Singapore Difference - Part 1: Time

It has been four months since the day I came to Singapore to proceed the second part of my thesis. Time flies so fast, it has been 2/3 of the process already. During last four months, I have had so many experiences, both good and bad ones, about this beautiful and modern country.yet, it's not time when I can sit and think attentively about my achievements about failures yet, neither time for telling you my memorable moments I've got throughout activities with friends in Singapore. It's just a start for the whole series about Singapore, both in structure, people, and cultures, from a point of view of a normal Vietnamese student, to let you have an imaginary image about Singapore.
This is also my tribute to two of those beautiful countries I love, Vietnam and Singapore.
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Singapore difference – Part 1: Time

What is it about Singapore time? If you have a bit knowledge about Asian geography, you will quickly come up with one short answer:"It's one hour faster than Vietnam, since Singapore's timezone is GMT+8" :-). Yes, that answer is precise and undeniable, but if it's just that, I don't have to start such a new note ^_^, right?
Singapore welcomes the dawn at 6am+, and the dark comes at 8pm, it means you can still see sunlights at 6pm, and enjoy the brightsky or twilight at 7pm ^_^. That would be normal to some countries in the world, but to me, it’s really surprising when I first came here in July 2009. Back there in Vietnam, I always got used to seeing the first sunlight at 5h30am (and it’s 5am for the dawn in Nha Trang, my hometown and the first city to welcome new day in Vietnam ^_^) and travel in dark at 6pm.
Likewise, Sinagpore daily activities schedule is also different. Apart from some companies begin their working time at 9am, most of people’ daily works get started at 10am, and end up really late at 7pm. Thus, each person here will have nearly 9-10 hours to enjoy their works, including 1 hour break for lunch. As for the short break, people here don’t have the habit of napping like some of us. That made us feel really uneasy at first, though we got used to it shortly. Just imagine, how can people work 9-10 hours per day, and continuously in a week, in a month, and the whole year? But, in fact, they can :-).
During those times at work, they can also take part in their work really seriously. For four months I did experience their outstanding endurance, and high concentration to their works, among those Singaporean I have had a chance to meet and work with. Even I myself still feel breethless working in a team with them, despite of being considered a buffalo when I was in Vietnam, based on my durability. Not like some of the public and national companies in our countries, where officers are supposed to have spare times to gossip, sip the coffee and read newspaper in morning, or easily end up a day at 4pm to take care of personal interest, people here who work for public companies seem not have any free time to do those stuffs. Some of my friends also feel frustrated and streetful with a pile of work they have to solve in a mean time.
As their routine, Singaporean also leads a fast pace of living. They think fast, eat fast, walk fast, talk fast, and do stuffs fast. Even when walking around with a group of friends, they also move really fast. They would like to have a small lunch, or ever just a piece of Pao, yet can save time to do their own stuffs in break time, rather than a heavy lunch for their stomach and health. Some of them will force you to keep track up the group’s or team’s project, or even just a daily talk. If you want to talk anything to my professor aka supervisor to my thesis, you should talk fast enough before he comes up with new ideas in his mind ^_^.
For this pace of life, people will easily get stressed, breethless and frustrated while they are learning to get used to this dynamic environment. If you intend to go to Singapore to work, to study, or to live, or do whatever you will do, be familiar with it :-).
KH