A pound found at the entrance of the National Orchid Garden, an exhibit at the Singapore Botanic Gardens.
Entrance to the Sembcorp Cool House which contains rare orchids from Malesia, Continental Southeast Asia and South Asia, Australasia, Afrotropics and the Neotropics.
There were a lot of tourists from all over the world visiting the garden while we were there.
The pound found inside the house which showcases many other plants as well as coins dropped by the visitors.
Watching the movie Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong with my friend.
The two characters in the film brought up the different biases in immigrants and expats labels. I believe that classism plays a part when calling someone who is more educated and wealthy an 'expat' while people who are less educated or poor are labelled immigrants.
The film brought up how beingĀ a banker is glamourous even though they are working overtime. I too had this bias as I always thought having an office job comes with financial security and comfortable living. I never thought deeper about how unbalanced the work culture can be.
Discussing with my friends about the biases that were brought up during the film.
One of the card games that was played during the activity.
Playing a Singaporean made card game called Huat's Up with other Temasek students from other countries.
Playing another Singaporean card game called Kopi King with my new friends in my group.
A case study that my group discussed on regarding stereotypes in Singapore and each other's countries.
Psychological: SBG vs Singapore Hawker Centres
I visited Singapore Botanic Gardens (SBG) with my friend and researched on the hawker culture in Singapore. After visiting, I was surprised when I saw people buying food not associated with their own race as I thought people would rather eat food familiar to their culture. I was left questioning why this habit was common within the different cultures in Singapore as my initial thought was that Singaporeans were more conservative and would chose to abide by their own cultural norms instead of intermingling with others. However, after applying the psychological capital and researching on hawker centres myself, I noticed that the hawker centre is a communal space for the different cultures in Singapore to interact in. Therefore, if I had not been curious and done my own research, I would not have discovered something heartwarming in Singapore's cultural history.
Cognitive: Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong
After watching the movie, I got a snippet of what Hong Kong's working life was like. In the movie, the character explained how as glamorous as a high-paying job can be, the work-life balance in Hong Kong is unsteady in reality. I had always thought that the work life balance outside of Singapore would be better but I was surprised to find out that it was quite similar. After doing more research on the work culture in Hong Kong, I found out that many people in Hong Kong actually feel burnt out from working long hours during their shift and would rather work a job that allows them to balance their personal life as well. I have learned in opening up my mind, by applying the cognitive capital, that the work life balance in Hong Kong is very similar to Singapore's in terms of overworking employees, setting high expectations of their employees and blurring the healthy line between work and personal time. A possible reason to this could be because of how similar the working lifestyle is in Asian countries.
Social: Golden Friendship
I took part in an activity with international students in my school to play board games and get to know each other's culture in more depth. During the activity, I noticed that my new friends were reserved when I tried to get to know them. When we were discussing about the case study regarding stereotypes, I brought up how people mistake me for being Chinese because of my skin colour. My friend then added on that he felt the same way but on a deeper level as he was from Myanmar and he had faced racism from his own people because of his darker skin tone. I felt a deeper connection and mutual understanding with him regarding how people tend to stereotype others just because they look different from what they perceive as 'correct'. Using the social capital, it opened my eyes that racism can still be instilled in people of your own race in other countries and it actually helped my friend in opening up more and actually talking more to me due to our shared experiences.