Being in Singapore???

Many Chinese come to sunny Singapore to earn a living. Some like Singapore, some don't. In fact, when I first came to Singapore, I dislike it (see my post on "New kid on the block"). I had to share a room with eight people, I had to work long hours, no friends, I had to queue long hours to use the bathrooms and the weather is so hot and humid, that it just saps your energy away, my bed had bed bugs etc... etc.... And to top it all off, the stress of having not enough money to pay off my debt, adds on to the dislike for being here.

However, as time goes on, I felt that being here isn't all that bad. The people are generally nice and I made many good friends. Even the Chinese (from China) tend to be closer knit now that most of us are away from home. While the pay is low by Singapore standards, it is high going by what we can earn in China. As stated earlier, I earn about RMB800 per month in China while here I earn the equivalent in SGD, which is about 5 times more.

Now that my debt is paid, Singapore is not bad at all. My sister, who had me to pick her up from the airport, and a place to stay and me to cook for her, loves being here, despite the hard work. She is lucky in the sense that she never had to go through the initial culture shock, many of us face. Some of my new colleagues think being in Singapore is fine but not on a long term basis... the pressure and stress is just too great!

I came across many new Chinese workers who initially dislike being here. I try to council them, telling them I felt exactly the same before but now, things are a lot better once you get used to it. Being without any good qualifications, there is no way we can earn this kind of money in China. So with 2 years to pay my debts and another 2-4 years of hard work, earning and saving, I should have a healthy sum to bring home and either start a small business or buy a house. It's a little sacrifice we all have to make to realize our dreams!

I had some new Chinese colleagues recently and decided to ask them about their initial experience in Singapore. The above were their answers.

Everything can be good or bad depending on how you look at it. A glass of water can be half full or half empty... it all depends on how you look at it. Looking at things positively gives you energy and strength to live life to the fullest! Looking at it negatively, saps your energy, breaks you down and makes everything look gloomy!

I'm coming to Singapore again!

So many things have happened these recent few weeks, I've hardly have time to update my past working experience.

I've been wrting about finding a job in Singapore and I've had several miserable failures... but recently I had two good opportunities. One was from my agent who who called recently about a job at a bar/pub. I mentioned this earlier in one of my earlier posting.

I also made several calls to companies in Singapore and finally, one company was looking for a Chinese worker. It's a company manufacturing and selling bread and it has a few branches in Singapore. The job seems tough with working hours from 9am to 9pm with pay of SGD800 per mth plus SGD150 for lodging allowance. Also, it is seven days a week work except for 2 off-days a month. As I had made this contact on my own, I do not have to pay the hefty agent's fee but the company still require an agent's help to settle some papers. According to the company, the fee is SGD1,000 which I will have to bear as well as the airticket. This is of course much less than the SGD8,000 I have to pay if I had the agent help me find the job!

"I was so happy I went out to pick a nice water melon from the farm to share with my family!"

I've decided to take up this offer as I'm still a little skeptical about the "bar/pub" job. My feeling is that many pubs in Singapore will run for a couple of years and then either change location or close down. I really want a job that is long term in order that I can save some money to bring home some time in the future.

So, in taking up this offer, the company has said that they wanted me to start work as soon as possible. I've booked my ticket and will be in Singapore this coming Wednesday. I will update again once my job is firm and everything is running well. Hmm... I was so happy I went out to pick a nice water melon from the farm to share with my family!

My sister is still waiting for news on the bar/pub job and she should know in a few weeks if she will be able to come to Singapore as well. I certainly hope she is able to come as well. Somehow, having a close member of the family around helps alot in a foreign land (even though Singapore is now quite familiar to me after working here for 2 years already).