Authentic Learning, S'pore Style

This actually took place a couple of weeks ago - i was on the train (somehow many noteworthy anecdotes of mind have something to do with public transport) when a lady, her child in a stroller and her domestic helper boarded the train. Kudos to the employer, for she was teaching her helper English. The example she used was rather intriguing, yet undeniably authentic. She pointed to the digital display in the train which read "This train terminates at Dhoby Ghaut Station", and asked her helper if she understood the meaning of the word "terminate". When the helper responded in the negative, the employer said mentioned something to the effect of it being a synonym of the word "stop". She then went on, "just like if i terminate your contract, it means that i fire you."

I bet the helper will never forget this word.

s'porean sandwich

While it is true that the inverted commas in 'holidays' are there for a reason, the absence of any formal lessons and fixed hours this whole week is most certainly a welcome development, as at the least it does allow for more flexibility than usual, though it certainly doesn't necessarily mean that there's any less work to do.

Thanks to this elusive flexibility, i took the opportunity to have a rare mid-week run (as opposed to usually when i can only muster up the time, energy and resolve to do any meaningful exercise during the weekend). Duty still calls though, so this was a run to school, where i was due to have a consultation with some students. I was supposed to meet some of them at 9am so i left the house before 8am. Given the day of the week and the timing, i was not expecting there to be too many other people about. And true enough, that was the case. Of the fair amount of people who were around exercising though, i couldn't help but notice that at least 60% of them were angmohs. To see angmohs in itself is far from noteworthy, but the fact that there was such a large proportion of them (the majority of which were male) was a surprise to me. "Don't they have to work?" i thought to myself.

Now i trust that the answer to my question is that they just have very enlightened employers who pay far more importance to work-life balance than your typical Singaporean (or for that matter, Asian) boss (or that they are the bosses themselves, of course). It could also very well just be that they prioritise such a balance far more than most Singaporeans (myself included) do or feel obliged to do. But you can't help but wonder what exactly it is that they do. I still don't understand why i can see so many people (expats or otherwise) hanging around the pool or in the balconies of the condo right opposite my school at all hours of the day (i've better things to do than to observe their every move of course - seeing them is merely incidental to when i conduct lessons (and trust me, i am in school at all hours of the day so this is by no means an unqualified statement).

Let me just make clear that this is far from another of those anti-foreigner diatribes that many so-called 'netizens' seem to cough up, but is merely an observation on my part. I've nothing against foreigners (so many a time in Singapore i feel like one myself). It still is intriguing stuff (at least to me) though, that so many of them seem to have it so well over here. On the other end of the spectrum, many others in the non-Singaporean camp seem to have it so badly here too. That's another pressing story for another time though.

'holidays'

Yes, i am more free than i would otherwise be, hence the opportunity to type this ceremonial post. But the degree to which i am more free is token at best, and minuscule at worst, although the lack of any actual classes does have the tendency to put one in quite the mood for slacking, and hence i do feel more free than i probably am. On the plus side though, i actually have done at least some sort of meaningful work for every day since the last day of school of last term. Or is that on the minus side? Bah.