Culture Shock - Arriving in singapore

Post by **sundaymorningstaple** » Sun, 02 Jun 2013 11:10 am

I'll take your word for it!

zzm9980 · Post by **zzm9980** » Sun, 02 Jun 2013 11:31 am

Aragorn2000 wrote: That's "Slippery slope fallacy".

....

A 90 speed limit is more than enough for efficiency in Singapore. How much more time would you save if you were allowed to go at 120 in this tiny island?

Yes, it was a slippery slope, intentionally absurd, meant to point out your own subtle but still slippery slope. I'd love for you to point out relavent modern research traffic based on Singapore's infrastructure and modern vehicles.

Again, how do you quantify 90km/hr as being efficient yet safe vs 120km/hr being unsafe in Singapore? Is this your opinion? Then state so and don't pass it off as fact. You should know better trying to point out logical fallacies yourself.

JR8 · Post by **JR8** » Mon, 03 Jun 2013 4:34 pm

- Fly-parking. Lines of cars parked on double-yellow lines.

- Some apparent form of neighbourhood P/A system. I keep hearing various musical tones, apparently being broadcast from quite some way away.

- Fogging for mosquitos.

- Whereas laundry used to be hung out of windows on poles, now it seems to be on poles on horizontal racks (i.e. a rack at base of pole, and another rack at the far end of pole).

- Finding random small fresh scars here and there on my body.

- Huge bananas, Japanese no less!

- The Harvard Business Review on sale at 7-11!? BUT, no porn!!?

- The prevalence of the word 'Feedback'.

- The prevalence of mis-pluralised words, such as 'Thank you for your feedbacks'.

- Taxis that seem to be straight out of Tokyo. The black ones with 'old gold' coloured roofs... those are 90's Tokyo cabs?

- Systema (Japanese) mouthwash. Very refreshing and light.

- I have yet to see a dirty car.

- People park very slowly.

- Newspaper stories about political oppression, arrests, crowd permits etc., in MY (with apparent side-refernece to Sg).

-Curry puffs. yum!

- SGn children who speak with American accents.

- Neighbourhood PA or musical chimes (again).

- Old man with scars down his back from cupping/cuppage.

- Use of the term of address 'Madam' for older ladies.

- A newspaper article about people at the Marina Barrage, washing their aged parents feet, as an act of filial piety. Seems odd to me, if theres a suggestion of some parallel to Jesus washing the feet of the poor, then it's in *really* bad taste!

- Headline > 'Fewer fallen windows this year: A total of 18 windows fell so far this year, compared to 35 in the same period last year'. Who compiles these statistics, does any other country compile 'fallen window' statistics?

- The newspaper has a 'Be alert' warning to crowds, re: the Great Singapore Sale - happening in TWO months time.

- Newspaper articles, at the end of which is a box with a few keywords from the article, translated into a few languages.
... Patrol, disputed, conquering, provoke, can-do, ambitious, shoo-in, supporters, quintuplets, caesarian section, pregnancy, naturally, promoters, beware of, proceeds, explanation, earthquake, rockslide, injured, jittery, protests, oppressive, spread, excessive, friction, damage-control, engage, stakes, like-minded, laggard, diaspora, venture-capitalist...

- All references to children seem to use the vulgar and IMHO denigrating term 'kids'.

- an advert for 'Bio-magnetic bust enhancement'. [Adverts aren't regulated here it seems].

- 1940/50's western names, that you'd no longer encounter in the west: Melvin, Vera, Agnes, Doris.

- Newspapers championing state health campaigns.

the lynx · Post by **the lynx** » Mon, 03 Jun 2013 4:58 pm

JR8 wrote:- Fly-parking. Lines of cars parked on double-yellow lines.

- Some apparent form of neighbourhood P/A system. I keep hearing various musical tones, apparently being broadcast from quite some way away.

- Fogging for mosquitos.

- Whereas laundry used to be hung out of windows on poles, now it seems to be on poles on horizontal racks (i.e. a rack at base of pole, and another rack at the far end of pole).

- Finding random small fresh scars here and there on my body.

- Huge bananas, Japanese no less!

- The Harvard Business Review on sale at 7-11!? BUT, no porn!!?

- The prevalence of the word 'Feedback'.

Just like all the ridiculous corporate buzzwords these days in Singapore.

- The prevalence of mis-pluralised words, such as 'Thank you for your feedbacks'.

- Taxis that seem to be straight out of Tokyo. The black ones with 'old gold' coloured roofs... those are 90's Tokyo cabs?

It is called Yellow-Top Taxis. Independent company from Comfort-Delgro and SMRT ones I believe.

- Systema (Japanese) mouthwash. Very refreshing and light.

- I have yet to see a dirty car.

- People park very slowly.

- Newspaper stories about political oppression, arrests, crowd permits etc., in MY (with apparent side-refernece to Sg).

Probably Singapore press trying to tell the citizenry that they should be thankful that Singapore is not as effed up as Malaysia, thanks to its impeccable censorship policy.

-Curry puffs. yum!

- SGn children who speak with American accents.

- Neighbourhood PA or musical chimes (again).

- Old man with scars down his back from cupping/cuppage.

- Use of the term of address 'Madam' for older ladies.

- A newspaper article about people at the Marina Barrage, washing their aged parents feet, as an act of filial piety. Seems odd to me, if theres a suggestion of some parallel to Jesus washing the feet of the poor, then it's in *really* bad taste!

I saw that too! And it made into the Book of Records! But why choose one specific day and one specific move to show filial piety? I bet my dollar that on the rest of the 364 days, they never even speak a word to their elderly parents, let alone taking care of them pro-actively. Heck, they are probably scheming to cash in on their old parents' HDBs when they die or become infirm. Seen that case last week.

- Headline > 'Fewer fallen windows this year: A total of 18 windows fell so far this year, compared to 35 in the same period last year'. Who compiles these statistics, does any other country compile 'fallen window' statistics?

Reminds me of Hannieroo's window incident: http://forum.singaporeexpats.com/ftopic ... asc-0.html

- The newspaper has a 'Be alert' warning to crowds, re: the Great Singapore Sale - happening in TWO months time.

- Newspaper articles, at the end of which is a box with a few keywords from the article, translated into a few languages.
... Patrol, disputed, conquering, provoke, can-do, ambitious, shoo-in, supporters, quintuplets, caesarian section, pregnancy, naturally, promoters, beware of, proceeds, explanation, earthquake, rockslide, injured, jittery, protests, oppressive, spread, excessive, friction, damage-control, engage, stakes, like-minded, laggard, diaspora, venture-capitalist...

You're talking about MyPaper and Today newspapers. They are bilingual and they try to cater to the growing Chinese-speaking population. Interestingly, they don't do the reverse for their Chinese section.

- All references to children seem to use the vulgar and IMHO denigrating term 'kids'.

- an advert for 'Bio-magnetic bust enhancement'. [Adverts aren't regulated here it seems].

- 1940/50's western names, that you'd no longer encounter in the west: Melvin, Vera, Agnes, Doris.

- Newspapers championing state health campaigns.

zzm9980 · Post by **zzm9980** » Mon, 03 Jun 2013 5:16 pm

- I have yet to see a dirty car.

I'll drive to the meet. Mine is very dirty.

- People park very slowly.

F'ING GOD DAMN RIGHT THEY PARK SLOW. I never had road rage (ok maybe just a bit) until my first (and every subsequent) experience in a multi-story car park. I hate that people drive at idle speed through a car park, or arbitrarily stop on a steep ramp. Especially since my car is manual. Thank god I lived in San Francisco and know how to use the parking break on hills.
Even worse, is when they stop traffic and make a 27-point turn to get into the first (And tightest) spot they see, causing a jam out into the road, when there are a dozen parking spots all open next to each other 10meters away readily visible to everyone.

Post by **sundaymorningstaple** » Mon, 03 Jun 2013 5:52 pm

Boy you ought to see 'em get upset when they get pwned by the guy who parks US style by pulling into the lot nose first, rather than drive by the spot and then try to back into the slot, thereby holding up said traffic you mention in your post. No idea who that guy is!

zzm9980 · Post by **zzm9980** » Mon, 03 Jun 2013 6:06 pm

sundaymorningstaple wrote:Boy you ought to see 'em get upset when they get pwned by the guy who parks US style by pulling into the lot nose first, rather than drive by the spot and then try to back into the slot, thereby holding up said traffic you mention in your post. No idea who that guy is!

I just did that to somebody this morning! Our carpark at work has these little circles hanging off the main lane that are one way, so you have to drive to the second right, then turn in and come back around one way (imagine a capital letter P where you drive from the bottom to the top, then loop around). I was behind a slow guy who obviously had his eye on a prime spot at the very end of the small loop, closest to the exit of the loop. He went past and made his right, I took the earlier right (wrong way), and cut the 2 meters in and went nose first into that prime spot.

Brah · Post by **Brah** » Mon, 03 Jun 2013 9:43 pm

JR8 wrote:All references to children seem to use the vulgar and IMHO denigrating term 'kids'.

Where I'm from it's more an agnostic or friendly term, unless said in disgust. Never vulgar.

JR8 wrote:1940/50's western names, that you'd no longer encounter in the west: Melvin, Vera, Agnes, Doris.

We've covered this before, and recently. Should be a sticky just for this - SMS? We need more humor. Sorry, humour.

JR8 · Post by **JR8** » Tue, 04 Jun 2013 1:49 pm

- A Malay security guard at the condo (maybe5-600 unit?) has somehow figured out and remembered my name. So each time I see him he's like 'Hello Mr. '''JR8''', how are you?' Amazing!

- Bomb shelters (I think we've done this before).

- Starhub 'Happy online top-up', and 'Happy prepaid top-up'. It all seems very Japanese.

- Opened a bank account, they handed us our debit cards right there and then.

- Woke up this morning, went to bathroom where the windows were open > struck by smell of smoke (clearing forest over in Sumatra).

- Locals (esp. youngsters) are often very polite in holding doors open for me.

- pneumatic drills breaking up concrete.

- a very, very OTT Rolls Royce, like something out of Thunderbirds

then immediately afterwards...

- a truck with workers sitting in the back.

- EC House hair 'salon', QB house, Okinawa. - An apparently thriving JP haircut concept.

- Kids with guns. I was at the garage, three youths, c20, walked by in army uniform, tooled up. You do not see armed people, never mind youths in much of Europe.

- Since even youngsters seem to have guns here, presumably I can go and enjoy a day out shooting at a range right? Er, no... the state has guns, you do not.

- Open sewers next to the roads (storm drains?)

- Badly pimped cars

- I hear a bird call. And then figure it might be a road-crossing signal.

Post by **sundaymorningstaple** » Tue, 04 Jun 2013 2:42 pm

JR8 wrote: presumably I can go and enjoy a day out shooting at a range right? Er, no... the state has guns, you do not.

Er, yes, you can. http://www.singaporerifle.org.sg/Ranges.php

JR8 · Post by **JR8** » Tue, 04 Jun 2013 3:26 pm

sundaymorningstaple wrote:
JR8 wrote: presumably I can go and enjoy a day out shooting at a range right? Er, no... the state has guns, you do not.
Er, yes, you can. http://www.singaporerifle.org.sg/Ranges.php

Thanks for the link. I'd long forgotten about that place, and must go and check it out sometime. I don't ever think I could over-practise my breathing vs my aiming. I wonder what a day with 5-6 boxes of 12 bore and 9mm would cost...

... we shall see.

[OT: I seem to recall years ago my wife considering getting a class or classes for me out there, and that I'd have send a copy of my passport/IC in advance...? Oh well, once we're settled I'll figure it out... ]

JR8 · Post by **JR8** » Tue, 04 Jun 2013 5:46 pm

- a queue of 6-8 cars backed up on the road, to get into a petrol station.

bgd · Post by **bgd** » Tue, 04 Jun 2013 6:16 pm

JR8 wrote:- a queue of 6-8 cars backed up on the road, to get into a petrol station.

Wait until they do their promotions, I've seen all of East Coast Road gridlocked due to the queuing.

Mi Amigo · Post by **Mi Amigo** » Wed, 05 Jun 2013 12:48 pm

JR8 wrote:- a queue of 6-8 cars backed up on the road, to get into a petrol station.

Free curry puff issit?

Post by **sundaymorningstaple** » Wed, 05 Jun 2013 1:12 pm

That or the latest Exxon promotion? A tissue dispenser or sumtin'????

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Culture Shock - Arriving in singapore

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