Looking for other unhappy expats. Are you there?

[globalcitizen208]

OK lah, I think you are missing the point here... I think you misunderstood jdroger.

But hey, why don't you just leave us alone in our little expats thread and go and defend Good Ol Singapore somewhere else? We know you love your country, we love ours too and its hard to love yours when we think ours is a little better (even if its slightly better)

my 2 cents worth

[familyof5]

my 2 cents worth

which currency would that be in GC?

[sundaymorningstaple]

This thread almost sounds like it is from the Angry board (our namesake reversed). Only difference is that all the slagging of each other is from registered users!

[seahorse]

Me too, very unhappy and very lonely and very bored. People don't even greet good morning even if I said it to them. And don't you find it annoying that people walk very slow and block your way and the escalator?!!! And the hairdressers, they don't know how to blow dry properly oh, and i thought i'm the only person who's complaining about the chair and desk at work being too low! Lucky the body massage is affordable.

[welshlass]

SMS- are they slagging each other??
guess u lost yr compassion after being here too long!

[nani_teratai]

the world is round. the same as a circle. try drawing a circle on a paper.. there's no endings. neither there's a head nor a tail.. no matter where we go, we are always complaining. complaining things aren't as good as we are always used to have or do because we always think that wherever we go.. things will be the same just like home.

"there's no place like home" or " home sweet home"....

home is like a paradise.. but there are quite a number of people don like their homes whenever problem arises.. but when they are far away from home, they will come to realise that home is the best place and starting to appreciate it.

Every end of this world, from west to east.. north to south.. there are bounds to have many unpleasant things that we are gonna face. For instance, many of you people complaining about how bored or bad Singapore is.. but u know.. there are many unhappy Singaporeans out there.. Just that.. we don't know until we came to know them.

It's vice versa should a Singaporean goes to Europe, China or USA or anywhere in the world, definitely he/she will complains too.. Hence, we just have to accept and adapt the culture, traditions, lifestyle of each individual countries. Most importantly is the respect.

So live your life to the fullest.. try do something which worth while, there are many activities u can take part or enrol... u'll never know that the place u hate most can be the place you like most..

cheers!!!

rgds,
erna

[maneo]

I am still very unsettled after being here for 4 months. I speak all asian languages fluently, but still people here exclude you if you are not "singaporean".
. . .

thanks for the thread..... we can all do it! 18 months is do-able. And hopefully we will all get enriching experience out of this.

All Asian languages fluently???
Simply amazing.

I would think you should be making conversation so easily knowing Hokkien, Cantonese, Teochew and Hakka.
I would expect locals to be amazed at a foreigner knowing any one of these.

Unless you're an Asian from overseas, that is.
Then it's, "you're not Singaporean, are you?"

Of course there might not be so much opportunity to use your Wu, Mongolian, Lao or Khmer abilities.
How's your Tibetan?


It is difficult to be included in things by locals.
They're just not into entertaining tourists at the individual level.

[LLin]

Truth be Told

The reason why some of you expats are so unhappy here is -
you clearly suffer from Ethnocentrism ie the belief or attitude that your culture is superior to others, which is one of the greatest barriers to cross cultural understanding.
What you need is cultural sensitivity training which your husbands company ought to provide for you to alleviate you from your self inflicted misery.

Asiapat

As the cliche goes, what's stopping you? Is it the money?

Actually shocking as it may be to some locals, we all aren't here for the money. In fact, I could be making a lot more working in Europe as I was before coming here.

The case is that many of us have spouses that were sent here by their companies and we, of course, came with our spouses. So unfortunately, we can't get the hell out of this creepy place. Instead, we have to go through every day here wanting to scream at the locals about rudeness, lack of service, and just in general this being a 2nd class world compared to what most of us know.

So you can take your second rate Singapore dollar and keep it if that means that I can get on a plane tonight and get the hell out of here.

jdroger1...You are seriously cracking me up...Keep it up...Please..I need the laughs..

[sierra2469alpha]

"there's no place like home" or " home sweet home"....

Nana - in our case, "Home is where we are living, our next home is where we make it"

We love it here so I'll keep this posting short - You have great sentiments - loved your circle one

P & C

[edited: clarity]

[jpatokal]

When I said you "could keep your second rate Singaporean dollar", I actually meant you could shove it where the sun don't shine because your money is a joke to anyone from the rest of the first world.

You sure the joke's on Singapore here? Looks to me like it's the "first world" currency that's been going down the drain for five years and counting:

http://finance.yahoo.com/currency/conve ... amt=1&t=5y

[notwavingdrowning]

Please..just let us be...for the third time... this thread was created as a safe place for expats to speak freely about their experiences and difficulties of life here in Singapore. There is safety in numbers now- we know we are not alone in our feelings. I have said it before and will say it again- Locals or expats for that matter who wish to criticize us for speaking our minds are not welcome on this thread- they have this entire forum to express themselves- We have every right to express ourselves in peace. The thread is called "Unhappy Expats" for a reason...

[sundaymorningstaple]

SMS- are they slagging each other??
guess u lost yr compassion after being here too long!

Guess you haven't read the entire thread as usual, right welshlass?

I'm talking about the locals slagging the expats who are complaining. As was pointed out this WAS an Expat Whinge thread so it should only be expats whinging right? What does being here too long have to do with locals slagging expats?

Or did you misunderstand my post........

[jdroger1]

Thanks SMS and Notwavingdrowning for again emphasizing that this is a whinge thread.

Please locals, just stay off of it. You aren't going to like what you read. That's just a fact. We don't want to hear your defend your country, we don't want to debate your country, we just want to talk to each other so we know that we are not so alone in our displeasure of this country.

and LLin,
most expats are typically well traveled people to begin with, so Ethnocentrism isn't always the clear cut case that you believe it is. I myself have lived in 5 different countries. It's not that I don't understand your culture, I just don't like it. There is a clear difference.

[maneo]

Please..just let us be...for the third time... this thread was created as a safe place for expats to speak freely about their experiences and difficulties of life here in Singapore. There is safety in numbers now- we know we are not alone in our feelings. I have said it before and will say it again- Locals or expats for that matter who wish to criticize us for speaking our minds are not welcome on this thread- they have this entire forum to express themselves- We have every right to express ourselves in peace. The thread is called "Unhappy Expats" for a reason...

You may think otherwise, but the thread's title looks like an open invitation for expat bashing ("re-education").
Since this is an open forum, it really isn't a safe place.
There isn't anything you can do to stop others' critical expressions just as they cannot stop you.
You can only hope that they oblige your wishes.

Suggest you repeat your invitation and ground rules at the top of each new page.
The longer this thread gets, the less likely one would read from the beginning.

[Global Citizen]

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