My citizenship journey

[sundaymorningstaple]

I'm afraid I don't have a clue. Don't forget, I've been a PR for well over a quarter of a century. I'm having a hard time letting go of my 3rd world passport. But you can bet they will be electronically filed somewhere. Gahment don't throw 'nuttin' away!.

Oh the mystery fruit punch, is it reddish-pinkish opaque concoction? if it is, it is probably the same stuff they serve a vegetarian Indian wedding receptions (smoulder help me out here - we had it at ours but that was 39 years ago last Saturday!) I think it's made with something called rose syrup. and yeah, kind of overly sweet but takes the sting out of spicy food pretty good.

[smoulder]

The "fruit punch" is indeed almost blood red. Sweet like you said. It's not really a standard thing at Indian marriages that I'm aware of. Also, I know rose syrup quite well - if this is rose syrup, then it's probably a very diluted flavor in my opinion.

[sundaymorningstaple]

My Indian reception wasn't like something you would find in India, While my wife's parents are from Chennai originally, they have been here since they were children. Like you, they were Catholic, My wife still is. Over. The. Top. Catholic. She used to sings in the Novena Choir many years ago when she was still singing professionally. My daughter, however, experienced (as did my wife and I) her marriage in Kerala. Pretty big affair I must say.

[MOCHS]

If it’s rose syrup, it will taste more like bandung without milk. The fruit punch caterers serve usually tastes unpleasant to me, seems there is some pineapple inside maybe.

[smoulder]

Yes, I agree, no hint of rose syrup. It's something more acidic, probably pineapple.

[jalanjalan]

I'd guess it's made from that fruit punch cordial you can buy in 2 litre bottles. What is in that.. I'm afraid to look. My big Malayalee wedding reception was held at a hotel (in-laws idea) so we had the usual coke/orange/Chinese tea options.
On the essays, maybe they will pop up in some parliamentary speech sometime.

[sundaymorningstaple]

On the essays, maybe they will pop up in some parliamentary speech sometime.

Now THAT wouldn't surprise me at all. But you could probably bet that they excerpt it so they don't have to give credit or be accused of plagiarism .

[malcontent]

They should serve Kool-Aid, then they can tell everyone, if you want to be a citizen… “you have to drink the Kool-Aid”

[Lisafuller]

^ Erm, isn’t it “you char kway” in dialect, not “yu” aka fish. I assume some stallholders aren’t local and probably from PRC so they don’t understand dialect either. We have that “Speak Mandarin only on TV” policy to thank for the youngsters not being able to converse in dialect. You can still find dialects spoken in older estates and coffeeshops.

Anyway, the dialects spoken here will also be slightly different than the ones spoken in China too. Like bread has been given the local term “lor ti” but it’s actually called “mi bao” in dialect back in China. Quite a lot of dialect terms here are borrowed from Malay/Indian words.

And due to the cultural revolution, the practice of burning incense sticks/paper is no longer widespread in China. Some “traditional” practices still exist in SEA but don’t happen in China anymore. Even religion isn’t common, my ex-PRC turned SC colleague said their textbooks even states “there is no god”.

Makes sense, one thing I am curious about, though is why Malaysian Chinese tend to speak so differently as compared to local Singaporean Chinese. You would think that the distance between Singapore and China would account for the differences in dialect, but seeing as Singapore and Malaysia are such close neighbors, I'm not quite sure how it can be explained. Any idea?

[Lisafuller]

MOCHS, it's true that the dialects spoken here are different from China. I was told that there is even a difference between Penang Hokkien and Singapore Hokkien, even though this was all Malaya not too long ago. Similarly, my wife speaks Cantonese, but tells me that the way they speak it is different from say Hong Kong. However, I suppose, no dialect vs some dialect are 2 very different things.

Speaking about other cultural aspects being different from China, I guess it has partially to do with geography as you alluded to. The other influence, specifically for China (for instance "there is no God") has to do with the communist party in China doctoring culture the way they saw fit.

If I'm not wrong, they have a similar speak Mandarin only policy in China which attempts to eventually replace not only dialects but also entire languages (example, Tibetan) and standardize to Mandarin. However, due to the sheer size of China, dialects still survive in the smaller towns and rural areas. In Singapore, on the other hand, it's so small that I think that eventually dialects will be choked out.

This is true for hokkien as well, hokkien as it is spoken in Singapore, is different from what is spoken in Taiwan - while there are many key phrases that are the same, there are plenty of differences. I feel like this can be attributed to distance though.

[Lisafuller]

Update - 25th September :
I completed a 2 hours long "community sharing session" aka CSS on the 20th. They are held in CCs all over the island - you are eligible to attend the events within your area. They divided us up into 6 groups of approximately 10 people, give or take a few (I didn't count). After registration, there was a buffet style dinner.

thanks for sharing that! I was hoping they'd have this part for my batch but no luck, thanks to omicron. True blue Singaporean question: what did they serve for the buffet?

Hahaha. Good question. There were quite a few things on the list and I didn't try them all. What I did try - biryani rice, curry chicken, otah, brocolli /mushroom /fungus, fish fillet. And dessert was cincau.

Sounds pretty generic, you’d think they‘d pull out all the stops for an occasion like this, but I guess they wanted to give a more accurate introduction into Singaporean life. Just like with economic rice, no fish as it's too costly!

[Lisafuller]

I'm afraid I don't have a clue. Don't forget, I've been a PR for well over a quarter of a century. I'm having a hard time letting go of my 3rd world passport. But you can bet they will be electronically filed somewhere. Gahment don't throw 'nuttin' away!.

Oh the mystery fruit punch, is it reddish-pinkish opaque concoction? if it is, it is probably the same stuff they serve a vegetarian Indian wedding receptions (smoulder help me out here - we had it at ours but that was 39 years ago last Saturday!) I think it's made with something called rose syrup. and yeah, kind of overly sweet but takes the sting out of spicy food pretty good.

If it's the classic fruit punch served at buffets and other mid tier functions, then it's definitely not rose syrup. Rose syrup has an incredibly distinct flavor, even when it's the artificial stuff. The fruit punch served tastes more like a mix of orange and pineapple juice.

[Lisafuller]

The "fruit punch" is indeed almost blood red. Sweet like you said. It's not really a standard thing at Indian marriages that I'm aware of. Also, I know rose syrup quite well - if this is rose syrup, then it's probably a very diluted flavor in my opinion.

To me, rose syrup has more than just flavor, it's also sort of perfumed with a floral scent (I wonder why )

[Lisafuller]

If it’s rose syrup, it will taste more like bandung without milk. The fruit punch caterers serve usually tastes unpleasant to me, seems there is some pineapple inside maybe.

Definitely pineapple, and I suspect orange juice as it's cheap. Honestly I quite like it though, if it's served cold and is not too thick and sweet, it can be really refreshing.

[Lisafuller]

I'd guess it's made from that fruit punch cordial you can buy in 2 litre bottles. What is in that.. I'm afraid to look. My big Malayalee wedding reception was held at a hotel (in-laws idea) so we had the usual coke/orange/Chinese tea options.
On the essays, maybe they will pop up in some parliamentary speech sometime.

Most definitely. It's cheap and can be made in big batches so I wouldn't be surprised. I'm still looking for this drink I was served once at a random cc function a couple years back. The mystery liquid had no name or label, and was served out of one of those big brown vats with the spout that you can serve yourself with. It was kind of milky in color, and fairly thick with a slight citrusy flavor. Anybody know what this might be? It was delicious.