The Lion City
Original Post Date : August 17, 2005
First time I stepped into the land border, I was asked by the immigration officer, the plump fellow with thick glasses and greasy hair.
Come for what?
Ugh. I tried to spin my head to think what the guy was trying to say. He repeated again, a bit louder, impatiently.
Ho….holiday.
He glanced at my confused face for a while chopped and chopped and passed my passport. I said thanks and smiled at him, hoping for a smile back, but he was a bit deaf. He didn’t even look at me. Huh.
Today I get used to this breed of people, I almost become one of them, if I don’t keep reminding myself and go back home once in a while.
Typically,
They don’t greet, they don’t smile, they don’t say and receive thank you, mp3 and hand phones are their best friends.
I was interrogated once in the immigration in private room out of nothing, they randomly picked me because I wore belel jeans and T-shirt. I came here on weekly basis with Hubby to meet our boss before our work permit was done. I almost got into trouble that day. The week after, I put in the best blouse I had, make-up and I only need less than one minute for immigration clearance.
Sad but true, appearance is important here, not that I care.
Of course typical doesn’t mean everyone. I always have wonderful friends, colleagues, and luckily, I have good bosses, good landlords, good neighbors. Maybe they are good when they know you?
But except those people I mentioned, everyone else is playing hard to get. They are not exist to be loved. If I let them, they would make my days miserable.
Request for food to be specially served, they scold you. No luxury like djangan pake bawang, djangan pake seledri, togenya buanyakin, cabenya kurangin, mangkoknya gedein…
Tried few cloths, they question you. Wanna buy or not!?
Even if you buy something, fast, no bargain, but you hand in undesirable note, they scold you. One uncle refused to sell me a cd just before I gave him 10 dollar notes. He wanted 2 dollars notes. Exactly!
This note is fake! They don’t create ten dollars notes lah! No two dollar don’t need to buy! Go Go Go!
You can keep the change uncle.
Don’t want!
Of course I fake the conversations, I won't give away my hard-earned ten dollar to that crazy uncle, but more or less I had similar jackass impression in my head.
To tackle this kind of behavior, sometimes we have to make our mind just like them. The best remedy is to treat a person the way their treat us, and then they would listen. I don’t want to adapt this principle though. But sometimes we have to. Hubby practiced it once at the coffee shop. Usually the seller was rude and refused to admit their mistake if they mixed up the request, we felt it was useless to tell them anyway. Until one day, Hubby pissed off and questioned them about the order. He was not taken aback, he has that scary deep voice, and the result, kaing kaing kaing, they admitted their mistake and changed the food timidly.
He is a patient kind of person but he was fed up also. :)
Treat others like how you want yourselves to be treated.
Very true. And vice versa. Voila.
Treat others like how they treat you also. Mhehehhehe…I am not a saint. :)
As I observe, younger generations are much better now. They are more polite and friendly, especially around diver community. I can’t recognize nationality, we have the same passion and therefore, we have similar attitude. I’m grateful to meet them, being with them make me feel like home. :”)
So my rant is only about minority of Singapore. Other than bills, taxes, regulations, boredom, foods, apartment, arghhhh….I can spend a day talking about those which I don’t want to, but mostly I’m grateful that I can go anywhere I want without being in constant fear about my safety. I guess safety is the most expensive thing.
First time I stepped into the land border, I was asked by the immigration officer, the plump fellow with thick glasses and greasy hair.
Come for what?
Ugh. I tried to spin my head to think what the guy was trying to say. He repeated again, a bit louder, impatiently.
Ho….holiday.
He glanced at my confused face for a while chopped and chopped and passed my passport. I said thanks and smiled at him, hoping for a smile back, but he was a bit deaf. He didn’t even look at me. Huh.
Today I get used to this breed of people, I almost become one of them, if I don’t keep reminding myself and go back home once in a while.
Typically,
They don’t greet, they don’t smile, they don’t say and receive thank you, mp3 and hand phones are their best friends.
I was interrogated once in the immigration in private room out of nothing, they randomly picked me because I wore belel jeans and T-shirt. I came here on weekly basis with Hubby to meet our boss before our work permit was done. I almost got into trouble that day. The week after, I put in the best blouse I had, make-up and I only need less than one minute for immigration clearance.
Sad but true, appearance is important here, not that I care.
Of course typical doesn’t mean everyone. I always have wonderful friends, colleagues, and luckily, I have good bosses, good landlords, good neighbors. Maybe they are good when they know you?
But except those people I mentioned, everyone else is playing hard to get. They are not exist to be loved. If I let them, they would make my days miserable.
Request for food to be specially served, they scold you. No luxury like djangan pake bawang, djangan pake seledri, togenya buanyakin, cabenya kurangin, mangkoknya gedein…
Tried few cloths, they question you. Wanna buy or not!?
Even if you buy something, fast, no bargain, but you hand in undesirable note, they scold you. One uncle refused to sell me a cd just before I gave him 10 dollar notes. He wanted 2 dollars notes. Exactly!
This note is fake! They don’t create ten dollars notes lah! No two dollar don’t need to buy! Go Go Go!
You can keep the change uncle.
Don’t want!
Of course I fake the conversations, I won't give away my hard-earned ten dollar to that crazy uncle, but more or less I had similar jackass impression in my head.
To tackle this kind of behavior, sometimes we have to make our mind just like them. The best remedy is to treat a person the way their treat us, and then they would listen. I don’t want to adapt this principle though. But sometimes we have to. Hubby practiced it once at the coffee shop. Usually the seller was rude and refused to admit their mistake if they mixed up the request, we felt it was useless to tell them anyway. Until one day, Hubby pissed off and questioned them about the order. He was not taken aback, he has that scary deep voice, and the result, kaing kaing kaing, they admitted their mistake and changed the food timidly.
He is a patient kind of person but he was fed up also. :)
Treat others like how you want yourselves to be treated.
Very true. And vice versa. Voila.
Treat others like how they treat you also. Mhehehhehe…I am not a saint. :)
As I observe, younger generations are much better now. They are more polite and friendly, especially around diver community. I can’t recognize nationality, we have the same passion and therefore, we have similar attitude. I’m grateful to meet them, being with them make me feel like home. :”)
So my rant is only about minority of Singapore. Other than bills, taxes, regulations, boredom, foods, apartment, arghhhh….I can spend a day talking about those which I don’t want to, but mostly I’m grateful that I can go anywhere I want without being in constant fear about my safety. I guess safety is the most expensive thing.
posted by aping | 11:56 PM
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