This is gonna be kinda boring, so read on at your own peril. Now, it was recently reported that in some courtesy test conducted globally, Singapore came in placed 30th out of 35 nations. Surprised?
Yeah, I am damn shocked that Singapore is placed so "high". C'mon, I would expect Singapore to be more like 48 out of 50 countries. And what is the big fuss with New York being the city with the most gracious and well-mannered citizens? I've never been to NYC, but let's recount some experiences I've had in 3 years in Chicago.
1) It is standard practice for a person to hold the door for the person behind him. When going into lecture rooms, the person ahead would naturally stand there, holding the door open for 15 seconds even until I got to the door. An expression of "Thanks" would naturally follow.
2) When someone sneezes, someone around would say "Bless you". In Singapore, any person around Mr Sneeze would, as if it were some reflex action, move away, or stare at the person sneezing as if he were some disease.
3) Waitors and servers in restaurants engage in conversations while taking orders. Topics range from sports, movies and their preferred choice of food in the restaurant. The service is excellent, and makes you really feel at ease, but maybe that's cos we're obliged to give 15-20% tips?
4) Social grace is prevalent even among people in a rush. There was once when on board a bus, this woman fainted probably cos of lack of oxygen. Other commuters immediately alerted the driver, and called the paramedics, while some nurse on board immediately went to check on the unconscious woman. I didn't notice anyone glancing at their watches, or scrambling to get off the bus, or seeming damn irritated. In Singapore, expressions of "wah lao", "kns" or "suay leh" would be the order of the day.
5) I dare not say Americans are not kiasu, but when queues form, people line up in a orderly fashion. You don't see the shoving and pushing and squeezing to be ahead of the order kind of shit you see so much here. They pretty much accept it if they are all the way behind .... you don't see much queue cutting except for the ******
I guess there is probably more to talk about, and I am sure Singapore does have some graces, but you can obviously tell I am rather bored to be talking about this. So for now, I am gonna go back to a Brief History of Time, inspired to read this once again after watching the documentary "The Hawking Paradox" last week.
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