Racial Harmony?

One update from the last posting - there were two more cockroaches last night. These she found IN our apartment, and she put them on their backs and watched them struggle from a very close distance. I think she might not be that nice (at least to bugs).

So you hear all the time that Singapore is the place of racial harmony. Everyone gets along great, and race doesn't matter. You hear it so much that you might even be inclined to believe it! Schools are mostly mixed, public housing (remember like 85% of Singaporeans live in public housing) has quotas that have to be filled, so you DO see people mixing.

In my first job here there were a couple of Chinese who spoke Mandarin among themselves, and I thought they were doing it to be rude. We had a SMALL office where four people sat, and they weren't so nice to be anyways, so I chalked it up to them just being mean people. (I even asked them to please speak English when we're all in the office).

In my new job there are a few girls who only speak Mandarin among themselves. I also found this a bit rude, and I felt left out when I was around them.

Then I realized that it's what people do in Singapore - they speak Mandarin. Something like 80% of the population is Chinese, and it doesn't seem to bother them that 20% isn't. I asked my friend who grew up in Singapore what it was like, and she said when she went to top schools (English schools), everyone spoke English, but she too felt left out and couldn't understand people when she went to junior college (11th and 12th grades) and university. She's fricken Singaporean! Can you imagine growing up in a country that is YOURS and people speak a different language, and culture is really in a different language, and then they're all telling you that it's all amazing and harmonious? That would piss me off.

Today I went to buy 11 newspapers. First I asked for ten (I forgot that I wanted 11), and the guy got ten newspapers. Then I said, "actually I need eleven. Sorry." He didn't understand at all. I counted "nine...ten...eleven." Nope. I took one extra and he put it back. I finally had to stop someone to ask them how to say eleven newspapers. (They said it for me).

Yesterday I tried to buy a hot drink (air conditioning chills me to the bones) before my Spanish class. The guy there also didn't understand a word I said, and I had to ask another patron.

I'm not at all saying that everyone should speak English all around the world and that there is something wrong with them for not understanding me. Not at all. I'm saying that if THEY'RE saying that this is an English speaking country and all of the races get along perfectly...I disagree. They might get along fine, but it's a Chinese culture.

Happy Easter!