonder that the University has such a high graduate employment rate, their students do stand out from the crowd a little, with compulsory 80 hours of volunteering and the requirement to do internships before you can graduate really put the graduates in a good starting position for the working world.

Before I came here I remember reading that when SMU first started back in 2000 it used to be a University where the "not so brilliant" or "NUS rejects" would go and the University would aim to make them become "better people" (or something along those lines). But now, I really don't think that is the case anymore. Students always talk about the competitive environment here and it's no wonder, along with their "Kiasuism" almost everyone is fighting for that grade A (but the profs constantly remind them that grades aren't everything, which I think is entirely true, but if I was a full time student here, it's incredibly hard to believe when everyone else has the "must get an A" mentality). But that's not to say that SMU is all work and no play, there have been no reports of suicide just yet and I haven't met a student who has regretted coming here.

With regards to experiencing a different culture... it's definitely interesting yet confusing at times to understand the culture of Singapore. In my module Intercultural Communications, my professor was explaining that Singapore doesn't have a unique culture because there isn't anything that's distinct to Singapore (ironic when the tourism board promotes the country as "Uniquely Singapore") , but there are things that people will say is very Singaporean like the use of Singlish and their love for food (they will travel to the other side of the country for good food). I guess the ethnic diversity in Singapore means that all the cultures are fused together, so could it not be said that Singapore's culture is a hybrid culture?

A local friend said to me "Singapore is the most non-Asian country in Asia" and to a certain extent I agree. It's very westernized so apart from the fact that it's mostly Asian populated and there's a variety of languages spoken here, there aren't that many differences to England... But then again, if you go to the heartlands (i.e. Toa Payoh, Ang Mo Kio, Katong and a few others) it becomes less westernized and you can find the true Singaporeans there.

Anyways, I still have time to figure it out because I might be sticking around a little longer.
=)

Mr Brown at SMU

If you've been in Singapore for a fairly long period of time I think you would have heard Mr Brown (AKA Lee Kin Mun) mentioned at some point (a friend described him as Singapore's equivalent to Jay Lenno?). He points out the weird and dysfunctional things about Singapore in his satirical blog and as that grew in popularity, he created the Mr Brown Show, which hosts his podcasts and parodies. In addition to that, as a self proclaimed social media junkie and "geek" he also created the WTF! show (That's "Wah! That's Fierce!" by the way), which focuses on gadgets and technology, and the "See What Show".

So, yesterday Mr Brown came to SMU and shared with us his life, passions and love of poking fun at the government Singapore. I've only seen his photos and profile pictures, and the one that I remembered more clearly was his twitter profile (because I've become slightly addicted to that lately), then when he arrived he looked a lot slimmer and trimmer. Later I found out that he used to be pretty big in size and if you look for him on Wikipedia and compare his photo there to what he looks like now (see below), he's done really well for himself! Well done on all your hard efforts Mr Brown =) (I hope you get better sleep now).

He shared with us some of his spoofs such as 'send ah kong' (means send Grandfather) and "Mee Siam mai hum" (Click here for the explanation if you don't understand) and other government blunders topics that he's been following. His presentation was refreshing and funny, it really showed me the stupid a different side to Singapore and he's proof that Singaporeans do have a good sense of humour.

Even though I had only heard of Mr Brown 2 months ago, I could tell more about his personality in that one hour presentation than I could reading his online materials. He's a really humble and down to earth guy living in a HDB flat, has a love for cycling (which is now his main mode of transport), a great sense of humour, young at heart, a loving husband and father, proud Singaporean (despite what you may gather from his writings) and probably has the best job in the world. You can tell he enjoys what he does through his creativity in his podcasts and the other sites that he hosts.

It was a great end to a stressful week and I wish him all the best in his future projects! =)
*Hmm...According to him I do sound like a Singaporean, so perhaps I should continue to follow his stuff when I return to the UK to keep in touch with my inner Singaporean?*

Me with Mr Brown

Singapore in a nutshell

Apologies for not updating sooner, you would have thought that I would have so much to say about the past five or six months! Which is true, I do, but to condense it all is difficult. I guess the best way to do this is to write about the important elements of my exchange in Singapore; that is the country itself (obviously), the culture, the people and the university. When I was back home in England, Singapore seemed like one of those countries that people just nodded and smiled at when you mentioned it. To me that meant that they didn’t really know what it's about but it sounds like a cool place to be (because it's not in England), and they wouldn't ask that many questions in the fear of sounding stupid or ignorant or both. And to be honest, I was like that a few years back, even though I visited Singapore 2 years ago for a holiday, I never did see what Singapore was really about, but now, I think I’m beginning to understand.

The Country

Anyway, Singapore is a country in it's own right (independency since 1965), it's a small island beneath Malaysia (to put things in perspective, London is double the size of Singapore). All year round temperatures are around 25-30°C which means no seasons, it's constantly summer. Despite having a Chinese population of around 75%, it's still very multicultural, next in line are Malays (13%) and then Indians (8%), and the rest of the population is made up of people from all over the world! You can find more about the history and stats on the country here. There are many languages spoken here; English, Chinese (mostly Mandarin, but I've heard Cantonese too and other dialects are spoken such as Hakka and Hokkien), Malay, Tamil, Punjabi and then you get other Indian dialects which I'm not too familiar with the names, and of course, Singlish... O.k. so it's not a "real" language as such, it's just the way to describe how Singaporeans speak. Due to their history and diversity, they throw different words from different languages together, it's not unusual to hear them speak English and then all of a sudden there's "makan" or "shiok" or "walau".

Singapore is actually a really modern and cosmopolitan place to be, for me, there was very little culture shock when I arrived, and there was nothing distinctly out of the ordinary. To be honest, at times it felt as though I was back in England, but the only difference was that I’m part of the ethnic majority rather than the minority.

The University

The university I’m attending is Singapore Management University (SMU). It’s in the city so quite convenient to get around to all the main spots of Singapore, it’s pretty hard to get lost, as long as you can find your way to an MRT station, you’re fine! SMU is quite new and the buildings reflect the modernity that Singapore has built itself up to be. The method of teaching is different to Manchester University though. They use the American learning system, so instead of sitting in a lecture hall for an hour or two filled with around 200 or so students and one lecturer, we have a small class size of around 45 and a professor teaching and encouraging discussion from the students. This took me a while to get used to, not the small class sizes, but rather the participation part (we’re graded on how well we participate), the weekly meetings with your project group for 3 hours non-stop, mid terms, make up classes and the constant assignments. They say that SMU has a very competitive culture, with all the work they do, it’s no wonder they find it stressful, I’m normally a very laid back person with what I consider lower than average stress levels and even I’m starting to feel it here haha.

The Culture

The culture here is interesting (I’m saying that in a good way). You could say it’s typically Chinese because it’s predominately dominated by Chinese Singaporeans but that doesn’t mean that they take over the other cultures and traditions that exist here. They celebrate a lot of festivals and significant calendar events for different cultures such as Chinese New Year which has just passed, Hari Raya, Divali (Deepavali as it’s known here), Christmas, and one that I’ve only just heard of as it happened yesterday, Thaipusam, and many others.

I remember in one of my classes the professor said that Singapore could be seen as lacking culture because there isn’t one specific ‘culture’ that it follows but adopts all the practices from the major ethnic groups. I understand why that could be the case, but why can’t the diversity factor be a ‘culture’ for Singapore. It’s not easy to find a country that has so many different cultures in one place, the multicultural aspect is what makes Singapore unique in a sense. One thing that I have noticed here and has probably brought all the different groups together is the love for food. Food is a pass time for Singaporeans (hurray! Something I can relate to). Majority of Singaporeans, if not all, love their food. They will be more than happy to travel to the other side of the island for some good Chinese/Indian/Malay/Peranakan/Indonesian/Japanese/Thai/Western food, you get the idea. Where are the best foods? I find that it’s in the hawker centres. Good, cheap, local dishes. You’re spoilt for choice in Singapore when it comes to food! That's one of the main reasons why I love it here!