In A Foreign Land, So What?

After the death of foreign students in NTU and NUS (one as an assault criminal and another as a silly binge-drinker), the newspapers just wouldn't stop sympathising with these foreign students who come to a foreign land and to experience the well-famed 'kiasu-ism' and 'pressure cooker' system of Singapore.

Yet, isn't Singapore one of the easier places to adapt? Indonesians can speak in Bahasa and in their Indonesian-standard English and get by, Chinese students would probably feel at home among the 70% Singapore Chinese, and Americans? It's almost heaven with all the SPGs around.

I did the adjustment as a 10-yr-old, well, perhaps it is easier at a younger age.

I didn't find it tough, I was bullying others within 6 months of joining St Michael's School, not the actual bullying of course, but I was comfortable enough to poke fun and irritate fellow classmates.

I left for Tokyo without ever being there before and I couldn't give myself any leeway for self-pity. It is not that difficult, there are so many foreigners who made it through, and so many foreigners among my friends too that putting myself together was just the norm. I'm sure most of us who studied overseas would feel this way too.

Was it because of my faith that gave me hope? I guess it helped but so many others did it without any need for faith. 

As someone who experienced loneliness before in a foreign land, yes, I agree it can be tough. Yet, instead of seeing it in an angle that it is just difficult and that our education system is perhaps flawed. I thought we must know that such cases are just freak incidents because most of the others, though struggling, are putting themselves together.

We should look into the way we give out scholarship though, because life skills are not reflected in report cards. Surviving in a foreign land calls for a certain toughness in the mind. And it seems, in this time when kids prefer to play computer games or watch anime rather than playing sports with their friends, we may be losing the hardiness which used to be such a pre-requisite in our founding fathers, who travelled miles to come to Singapore.