If I asked you to identify yourself in a single sentence, how would you describe yourself? No, I'm not talking about the typical characteristics of being friendly, caring, generous etc etc. That's so cliche, and in a way, we all think of ourselves of having at least one of those characteristics. I'm talking about identity as a person in today's society. For example, I'd identify myself as a student, a journalist, a female and an Asian.
Have you ever thought of what that identity means to you? In today's fast moving world, we're all so keen to grow and adapt we hardly take the time to smell the roses, in the figure of speech manner of course. Who and what makes us - society has created us, or have we created society? The inevitable question that will never have a definite answer.
I was once asked if I would identify myself as a Singaporean, a Chinese or an Asian, and my immediate answer was Chinese. I wasn't proud of being from Singapore, I almost detested the place. But moving to Australia has taught me so much, and I've learnt to appreciate the place I grew up in. To know that we truly are a multi-cultural country where our everyday lives consist of different cultures and races, and learning of them is almost a subscious thing.
Singlish, as we would call Singaporean English, is a complete mix of various languages - English, Malay, Hokkien, Cantonese and god knows what other slangs are included. It is so mixed to a point we sometimes are unsure of where the origin of the word is from. I would say Singlish is horrible to a certain extent, especially with the added meaningless words of la, lor, leh. But hey, ask a Caucasian to try adding that to their language and they won't be able to do it so that it means the way it should.
At the end of the day, I'm proud to have grown up in Singapore. We may be a dot on the map, but I sure as hell am a lot more knowledgable than many others from big countries. We don't exactly have a choice. When you're one of the smallest, you can't get any smaller and the only way to go is to grow.
Cheers Singapore, for being multi-cultural and accepting most every race with pride on our sleeves.
17 March 2006
Murphy's Law
Posted by
Cup That Cake
3:06 PM