I’m from Singapore
A couple of years ago, while working in a restaurant, a typical English bloke asked me, "Where are you from?" As anyone from another country in the UK would say, "I’m from Malaysia". A blanked out face quickly emerged, leaving me to assume he wasn’t sure where Malaysia is on the map. Hence this famous reply from me, "Do you know where is Singapore?"…..then later I said, "Do you know where is Thailand?"…. as he nodded twice for comfirming where these 2 countries are, I dropped the bomb saying, "Malaysia is in the middle".
Subsequent similar question from countless people I met along the way in this country, be it customers at the restaurants, strangers that I had friendly chats with, online acquaintances and fellow new casual friends usually from pubs and clubs, I slowly and consciously said that I am from Singapore.
Singapore, in the eyes of the western world is a top performing nation in Asia in many fields- economy, tourism, business profile and education. I can’t say I’m from Taiwan because I know little about the nation and I can’t say I’m from Thailand because I can’t speak Thai. When I’m bored saying Singapore, I will occasionally say Hong Kong.
It’s all about image association. You know when we were in school, we wanted to be associated with the in crowd or at least try to be interesting people. It’s the same in this situation. I’m not saying I don’t like Malaysia because that is where my family and friends are and also I want to spend my remaining days there since it has low living expenses standard compared to the UK and Singapore.
Until then, you can expect to watch me or knowingly know that I will continue to shout that I’m from Singapore. No Malaysia, no Kuala Lumpur, no Langkawi, no Penang and certainly no Klang because no English person would know where it is. Trying to explain where Malaysia is to other nationalities can sometimes be more of a hassle, I tell you the truth.
But hey, you miss the point by now. I didn’t say I lived in the island for how many years. I only said I’m from Singapore, not a Singaporean. Most of the time, people failed to probe further to my claim without realising that I only spent around 3 days in Singapore in 2000.
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