After having traveled around Europe for 2 months, I have met countless travellers who are eager to share their thoughts about fellow Singaporeans whom they have met along their journey.
It is clear that times have changed – most well-travelled people from all over the world no longer falsely recognize Singapore as a part China (the frustration!), but they are pretty educated about our exact location in the Southeast part of Asia, and know certain things about us – our beautiful skyscrapers modeled after New York City, and of course who would forget our strict chewing gum laws.
These are just a couple of things that international travelers I have met have said about people from sunny Singapore – some may be very pleasantly surprisingly.
1.Well traveled
This is certainly one of the biggest compliments to any traveler – that he/she is a well-travelled person.
This is a difficult feat to achieve, especially given our hectic lifestyles back in Singapore and the dismal lack of time to travel for extended periods of time, unless you really invest yourself into it and make sacrifices. The limited number of days that we can apply leave from our full-time jobs also makes this particularly difficult, almost impossible.
So hearing this from international travelers certainly took me by surprise – but it is always good to know that other Singaporeans they have met are going around the globe and exposing others to our Singaporean culture and personalities.
Interestingly, I’ve met a German and Swede on separate occasions speaking of a Singaporean man they have met, who have traveled for over 20 years and is one of the most intelligent and interesting man they have ever met.
Sounds to me like this is the same guy – Kudos for doing what you do and for giving others such an amazing impression on us fellow Singaporeans (although we may be nothing like you, authentic globetrotter)!
2. Open-minded
Many people have commented that the Singaporean travellers they have met were very open-minded and fun to talk to. I think this is especially applicable to fellow locals who have travelled a lot – because as we know, travel is the best education anyone can have.
3. Speak great English
This is a compliment of course, but it is also sometimes a little tiring to have to explain why Asian-looking Singaporean like ourselves speak English like it is our first language. Because it is!
We do have our Singlish, but it is ever more important to speak proper English when we are traveling (and anywhere, for that matter). Not only to be more easily understood (and not embarrass ourselves) but also to do us a huge favor and speak it the proper way.
4. The people to have great conversations with
This is definitely a compliment – but perhaps it is also partly attributed to the fact that we speak fluent English, hence we are able to communicate perfectly with most of the fellow English-speaking travellers and exchange our travel stories seamlessly.
5. Cute
This might sound cheesy, but “cute” is a word often used by international travelers to describe Singaporeans on the road that they have met.
I guess, maybe it’s our build, our accented English, our friendliness to strangers etc that make us seem approachable, harmless… and cute? Definitely not something to complain about, though.
6. Friendly and kind
My hostel owner in Budapest recalled this one time she hosted a Singaporean guest aside from me. He was a middle-aged man, and he was the most kind-hearted man she had ever met – and she even confessed that she almost fell in love with him.
He also was said to have a great sense of humor and was polite and courteous in every way. I felt honored to be associated with someone like him, who really made a mark in her years as a hostel owner and meeting people literally from every walk of life.
Turns out, we became really good friends as well and she hopes to live in Singapore one day.
7. Financially powerful
Singapore is well-known around the world to be an extremely modern, thriving city-state with a great economy. As such, it is perhaps true that most (I say, most) Singaporeans are financially able – that is why many of us are able to travel so frequently.
8. A city person
Yeah, sure Singapore is an extremely modern country at the forefront of technology – but sometimes you don’t expect people from opposites of the world to know much about us at all (since some of them still assume Singapore is part of China, or similar to our neighboring developing countries like Thailand).
To hear that Singaporeans come across as very technology loving, and all around “city person” is pretty accurate for the most of us. Let’s hope they don’t mean that we are spoilt rotten in constant pursuit for modern comforts!
This post was first published on Goodyfeed.com
Feature Image: http://lydiascapes.com/
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