So I've decided NOT to come up with an entry about the different kinds of shit that people pass out. However, I HAVE decided to give my two cents worth on a very special group of students.
These students spend a good quarter of their lives studying in the States before coming here and choosing to enrol into what we Singaporeans know as...International Schools.
Schools like UWC (SEA), ISS, CIS, SAS and the like.
And did I mention most of the time, they're probably very lucky to come from rich families?
Either way...because the Greenback will always be stronger than the Singapore dollar.
Now, indisputedly, this is the conclusion that I have gathered from my 5 years of observation. Whether you believe it or not, I HAVE spent the last five damned years going out with international students (some of whom are my friends) and actually hypothesizing if there was a correlation between foreign students, and the willingness/ability to take a bus or hop onto a train.
And the conclusion, is this- That international students, PARTICULARLY those from the SAS, aren't at all, in any way, locally public transport saavy. Meaning? They're pretty dumb when it comes to finding their way around the country by bus or train; especially within the heartland areas.
Now, because no official statistics are available, this would make my observation a non-normative statement. Which would mean that 1) It is purely opinionized, 2) It's baseless and 3) It may or may not be accurate to some.
However, I do want to stand behind the fact that a hypothesis, IS a hypothesis. In essence, this observation which I have just put forward, may be tested in order to determine its weight and worth. Can it hold it's water? I am probably very sure about that. (Ironic, isn't it?).
Now, as I have mentioned, this obscure and unusual phenomenon isn't new. In fact, just about every SAS student I know has loathed sitting in a bus just to get from Woodlands MRT station, to the school. OR they have shirked off any idea of taking a train from Bishan, to Orchard Road. Either, you get the idea that some of them are just plain stupid and are very poor at navigation around an island that is only 21kilometres long and 44kilometres wide.
I have therefore decided to christen this baffling behaviour, 'International Students' Syndrome'.
Take a look the next time you go out with a friend from one of these places and be sure to ask them, "Hey, did you get here by cab?"
Not only would you be surprised by what you'd find, you'd also soon notice that most of them simply have no clue about the public transport system here, despite the fact that a good handful of them have lived here long enough to know what friggin Char Kway Teow is.
I'll tell you what. Think about it. If I had a dollar for everytime someone has replied me with an answer to the question I have just posed above, in the positive, I'd be rich beyond my wildest dreams.
But of course, that would just be a very crude estimation.
Before I conclude, this message goes out to Chatsworth International students and SOME UWC ones-
Be proud of yourselves because you have not made yourselves idiots by learning how to get around on long, four-wheeled vehicles that provide a mode of getting around for 1.5million people known as, 'COMMUTERS'.
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Tuesday, April 25, 2006
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