I've been meaning to blog about this but just didn't had the time to do so. Anyway, yesterday, I went all the way to this really far end of singapore; absolutely god forsaken place called Jurong West (Street 51) to do a survey at Citispa. Funny that i'm an accounting student and i've got to do marketing related stuff. But as Hwang(my advanced management accounting prof who has assigned us to do this project) would always say, non-financial information is most of the time, the most crucial information for decision making and analysis of the firm. ok..ho hums.. point taken.
What was really interesting about my experience was from my interaction with a Malaysian receptionist at Citispa and several other customers. Killing time and trying my best to rush my accounting theory summary, I sat at one corner typing furiously onto my laptop. After about an hour or so, the receptionist started to chat with me. She was from Malaysia; just arrived in Singapore a couple of months ago;20 years old;limited knowledge of English; doesn't have the least academic attainment of O'Levels; and she's paid about 1k+ each month. She broke the ice by asking me to help her translate the meaning of 'chao you yu'. I said 'fired'. Rather proud of herself, she wrote down a short sentence stating- " Today, Specs was (I had to help her with the tense) fired". She began lamenting about how a fellow colleague of hers was fired for no rhyme or reason and finding much difficulty to seek some form of recourse such as compensation. According to her, she said that there was indeed something stated in the contract in which the firm would compensate the employee upon immediate termination. Of course, the lady boss, apparently a lawyer, was sharp enough to have drafted the contract towards her favour. Going on to another topic, she sat beside me and read out loud the stuff that I've had typed out on my laptop. She admired our standard of English and she wished that she's alot more educated, and have a laptop to enhance her leaning ability. Interdependently, this comes with one having a good financial cushion to attaining a higher level of education; which she doesn't really have. She finds the job tough, but not the least bit challenging. She aspires to work in a bank as a low level staff and work her way through to becoming a manager. We talked about Singaporean men VS Malaysian guys. She voiced out that Singaporean men are too open minded for her liking (in her malaysian slang she said 'une nite stan is veli common') and hanging out with their friends would just get her lost altogether in the midst of singlish, english and more complicated issues.
I feel sympathetic towards her. I'm sympathetic towards the limitations she's got to face because of the lack of education-socially, lack of protection for herself as an employee, wanting to learn more things but doesn't have the prerequisite level of education or financial means. Yet, I admire her drive to constantly learn; to accept the hardship faced; to be brave enough to step across the borders and search for a better future; her humbleness and her aspiration; her sisterhood and kindness to her fellow colleages. I know of so many well educated people who doesn't even have half of the drive she has. On the other spectrum, I surveyed a young Chinese girl from China who was here for facial. Though she's in our country to search for a better standard of living, she detests studying and will never ever want to touch any books. Perspectives differ, priorities of many levels. Though I used to work in Spinelli and have seen many of my colleagues having to raised their families whilst earning 5 bucks an hour, somehow along the way, I kinda forgot about things and took my privileges for granted. I'm blessed. I'm lucky. I should slap myself if I ever start complaining. *bish*.