My very first day in Singapore

My very first day in Singapore

It's very funny!
When I first arrived to Singapore with Silk Air-line at 2008 June, the first problem I encountered was language barrier!

To make check out at the Changi Air Port immigration point, I met with a Malay lady officer who asked me a lot of questions in English language but in Malay accent.
Actually, my English skill was not so bad at that time. May be, let say, intermediate level. However, I didn't understand what that Malay lady officer was saying.
Finally, only I managed to understand was her last question!
She asked me about that whether I would work in Singapore or not!
I answered "yes, if I get the chance!"
She promptly responded me that "no, you cannot! " which means " because you come to Singapore with only short visit visa, and so you don't have the right to make any form of employment here until or unless you get legal permission to do so like some kind of employment pass allowed from MOM, ministry of man power of Singapore !"
I was frightened at the moment because perhaps she rejected me from entering into Singapore on the spot! Some of my friends were rejected to enter Singapore without giving any reason at the immigration check point before I come to Singapore !
But, luckily, she allowed me to stay one month period and chopped one month visa seal on my passport and white card!
I was very happy because I could stay for a while in one of the Asian Tiger countries which was only a small fishing village in recent time!

At the air port visitor lot, my little aunt had already arrived to fetch me or pick me up. Then, we went to our place in a taxi cab!
On the way, I saw a lot of good scenes, cleanliness and some Myanmar named roads like Irrawaddy Road, Chin Dwin Road,Moulmein Road, Rangoon Road, Bassein Rd, Minbu Rd, Mandalay Rd, Pegu Rd, Ava Rd, Shan Rd, Bhamo Rd., Prome Rd. etc in the downtown area.
Within a few minutes, we arrived to our rented house, actually an apartment, which is called HDB flat in Singapore.
The rental fees for the house in Singapore is not cheap compare to its counterparts of developing and well developed countries in the world! The most expensive country among ASEAN countries.
The house rental fee is S$350 per head for a month which can feed a small family in my home town for the whole month!

I had never been to any foreign country before at that time!
Wow!
Then, I was arriving to the safest place in the world!
No. 3 livable city and no.10 expensive country of the whole world which really has no resource but very rich due to good management and reputation!

Then, we bought lunch at the food court. The chinese vendor of the food court asked us "In here or take away ?". I said "pack the food in"parcel"
She didn't understand what I was saying about! What a pity thing. There are so many people who do not understand even a single word of simple English in this English speaking country! So we had to use international language which is sign language. I ate chicken rice, which is the most famous staple food of Singapore. It costs LAN quiet pan, in Chinese language, S$2.5 for each. My little aunt ate Nasi Lamak, a Malay coconut flavor rice with fried chicken, an egg, some slices of cucumber, fried dried small fish and peanuts. "chilli or no chilli? ". I only nodded as a sign of "yea" or shaking my head for signalling "No".
Because a lot of food court staff are main land Chinese people who just only know very few words of English, merely for some survival words. But they can communicate and survive well in Singapore because Singaporeans can speak both Chinese & English language. Actually, I think Singaporean Chinese come from main land china. They are inherited persons of mainland Chinese people.



Regards,
Zaw Lin Myat
Project Engineer/QS
+65 9236 5324

NB: How to eat an elephant?
A bite at a time!