Australia now has racial ghettos that promote people not to assimilate into Australian culture. Cities have no go areas that are too dangerous to go at night.

Stick with your existing ways!!

If you want a better place and a place with opportunities you have to close your eyes and don’t look at injustices. Spanish people can complain and has freedom of speech but, who cares? at the end of the day politics will continue filling their pockets. We have public health that will tell you to come in 5 months. On the other hand, the labour protection can also affect productivity, efficiency and more jobs opportunities. With all these I am not saying what is right/wrong because there is no right/wrong.

Nouns have been stressed as verbs in the Singaporean accent, for instance “PROject” as “proJECT”. Applying the correct stresses, plus regular practice and exposure to the preferred accent (American or Brit) can make one sound more “English”.

No restrain, no inhibitions. Honestly, what kind of culture do you possess back there that makes for all this rudeness?

I would argue that Australia is more of a melting pot than not. Canada is the classic multicultural nation. In Canada, exactly what is Canada’s national culture is a huge debate. There is not a strong national culture as there is in Australia.

I’m not surprised that many Australians may feel “threatened” by so many Asians going there. It’s the same case as in Singapore, where Singaporeans don’t like it when foreigners come in and don’t assimilate well.

I think if you’re part of the dominant national culture, you’ll not be happy when others come in and don’t assimilate. That’s natural. Singapore is already a very small country. We do have a national culture. That’s what makes us Singaporeans. If Singapore loses its identity, then we have nothing to be proud of.

I do think that Singapore should aim to be a melting pot and keep having a distinctive culture. But the government is clearly, for pragmatic and economic purposes (what’s new!), promoting policies that will eventually erode any concept of Singaporean-ness. Maybe, to them, this is needed for our economic survival. Who knows. They may be right.

To echo Tat’s advice, just be yourself.

i live in HK and i have to say, though, when i meet up with my singaporean friends here, we’ll just naturally go into our Singlish mode. its just so natural and its something that bonds us.

But in the office, in business, talking to clients of different nationalities, i will make a conscious effort to avoid speaking Singlish. During business, i feel that people will take me more seriously if i were to speak proper English. Even in a casual setting, when i’m not with Singaporean friends, i will keep to proper English.

But back to this melting pot issue – indeed, i believe the melting pot way is the best. You may have to give up some sense of identity, as you become “Singaporean”, but there’s nothing wrong with that. its up to you to keep the Malay, Chinese or Indian in you. At the national level, its important to build a Singaporean psyche, a nationhood.

But sadly, after all these years, i read that LKY still feels we’re not a nation. I wonder why and who’s fault is it that keeps reminding us that we’re different people.

Eventually, the reader’s following comment is on technical merits much easily submittable to a newspaper in Singapore than locally:
“So, is a “melting pot” something new? Not for the USA surely.

However, nothing exists in the air and the economics (access to resources) dictates everything.

Meticulously preserving the jobs as a privilege inhereted by a biologically-dominated “community”, affects no pendulum for creating an underclass serving this community, which what is an institutional ground of the UK and its Anglo-sphere-belonged part of a British Commonwealth.”

Also, Singapore could be quite diverse. I have met Caucasians or Eurasians who grew up in Singapore and speak the same local standard as everyone else. You might get some stares if you sound like a local but hopefully no one will think you are mocking them.

Gerald: Thanks. I have been reading about the CMIO policy and the recent protests against it. Sadly I think without a call to arms from the Govt, efforts to forge a national identity are futile. But we must keep trying.