Impressions of Singapore
It’s soon been a whole month since I arrived in Singapore. A lot of people have asked me how it’s been and how I’m coping with all the changes.
The answer I give is usually something like a shrug and “Okay I guess. Haven’t really thought about it”. Because I haven’t really. Singapore have it’s quirks and oddities, but generally it feels like any other place.
There are a few things that is expectable from a large city of 4 million inhabitants. Stuff like a good subway and awesome shopping areas. Naturally (no pun intended) there are a different eco system here in terms of animals and insects. I saw my first cockroach last week. Everyone was like “Eww! Cockroach!” where I went “Oh really? Neat!” XD
Just to be clear: No, there are no cockroaches in sweden. My favourites are the tiny gecko’s that you can spot here and there. They’re like super cute XD
One thing that’s really important to remember is the fact that Singapore used to be a brittish colony until the mid-60′s. This means that everyone drives on the wrong side of the road. So whenever you cross the street, make sure you look BOTH ways. I keep getting it mixed up. XD
Language-wise I haven’t had much trouble at all, except the occational mindblock or hic-up. The natives speak english, sure, but only with foreigners like myself. Amongst themselves it’s Indonesian, chinese or whatever (honestly, I can’t tell). All of the public signs are written in at least three languages. Some shopkeepers might have a really thick accent but sometimes a simple thumbs-up or down will do the job just fine.
The guys are work have been awesome and they quickly embraced me as one of their own. There are a lot of different nationalities in the company (French, Argentina, USA, Indonesia..) so everyone is really patient with any english short-comings. I guess they (and me too, I guess) have developed a kind of half-english for common conversations. We don’t necessarily care too much about proper grammar or pronouns (except Dan the american, I guess). For some reason it just works.
