September 14, 2006

"excuse me, are you a Singaporean?"

Sam is operationally ready as of today.

He came to bid me farewell, but what was meant to be a short goodbye turned out to be a two hour-long chat. It was rather insightful, and I believe the both of us have something to take away from it. At the end of the talk, I am glad to say that I have received a fresh burst of inspiration all over again, and that the vision I had has become all the more lucid. It's amazing how it works: when you place focus upon what seems to have dimmed, new breath and life spring into it, and it makes me believe beyond a shadow of doubt that the decisions I have made are meant to stay, work, and bring me where I wish to be brought.

In the midst of S2006 now, and this project is something every Singaporean can, and should be proud of, because of the boundaries that have never been crossed before, and the challenges unsurpassed. Personally, dealing with it administratively can be harsh; the mental workload can make you go a little mental (pun unintended). I got a rather unusual break from the technicalities with the trip to the hotels and airport with Boss last week. Being an observer, I guess I was simply doing my job detailing the manner in which he carried out his duties. Impressive.

Laborious issues aside, I got on to the lighter side of things by doing some retail therapy at the terminal. Buying a fountain pen and a refill for my ballpoint could never get any more bizzare, having to witness an example of a disgruntled salesgirl bad-mouthing her co-worker, which was pretty intense. at the cashier's, I had an exchange with a little British lady, and she was telling me how nice it was to be able to read The Daily Telegraph, having been away from the United Kingdom for a while. I queried where she was heading, Langkawi. And so I went on to banter about the ridiculous size of the bald eagle overlooking the sea, and yada yada. As she made her payment, she commented, "You speak very good English." To be honest, before I could decide whether or not to be flattered, this Singaporean cashier, obviously having heard the lady and being utterly Singaporean, began to accost her with a high-pitched and piercing falsetto. I was of course, rather disgusted.

It gets me wondering a fair bit, because one way to read the Brit's comment would be the implication that Singaporeans suffer from a inability to speak Queen's English, or maybe even English can may be understood internationally. I have heard of laughable incidents where Americans and Britons alike found our speech quite impossible to understand, and these incidents I thought were fictitious until last week. This also brings to my mind what MJ told me the other day: when she went over to Sydney, her unassuming Aussie friends asked her innocently, "Do you speak Singaporean??" Yes, horrified would be an apt word to describe my reaction.

Looking back, I recall the time years back when Yun was astonished that I maintained a decent two-hour phone conversation without a word of Mandarin, and those plain queer moments when I speak English to certain people and get retorts in Mandarin. However, I've come to realise ever since enlistment, my small talk has become inclusive of the wonderful Mother Tongue, in order to communicate effectively with a larger audience. I do quite believe that this is necessary for better communication; a while back I was reading an article on how the human mind subconsciously chooses and frames words and sentences to create different atmospheres.

For example, in an argument of which a person attempts to assure the other party he is not mad, he might say, "No leh, I'm not angry mah." On the other hand, "No, I'm not angry," might go terribly wrong, with the other individual having the misguided opinion that the first person is simply trying to hide his anger.

So really, communication, not just words and plain talk, can very possibly lie herein a suited choice of words, and more often than not the inclusion of multiple languages to regulate formality.

Moving on, I have to commit this space here to mentioning that I have made a probable, and perhaps plausible change to S' working life from now on. It certainly doesn't feel like the wisest choice at such a time, but I believe in it. We'll see what happens a month from now.

It's been a long week, albeit four days, but long. I've pledged myself to a little bit of strange acting during the weekend, let's hope it turns out fine with me all blurry-eyed.

And this must be my longest post for the longest time.
gid posted at 21:37