Some parts of Singaporean culture, from everyday behavior to small eccentricities, may appear unusual to outsiders, but to Singaporeans, they are quite normal. This article will explain the ten most prevalent and peculiar habits of Singaporeans that are foreign to the rest of the globe.
1. Singaporeans can speak 5 different languages in a sentence
Language is just as vibrant in countries with widely varied cultures and ethnic groups. I spent my summer vacations as a child in Singapore with a multi-racial group of friends. We’ve figured out how to converse in many languages in a single sentence.
Every day with National Reconciliation, they all looked forward to seeing their peers dressed up in national costumes. They ask for the meaning of unfamiliar words in conversations, and another word or phrase is added to their vocabulary.
2. Everything has to end in “ones”
For example, this one, that one, which one, my one, your one. Which actually means, (is it), for the example above it will mean this is it, that is it, which is it. But for the word my one and your one simply means mine and yours.
3. There will be a question in every sentence
For example, Mother says to Son: You stupid or what?
Son to Mother: Like mothers like son or what?
4. Meals are not complete without a chili
Although in a tropical hot country all year round, everything we eat must have chili or must be spicy. If not, it is not nice at all. Even the meal is already spicy, chili on the side is still a must.
5. They call you boss
Be it at the kopi shop or in a departmental store, every customer is known as the boss. This applies even to neighborhood shops and even in taxis. For example, the taxi driver will ask the passenger: Boss, where you want to go. At the Kopi shop: Boss Kopi or Milo. At the departmental store: Boss, how can I help you?
This salutation of “boss” applies to both genders.
6. They call anybody older than them, uncle and auntie
You do not need to be related at all if you want to get somebody’s attention if the person older than you or sometimes at the same age group you will call uncle or auntie. But they are also cases when granny boards a taxi and call the driver’s uncle even though it is clear he is a lot younger than her. It is a form of respect.
7. We prefer to eat at the Hawker even on a hot sunny day
Hawker in Singapore is typically Kopi shops that sell various types of food at the void deck of HDB with no aircon and uncomfortable stools. It is not about the money but it is about the taste and culture that only a true Singaporean will understand.
8. Long Queue
Wherever and whenever there is a queue Singaporeans automatically fall in line not knowing if this is the queue for the lottery, free gif collection or to board a bus we just join the queue.
9. Singaporeans walk very fast
Because of our fast-paced society, we literally walk three times the speed of others same thing like we work three times harder than others that is why Singaporean have a very good market in foreign companies. Because Singaporeans are known to be fast and furious.
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