Singapore Expats

zzm9980 wrote:
Our lives aren't as miserable as yours? Really your questions are stupid now.

Well, I want to understand why some cultures always smile and some not.
Is it because there is some gain in smiling or just a habit. In my observation, American smile is not natural. In Europe people smile only when they want to smile. But what do you think?

Too far off the original question...
I am interested in the comparison of life, living cost and job prospectives between US vs. Singapore rather all these in recent posts.

zzm9980 wrote:

alittlerisky wrote: No other other country has consistently invaded other countries apart from the US.

Here you are being ignorant again.

http://mentalfloss.com/article/13019/th ... 9t-invaded

Of the almost 200 current member states (and one observer state) of the United Nations, the British have, at some point in history, invaded and established a military presence in 171 of them.

So us Brits do still top the league in one area then

Per the 'Fish Called Wanda' reference, I'm so sorry we invaded you all, really I am. (No, honestly, I truly am very sorry about that).

freeman.vu wrote:Too far off the original question...
I am interested in the comparison of life, living cost and job prospectives between US vs. Singapore rather all these in recent posts.

Ah, the voice of reason. Quite right. This thread has been derailed more times than a Mongolian freight train with loose wheels (or something). It'd be good to get back to the original topic.

alittlerisky wrote:My last girlfriend was Vietnamese, and she didn't particularly like yanks.

So is my wife. Her whole family is in the government, some rather high up. Her father was an officer in the army until he recently retired, but was a grunt killing Yanks in the 60s. They live in in what was one of the most productive industrial northern provinces that is still now one of the poorest due to American bombing. Old folks she know still hide and cry when they hear jets or choppers.

Every single person I've met, not just family, loves me and Americans and all thing American. Except Bush (Bush-ee!). This doesn't make it fact or anything, just my observed anecdote with as much weight as any of yours. Who you btw, despite international travels, likely lived a sheltered privileged life compared to most in the places you stayed. Not that it makes your opinions less valid, but something we should consider.

freeman.vu wrote:Too far off the original question...
I am interested in the comparison of life, living cost and job prospectives between US vs. Singapore rather all these in recent posts.

This interesting for me, because people who surround me matter.

freeman.vu wrote:Too far off the original question...
I am interested in the comparison of life, living cost and job prospectives between US vs. Singapore rather all these in recent posts.

There is some good stuff here, just scroll through. Ignore Vink's flaming in the middle.

Job prospects are generally better in the US, and cost of living is almost always lower, salaries are higher, but so are taxes. In the few data points I have for people with "good local packages" (but not expat) at the two places I've worked in Singapore, the adjustment up to US wage is about a wash after the higher taxes. That's a lateral move, pure salary adjustment.

Ask a specific question and I can give you a specific answer based on my experience.


Edit: I'll add here those salaries compare here and Northern California (Bay Area), one of the better paying (but higher taxed) areas of the US.

freeman.vu wrote:Too far off the original question...
I am interested in the comparison of life, living cost and job prospectives between US vs. Singapore rather all these in recent posts.

This would make a good OP return if not for all the recent noise.

So you mean prospects, not prospectives. This has a lot to do with where you are from and what you do, sorry to state the painfully obvious but knowing this would help.

And for the States, which is huge and has many economic and living quality ecosystems, there would be multiple comparisons. And I too am interested in this as time have changed since I was there.

Edit: I just saw zzm's response, he's covered this.

zzm9980 wrote:

alittlerisky wrote:My last girlfriend was Vietnamese, and she didn't particularly like yanks.

So is my wife. Her whole family is in the government, some rather high up. Her father was an officer in the army until he recently retired, but was a grunt killing Yanks in the 60s. They live in in what was one of the most productive industrial northern provinces that is still now one of the poorest due to American bombing. Old folks she know still hide and cry when they hear jets or choppers.

Every single person I've met, not just family, loves me and Americans and all thing American. Except Bush (Bush-ee!). This doesn't make it fact or anything, just my observed anecdote with as much weight as any of yours. Who you btw, despite international travels, likely lived a sheltered privileged life compared to most in the places you stayed. Not that it makes your opinions less valid, but something we should consider.

When I went to VN in 1996 I was struck at how many (all, really) people I met from Saigon to Hue praised Americans, and, I was traveling on Reunification Day and inadvertently wound up in Son My (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Lai_Massacre), but that is a story for over a beer or three....

I remember hearing "American Number One, Russia Number Ten!" a number of times, after they established that I was not a Lingzho. That animosity towards Russian was allegedly due to the way the oil & gas guys treated the locals.

All I could do was feel bad about the US left SVN holding the bag, and at how gracious the locals were about all that. But I don't want to start a VN War subthread as it was after my time and I'm not qualified to speak much on it....

Brah wrote: I remember hearing "American Number One, Russia Number Ten!" a number of times

haha too funny. I've noticed the Vietnamese have an affinity for using English and calling anything they like "Number 1" and anything they don't like "Number XX" where XX is some large number like 10, 100, or 500. The bigger the number the less they like it. At least the random ones I've met. Must be some translation thing I'm not aware of.

zzm9980 wrote:

Brah wrote: I remember hearing "American Number One, Russia Number Ten!" a number of times

haha too funny. I've noticed the Vietnamese have an affinity for using English and calling anything they like "Number 1" and anything they don't like "Number XX" where XX is some large number like 10, 100, or 500. The bigger the number the less they like it. At least the random ones I've met. Must be some translation thing I'm not aware of.

Now that you have mentioned it, you're right!

the lynx wrote:

x9200 wrote:

Brah wrote: I thought it was a barbaric 10 days (2 weeks but we're talking the same thing).

Is this a bare minimum by law or just universally accepted?

For Singapore's MOM, yes, bare minimum.

Actually, Singapore's bare minimum (by law) is only 7 days with an additional 1 days per year of service up to a maximum of 14 days.

Brah wrote:All I could do was feel bad about the US left SVN holding the bag, and at how gracious the locals were about all that. But I don't want to start a VN War subthread as it was after my time and I'm not qualified to speak much on it....

Thanks, Brah.

zzm9980 wrote: Every single person I've met, not just family, loves me and Americans and all thing American.

\

Like I said I have nothing against American people, just the administration. I had a MaccyD's double cheesburger and a coke for lunch FFS! Although I did balance that by drinking a couple of guinness before. And most yanks I've met I have liked, the ones I didn't, I didn't like not because they were American, they were just *ssholes, and you can get *ssholes in all nationalities.

So what was your little outburst about? You did not expect this board to be populated by the US gov officials, did you?

zzm9980 wrote:

freeman.vu wrote:Too far off the original question...
I am interested in the comparison of life, living cost and job prospectives between US vs. Singapore rather all these in recent posts.

There is some good stuff here, just scroll through. Ignore Vink's flaming in the middle.

Job prospects are generally better in the US, and cost of living is almost always lower, salaries are higher, but so are taxes. In the few data points I have for people with "good local packages" (but not expat) at the two places I've worked in Singapore, the adjustment up to US wage is about a wash after the higher taxes. That's a lateral move, pure salary adjustment.

Ask a specific question and I can give you a specific answer based on my experience.


Edit: I'll add here those salaries compare here and Northern California (Bay Area), one of the better paying (but higher taxed) areas of the US.

I would like to know about the process of applying for H1B visa, is this like vink2 mentioned that applying for this year must before March so that ppl can start working on Oct? That's like 7 months gap. Also, can the H1B pass holder sponsor a dependent pass for her/his spouse like DP in Singapore? (h4 visa isn't it?)
Also, with few years of experience in IT/Finance (I work for a hedge fund as developer in Singapore), what would be your advise between applying directly to the company or going through recruitment agents?

Thanks zzm.

@Brah: yup, it's 'prospects', not 'prospectives'... sorry for my bad English

Brah wrote: When I went to VN in 1996 I was struck at how many (all, really) people I met from Saigon to Hue praised Americans, and, I was traveling on Reunification Day and inadvertently wound up in Son My (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Lai_Massacre), but that is a story for over a beer or three....

I remember hearing "American Number One, Russia Number Ten!" a number of times, after they established that I was not a Lingzho. That animosity towards Russian was allegedly due to the way the oil & gas guys treated the locals.

All I could do was feel bad about the US left SVN holding the bag, and at how gracious the locals were about all that. But I don't want to start a VN War subthread as it was after my time and I'm not qualified to speak much on it....

The feeling of Vietnamese to American is generally mixed from the young to the old, educated to uneducated, the south to the north. But generally, I see Vietnamese don't remember that far. One thing for sure Vnese ppl don't hate American the most on this earth...