My last visit to Singapore was in 2010 when I was here with my family on a vacation. The moment I stepped foot on the international terminal of the Changi airport, I was overwhelmed and impressed. From my smooth sail through the immigrations checkpoint (thanks to the well-organized authorities and smoothly running systems) to the spic and span streets of the city, to seeing a multi-cultural community living and working together in harmony, everything that I saw on my first day of arrival increased my excitement to explore the country. Questions however, began to surface in my mind. What would studying in Singapore really be like? Would it be similar to the rosy-tinted picture that Singapore presents to its visitors, or are there underlying issues that reveal this picture to be a mere facade? It soon dawned on me that if I wanted to get to know the real Singapore, and not just the idealised image shown to tourists, I would have to interact with the local community.
Given that one of the defining features of Singapore is its diversity of races and cultures, I envisioned a diverse group of performers from all races and nationalities (the students) coming together on a huge dais (the NUS campus) to celebrate life academically, socially and culturally. However, my first few weeks in NUS slightly altered this initial perception of mine. I was hoping to integrate well with the local and international students in NUS, but as I soon realised that this was not an easy task. Why? COMMUNICATION! Given that English is supposed to be the common language in Singapore, I had certainly not expected to encounter problems in communication.
Earlier on, when I was still in the ‘honeymoon stage’, I had thought that I was adjusting seamlessly to life in Singapore. This belief was soon proven to be false when I attempted to order chicken rice from one of the canteens on campus. To my confusion, the kindly old stall vendor started conversing with me in a strange language which, in retrospect, was probably Singlish. Feeling rather flummoxed, I had no choice but to resort to using hand gestures in an attempt to place my order. After about three minutes of this spontaneous game of charades, I gave up and asked one of the local students for some help. Ever since this incident, I have started to compile a glossary of Singlish and Chinese terms and stock phrases to enable me to order food and drinks from the canteens and hawker centres in order to avoid future unplanned games of charades.
I am sure a lot of international students face this issue of a communication divide. Ironically, it is the stalls which most of the international students frequent (owing to budget constraints) where the local hawkers communicate solely in Singlish and Mandarin. What a pickle! Bridging this divide is imperative, especially if one intends to stay in Singapore for a long period of time. In my experience, I have found that simple practice and repeated exposure to the Singaporean accent and Mandarin can help tremendously in everyday social interactions with the local community. This can be done through formal methods like taking up a language course at NUS, or even informal methods like downloading translation applications or speaking to the local students. Social integration however, is a two way street. International students must be open-minded and willing to learn, while the local students must be friendly and willing to help. Such relationships, I believe, are mutually beneficial. For instance, I was studying together with a Chinese classmate when the topic of similarities and differences between cultures came up. Realising that both of us were interested in learning more about the other’s culture, we worked out an arrangement in which I taught her the basics of Tamil, while she taught me common Mandarin phrases. Isn’t that a win-win situation?
The problem of communication persists in the learning environment as well. In one of my recent classes, a classmate, who was an international student, actually burst into tears because she found the professor’s accent too foreign and his speaking style too fast-paced for her to catch. Fortunately, the professor took note of this, and held an impromptu consultation session at the end of the class for students who required further clarifications on the material.
The communication gap can sometimes translate into a further segregation between the international students and the local students. For instance, when students are given the freedom to choose their own group members for project work, I noticed a tendency for students of the same nationality to group together. Although I agree that speaking in one’s first language is more comfortable, I believe that it goes against the implicit objective of studying in an overseas university—to become a truly global citizen, comfortable with interacting with people all over the world. Having worked in a diverse group comprising of Chinese, Indian, Malay, and Finnish students, I can testify to the invaluable experience of interacting with students from different nationalities, and the joy it brings from being able to learn about each other’s culture, while at the same point find shared interests and views which bind us together. I believe that this is the most valuable takeaway from studying in a university abroad, and this can only be achieved when the communication divide is bridged.
It is necessary for both international and local students to step outside of their comfort zone. International students in particular, will be haunted by serious questions the moment they embark on the beginning of their academic journey in Singapore. Will I understand the professor’s accent? Will I make friends from other countries? Will I be able to integrate with the local community? Will I be able to adapt to the local culture? The answer to these questions is dependent on whether one is confident and open-minded enough to take that extra step in picking up some of the local lingo and trying to understand the local culture. We must exert all efforts to flip the “will I” in the self-doubting questions above to “I will”.