Image from HWZ.
So this happened the other day. One of my friends brought his new girlfriend to meet us for dinner.
All names have been changed to protect the guilty and also the innocent.
Tom,“Hi guys, this is my new gf - Penchan.”
Me, “oh hello hello.”
Dick, (In mandarin) “Wah bro, which Thai club you went and find this siam bu (Thai Lady, commonly used to describe Thai Ladies who work at a Thai-Disco). Quite hot leh!”
Penchan, (Apparently understands mandarin), “You Singaporean men are so typical and full of yourself. Just because I am an attractive Thai lady means I am from Thai-Disco!” #offendedaf
Tom left the scene chasing after Penchan. It was very very very awkward. Although I did not verbalise it loudly like Dick did, it did somewhatcross my mind too. We are such horrible people. In Dick’s defence, Tom could have given us a warning. Not exactly good enough an excuse but probably the only way Dick could make himself feel a bit better about the whole incident.
So apparently Tom has been traveling within Asean quite a bit for work recently. He met Penchan when he was working in Thailand and they soon fell in love and got into a relationship. I cannot believe this man is in a long distance relationship. Like seriously, I cannot even handle having a girlfriend who stays in Bukit Batok.
Talking about working in Asean did bring back quite a bit of memories for myself. Although I was never exactly an expat living in any of the Asean countries, I do have good working relationships with many business partners in Thailand, Philippines, and obviously Malaysia over the last few years of my career.
Working in Asean Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Media Trip to the Philippines with Bloggers and SPH.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Media Trip to Bangkok with Bloggers and AirAsia. (Also don’t ask me why I was the only guy there.)Clik here to view.
I know how it looks. The pictures does not say much about me “working” overseas. But hey, who take pictures of themselves working in front of the computer anyway?
Stronger currency
Working overseas and going overseas on a holiday are so different. I mean for starters, I managed to save so much when I was working overseas. I would eat the cheapest crap I could find and go to places the locals would for work meetings. And given that I was being paid in Singapore dollars, working overseas wasn’t bad at all ya’know. It is really one of those moments that you will feel so good about being Singaporean because of strong currency.
That cross culture thing
Understanding their market and target audiences might be one of the most important things for a marketeer, but that is not all. The style, the culture, the way that the people work in other countries can beso different.
Even something as simple as the choice of Instant Messenger could be so different. I had to use LINE just to talk to the Thais, and of course WeChat when talking to my counterparts in China.
You know I once spent hours talking to this potential Thai partner whomt I was trying to work with but we did not even discuss anything related to the project at all? It is always relationship first for them. And the actual work meeting took a real short time. LOL.
That whole language thing
It is really not impossible. My ex-biz partners survived years working in Thailand without actually mastering the Thai language. A huge number of people in Asean can actually speak and write English pretty well.
Why Asean?
What I’ve mentioned earlier are obviously the smaller and more trivial stuff. I believe that gaining experience out of Singapore is always good. It is a valuable experience and one shall never say no when the opportunity is served on a silver platter. Such experience makes you grow, makes you understand the world and yourself better, and last but not least, you will grow to appreciate Singapore a lot. You will realize the beauty of your once hated bureaucracy in Singapore. HAHA.
From a bigger picture, you may have forgotten about this but this was the speech made by our PM Lee Hsien Loong during the 2019 Shangri-La Dialogue
“Singapore cannot afford to adopt the same point of view. Being small, we are naturally disadvantaged in bilateral negotiations. We need to reform and strengthen multilateral institutions, not cripple or block them. More fundamentally, confining ourselves to a bilateral approach means forgoing win-win opportunities which come from countries working together with more partners. We need to build a broader regional and international architecture of cooperation. When groups of countries deepen their economic cooperation, they will enhance not just their shared prosperity but also their collective security. With more stake in one another’s success, they will have greater incentive to uphold a conducive and peaceful international order. This will benefit many countries big and small.”
In a very blatant manner, the bigger countries can effectively live without you and they will probably not miss you at all. However, it is probably a better idea for smaller countries like those in Asean to stick close and forge a strong bond.
LIT Asean
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
This picture, like my mirror, is a constant reminder that I really need to lose weight.
I was part of LIT Asean earlier this October. I was there for the ASEAN Mentorship.
In official words: The ASEAN Mentorship is an expanded version of the existing Young NTUC Youth Career Network (YCN) programme. The ASEAN mentorship will connect 400 youths with ASEAN Career Guides who have had work experience in the ASEAN region. Career Guides includes young Singaporeans and young professionals from ASEAN countries such as Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam. Participants will also be given the option to be matched to a career guide for a 4-month mentorship after the networking session at the event.
Partnering Temasek Foundation, Young NTUC launched the Temasek Foundation - NTUC Workforce Programme: LIT ASEAN Careers. The programme’s objective is to raise awareness on the growing opportunities in the ASEAN region and to encourage more youths to progress their career in this region.
In my words: I was there to kaypo and talk to youths again.
It was quite an interesting experience. It might be the law of attraction and also the natural filter of the event. The youths I spoke to at the event show great interest in working out of Singaporean and in Asean for experience. I do not think the online narrative where “Singaporeans are being driven out of their own country while we are welcoming people from overseas.” is true at all. Most of the youths I have spoken to understand the importance of gaining experience out of Singapore’s market. I think this is especially important for people in the marketing industry. With digital and social media being used widely by the industry, you need to know how to work with people outside of our own country and culture. And with the small market size, there is no surprise here when brands choose to consolidate their marketing efforts.
I am glad that our government knows better and is supportive of us venturing into ASEAN countries to gain experience and return to add value to Singapore.
And also, in case you find this article really boring, here is a picture of me as Siam Bu in trash bag taken during my DnD.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
P.S. I am still a respectable person at work.
I think.