By Lee Shen Kai

Singapore, this small dot on the map, in my heart is the best place in the world. In this world, most countries live with a majority race, like how China have the Chinese and India have the Indians etc. But for Singapore, it is different, we have a multi-racial society! The Indians, Chinese, Malays and Eurasians. We may be small, the different races and religion let me experience a different life that only Singaporeans can understand. Even though our colour is different, but inside, is the same red blood, same passion to be a Singaporean.

With this mix of cultures, even me as a Singaporean, use some Malay words to express myself like ‘ulu’, meaning deserted, and ‘gila’, meaning mad. It may be a little bit offensive, but I think no other country mixes languages like we do, with Hokkien, Malay, Tamil and other languages. That’s what makes us special.

Singaporeans are known to be ‘kiasu’, Hokkien for afraid to lose. Yes we see this everyday at buses and Mrt’s, especially at the peak hours. And we create our own rules like “if my tissue paper is on the table it means I booked the table!” These are quite negative points, but these small things, it makes my life interesting.

Singapore is small, but we work hard as a nation, bringing Singapore to higher heights, hosting the F1 race and Youth Olympic Games (YOG), and even building a casino. Singapore wants to make us known to the world, and working towards that goal means hard work, but that will not stop us. I am proud to be a Singaporean, even though living here is not perfect, at least it is interesting!

EDITOR’S NOTE: Click on the blog title to access the Thumbs Up function to vote!