Workshop – Living in Singapore

I had the opportunity to attend a 2 hour workshop on Living in Singapore, conducted by a representative from The Singapore American Community Action Council (SACAC) .

The workshop was not just meant for newly relocated families but for anyone who was interested and keen to know more about this beautiful country. Even though I have already been here for over 17 months (that long already? 7 months short of two years!), I haven’t really interacted with the locals here. And all of us know and agree that the best way to learn about a country is to see it through the locals eyes. The lady who conducted the workshop was an American who has lived here for over 12 years and she had a wealth of information to share. Some information she shared served to reassure me that I was not all that  ill informed about the culture and the ethics of the country. Unlike the other expats from the West, who find many of the cultural quirks intriguing and new, I find a lot of similarities in the family and work culture here when I compare it with India. To state an example, the Singaporeans tend to live with their parents till they are married and sometimes continue to live with the parents to take care of them. We do too . There were a few more common Asian cultural similarities but we won’t get into details there.

What I found interesting, new and worthy of a mention here, along with my interpretation of  the ‘ irks, quirks and perks’ is what you will read here on.

The opening line of a conversation for a local is always  finding out which school you attended, which alumni are you an old boy or old girl of.  Around the World, we probably say our names and what we do professionally before we go into details of schooling. In Singapore, however, the neighborhood schools are sometimes demarcated based on what your parents want you to become. Children from a particular school are often lawyers as adults and from another, politicians!

The big boss of a company is often advised on where to live, what to wear, what vehicle to drive etc. Even though this seems like an exaggeration, it is not. The Singaporeans love the idea of working for the Big Boss. They like the aura that he carries, they are watchful of the brands he wears, the make of the car he drives and what district he chose to live. If you are someone who believes in comfortable polo shirts, Swatch watches and open offices, you will be pulled aside by your local secretary sooner or later and politely reminded that you are The Big Boss and you have an obligation to wear Gold Wrist watches and drive an Audi or a higher end BMW.

The Doctors in Singapore hold on to the rights to patient care to themselves. When you visit a local clinic to meet the GP or a specialty clinic to meet the expert, you will not find nurses in scrubbed clean,sanitized gloves, taking your temperature or administering a drop or even giving you a shot.  All of that and more is the doctor’s prerogative. He will even dress up your wound. I have had to have my  routine blood tests and Hepatitis B shots that the doctor himself administered. My helper needed a wound dressed and the doctor did it. Only when you need a 3D X- ray or a specialized treadmill test or Echo, you are referred to another facility. The only help the Doctor has are the front office assistants who will help with the appointment, dispense the medications ( Every doctor has his own pharmacy too) enter the billing details and collect the fee.

In the Asian society, especially in Singapore, the work culture is largely individualistic and not humanitarian. At least I thought it was the other way around. We like to live together in joint families, we support each other financially within families, we celebrate together, we form societies and support other people from our culture. Is it not humanitarian to do that? The SACAC Counselor did not think so. Even though Asians do show humanitarian tendencies when it comes to family bonds, when it comes to work culture Singaporeans are almost like Oogway from Kung Fu Panda. They keep the scroll of paper with the final ingredient for success to themselves and let the juniors and the next generations to figure it out! Where as in the West, the accessibility to knowledge and research is easier because it will be shared and passed down the generations by the elders in the community. There in, the SACAC Counselor said, lies the difference of how individualistic Singaporeans are compared to humanitarian Westerners.

The values Singaporeans hold close to their hearts are the five C’s , to which the Government has recently added a sixth C. The first five C being – Cash, Condo, Credit, Car  and Country Club! The sixth C being Children. Singaporeans splurge their earnings on shopping and eating out. The newest fashion houses and branded stores have locals queuing up for hours to be the first ones to be seen in the store. Branded stores also entice people with free voucher promotions and gift cards. The recent low birth rate among the locals has the government on their toes, encouraging young people to begin families and have more babies!

There were a few more interesting quirks that made me smile. Singaporeans will queue up whenever they see a bunch of people huddling up outside a store without bothering to find out what they are queuing up for! Service personnel who come home for appointments to service a mechanical fault with a troublesome gizmo at home, do not have the patience to listen to your lengthy explanation of what is wrong and would rather get to it ASAP!

Singaporeans are over competitive and zealous and they hate to lose. Their approach to life is kiasu kiasi . Kiasi or Kiasi-ism is to take extreme means to avoid risk and Kiasu is to take extreme means to achieve success.