My fourth HY2254 (Popular Culture in Singapore) response paper required me to watch this 1998 Singapore film titled, Forever Fever (That's the Way I Like it). Class viewings of the show are taking place on Monday through Wednesday, but due to the fact that I was supposed to be travelling with my grandparents on those days, I had to find my own time to watch the movie.

Alas this morning, the DVD was shown as on-hold in the library, so I wasn't too sure what to do - with the paper due on Friday, today was the only day I could watch it assuming I was going away on Sunday.

Not wanting to give up all hope, I called up the library to see if there was anything that could be done. The librarian said she'd have to call me back.

Some fifteen minutes later my phone rang and I was informed that I could indeed view the DVD in-library today. She mentioned that she informed the loans desk that I would be coming down to pick up the DVD.

Happy and relieved at this (I was contemplating going to Vivo City to try to find a place to buy the movie), I thanked her and then got dressed and went to eat my breakfast. Two egg prata with curry is always a safe choice.

After that, I headed down to the central library and over to the loans desk to inquire about my DVD. And what do you know, the staff at that desk had just lent it out to someone else who came by thinking that the person who asked for the DVD was me. I'd have to come back in a few hours time to pick it up after they returned it... This time, she took my name down so as to not lend it out to any other person.

Tried to kill time by picking up a birthday card for my grandfather, and then going back home to pick up my laptop's DVD drive, and then trying to look up some additional resources for the response paper.

Finally after what seemed like too long, I got a call informing me that I could pick up the DVD.

Went up to the loans desk, and what do you know there were yet more people (two girls) wanting to take the DVD out to watch it. Of course, the librarian wouldn't give it to them as it was reserved by name this time around. But being as reasonable as I am, I agreed that we all could watch the DVD together.

Walking away from the desk to find a place to watch the movie, one of the girls asked me if I was an exchange student. Yes, I replied. Not really a strange question, and one that I'd come to expect. But what I did not expect was when her friend responded in a bit of surprise asking her friend how she knew that I was an exchange student. Her friend responded that she saw my student number on my matric (student) card. The letters "NT" denoting that I was a non-graduating exchange student.

This surpised me a bit, because before seeing my student number, they were both actually inclined to think I was a local student. It's a given that I do look more local than my Caucasian friends (after all, both my parents grew up as "true-blue" Singaporeans). But typically, my accent should give it away that I was not raised in Singapore. That either means I'm losing my Canadian accent (I'm going to be in big trouble from my mom if I do), or that they weren't really paying attention to my accent.

At any rate, we went to watch the movie. And despite the frequent audio problems we experienced during the film, it was a fairly entertaining movie. Perhaps for it's silliness. And of course, you have your typical Asian stigma of living up to your parents expectations shining through certain aspects of the movie. But I'll leave that discussion for my response paper.

One of the girls commented on how Singaporean the movie was, and asked if I understood any of the Hokkien in the movie. Unfortunately, being as limited as my Hokkien is, I think the only thing I understood correctly was whenever the grandmother commented on how someone wasn't eating. Only because I somehow know that "chiat" (or something sounding like that) is to eat (I've heard this term so many times at my parents' cell group meetings growing up), probably 吃. And then my Mandarin picked up the rest of what probably equated to 他 or 你, and 没.

And then of course there is "ah moh," which I know from childhood as well. And although I knew the meaning, it didn't click in me as to what it meant till later, but I also should have known "ah gua." However, thankfully, I don't know "ah gua" from childhood. Rather, from another Singaporean movie, I Not Stupid... because the "ah moh" pronounced "ba gua" as "ah gua" during his marketing presentation which completely frustrated the client.

Luckily, not much more Hokkien in the show. But then there were apparently some other nuances that I didn't understand. One of them being a scene where the main character has a fight with his parents for always coming home late for dinner, which is supposed to be at 6:30. The phrase 6:30 is thrown around a lot, in particular with respect to the main character's job, dreams, etc.

The girl next to me later explained that in Chinese, there is a play on words for 6:30 that uses the same sounds as the words for a half-full bucket of water. So the implication is that you're never really doing anything properly, etc. Unfortunately, I can't remember the exact Chinese phrase she told me (it's not 六点半).

After returning the movie, we talked a bit about school and (internship) work. And of course the discussion of the differences between school in Singapore and Canada came up. She mentioned that she knew some young children who went to Canada to study, and how for math, they would do something like count apples. And for English, they would do creative writing. Ah, so that is a difference. Canada's schooling system is so much more focused on applied learning, I mentioned.

So then did I learn math by counting apples, she asked? Ha, yes, I suppose I did. Afterall, I did grow up in the Canadian schooling system.

But, I continued, my mom also imported a lot of Singaporean math assessment books for me to work on. "So," she responded, "you got the best of both worlds!" And what's more, she continued, "and so that's why you're in engineering!"

Haha? Perhaps?