[blisterpeanuts]

gtuckerkellogg, thanks for your posting. I'm curious -- have you learned Mandarin or Malay language during your stay, enough to communicate extensively?

It was my experience living in Taiwan for two years that language is a significant requirement for understanding the culture, even when English is commonly spoken among the educated classes.

In my opinion, a month really isn't long enough to evaluate a country, even a small one such as Singapore.

[gtuckerkellogg]

I've learned to speak Mandarin, but not Malay. I can read and write enough to read the Chinese newspaper and sing karaoke. It's helpful: it breaks down a lot of cultural barriers, and makes chatting with cab drivers more fun. It also makes the Singlish more understandable. There's a lot of Singaporean English that borrows from Chinese word order, which in western English sounds harsh even though the Chinese word order (in Chinese) uses it as an expression of politeness. E.g., "Go to lunch, can or not?"

[blisterpeanuts]

We used to talk that way in Taiwan, as a joke. I would amuse my Chinese friends by taking famous pop songs (Beatles, etc.) and singing them in my clumsy Chinese. They would roar with laughter. I think and believe they were laughing with me.

[gtuckerkellogg]

Obviously, Dover can live where he chooses, and like the places he chooses. I don't begrudge him his preferences. But the shallow armchair-quarterbacking from someone who has clearly made no serious effort to have a substantive experience of a place? That I could do without.

After I posted my comment, I read his Life List, his About page, and other parts of his site, and realised that Dover's entire schtick is to promote an utterly self-absorbed worldview, so the lack of perspective is not really about Singapore.

[blisterpeanuts]

Yes, I had the same impression.

The thing is, after two years as a Westerner in an Asian country, I felt as though I was completely unqualified to judge the people and the country who had so impressed me with their courtesy, grace, and humility.

The longer you stay in a country, the more you realize that it's difficult to generalize. A one week or one month visit confers a certain shallow impression which is easy enough to express. A year or two can dramatically change one's outlook.