Saturday morning, and I wanted to sleep till noon, but instead I woke up a little earlier to put myself to some productive use.
I finally went and opened myself the UOB Campus account. Countless friends have told me about it, and I thought it’s all pretty cool. Free chequeing account, plus debit card that I can use for online shopping as well. So yes, I woke up earlier just so I can go conduct mundane matters at the bank and bore myself out.
Found that the Clementi branch is the nearest to NTU in terms of transport time, but unfortunately, I didn’t know that branch is soo0o small, that there were only 2 counters for account opening. And there was hardly any waiting space. People were standing and waiting for their turns. But I thought, Oh well, just gotta quicky get a number and join their queue and it’ll be my turn in no time.
Boy, was I wrong. I pressed the machine for my number: 1059.
I looked up at the screen: “Now serving: 1030″.
I was like: wtf?!?! the bank is closing in an hour and they have 30 clients to serve?!
I stood there like a deflated balloon, almost wanting to run off to the MRT and head to the bigger Orchard main branch. Hating that I’m standing there and watching the seconds tick away while the “Now Serving” numbers stagnate eternally, I went to ask a bank officer there for the application form to fill and clarify some questions.
So there we were, me asking questions and him answering them, and at one point I asked if there were any documents I need to present or special fineprints to owning the account since I am a foreign student here. Then the guy was like, “Oh, you’re foreign student? I thought you’re local. You sound local.”
I dunno lah, but what’s with the sounding local thing? (not the first time already.) I mean, seriously, I speak English in Singapore just the way I speak English in KL. No put-up accent, no difference, except of course I cancel out the Manglish words when I’m in Singapore coz no one would get it. And I do put up my “lets-talk-business” voice when I deal with ppl in banks, customer service, and other important stuff (just so they’ll take me seriously and give me what I want. 
). But really, I don’t see the need for the surprise. Undeniably a lot of Malaysians and foreigners speak with a certain accent that sometimes make them stick out, but I find it a bit insulting sometimes when some people assume that foreigners in the S.E.A. don’t speak English fluently. Come to think of it, I even got a “your English is pretty good for a Malaysian” before.
Maybe there’s an ounce of truth in there, but I guess that reflects another painful issue, which is that of the failures of the education system in Malaysia. I have met peers who had a hard time handling their first sem in uni, not because they are not brilliant (I respect these ppl for taking the STPM exams in M’sia. I chickened out, escaped that & did A levels here instead) but because they have problems trying to cope with doing everything in English for the first time. It’s a steep uphill climb for them, but they diligently persevered on.
Well, the government has finally realised that speaking Malay will only get you business from Indonesia, and introduced the core Science and Math curriculum in English. But I don’t see how it’s even effectively doing anything. Stories of teachers who teach kids the wrong pronunciations in primary school, and friends in 6th form tell me they have to study everythg in English on their own coz the teachers don’t know nuts.
It’s so screwed up ‘coz the government doesn’t have any proper implementation plans and not enough funds (coz x% of the funds are probably siphoned off into someone else’s pockets), and that’s not even the biggest problem yet. The divide between the city and the kampungs is just too big. Some luckier kids have the environment to be exposed to the English language, and English classes in school bore them. While some in the rural areas cannot even put a proper essay together. Some get the chance to get out of the system, while others are stuck, and left out of it.
I used to always think, one day I’ll go back and live + work in KL again once I’ve finished my 3-year commitment here. I like the place, because my family is there, and it’s a big chunk of my past (well, as big a chunk as it can get in a 22-year life) + great food. But of late, I’m loosing that ‘want’ to go back. Having lived in Singapore for so long (and NY for a short stint), I realise there can be so much more out there. Things are getting from bad to worse in KL. Robberies happen everywhere, ladies have to act all paranoid about locking their cars, and not drive alone at night. Police tells me “apa boleh buat?” (what can we do?) when i reported my snatch thief case. They conned my Singaporean friends for exhorbitant bribes on the highway. How bad can everything get?
Some old friends ask me, “isn’t it very expensive to live in Singapore?” And I’m telling you it’s not. For the salary you earn here, you don’t have to pay as much for food. In KL, food prices go up so fast I can’t keep track everytime I’m back, but salaries stay stagnant there. Yeah sure, cars and real estate is costly in Singapore, but with the excellent public transport system, who needs cars except the rich? Better than KL where everyone thinks they can afford a car (coz it sounds so cheap), when in the end they’ll end up spending years and years paying off their loans for a lousy car to get stuck daily on the traffic jams.
I know this is a whole lot of negativity here, but it’s just thoughts that I’ve gone through from time to time. It gets depressing when you see that things have the potential to be a whole lot better, but things are just bogged down by too many factors from bad politicians, to apathy, to historical inheritance of a bad system that snow-balled to something this ugly. It’s hard not to feel sad about the whole thing. I’m not saying Singapore is wonderful-hurray-wheee-excellent, but at least for now, it offers me the basic needs of comfort and security.
Some people might label people like me who have gone away ” unpatriotic” and etc, but who gives a fuck really? If I had stayed in government schooling, I’ll probably be languishing in some pathetic unprofessional uni and taking a course that’s my 7th choice because of a screwed up system. No one in their right mind would choose that if they had another option out of it. Talks of patriotism is bull when you cannot even save your own skin. Want to talk about going back and help change the situation? I don’t know how that’s possible when half the society is apathetic, and the other half forgetful (yeah, voting the ppl u complain about back into power. smart move.) But seriously, I don’t even know how I’d vote because I don’t have faith in either the ruling or opposition to do any concrete changes.
Ok enough rants. This topic gets me going and going so I’d better stop. phew.
Maybe one day I would go back to live in KL, but that’ll only be because of my family. For now, I’m alright at where I am.
More on that in the next post. Maybe photos too. If I get around to doing that.
And I also managed to clean my table, mop the floors, and reorganise my wardrobe!