It was always going to happen but I never expected to happen like this. In less than a week I’ll be leaving Singapore after a wild year of traveling Southeast Asia, stuffing myself with hawker food, and of course, living through the COVID-19 pandemic in a foreign country.
It’s bittersweet to leave in this strange time. The friends and colleagues that I’ve gotten to know in the last year that welcomed me to Singapore, taught me Singlish words, and recommended me restaurants have truly made my experience in the Lion City. I won’t be able to say goodbye in person to any of them and I might not see some of these people ever again. But, as a famous teddy bear once said, “How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard” (Winnie the Pooh).
I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to be an expat in Singapore at my age, and I’ve learned so much in the last year. I want to share some of the lessons I’ve picked up from living and working abroad.
Understanding and respecting the concept of saving face.
This is a huge aspect of many Asian cultures and it is important to avoid humiliating others. The American way is to be direct and confrontational. Here, this approach doesn’t work as well when trying to solve problems. When negotiating, always be willing to “give” a little to the other side in the end result. When delivering tough news, do so privately, give people time to absorb it all, and let people be “cameras off”. This will ultimately help you build rapport and stronger long-term relationships.
Adapting to different standards and learning to be uncomfortable.
I knew that learning the metric system would be a challenge, but I underestimated how much date formatting would drive me crazy. Here, the day of the month is listed before the month, e.g. 4/5 is the 4th of May. This makes for confusing expiration dates on food packaging, depending on where an item is imported from. No one ever confuses a weather forecast in Celsius with Fahrenheit. I’ve since learned to write dates based on my audience’s preference (I do work in client services after all!) and while it takes some mental effort for this code switching, it makes communication smoother.
Timezones taught me to learn to stick up for myself and my team.
With the smallest team at the agency, it’s easy to be forgotten. I pushed for our APAC team to get visibility in front of our executives and get sent company All-Hands recordings in a timely manner. I shared praise from our clients so everyone knew the great work our team was doing.
A huge thank you goes to my team in Singapore for their patience as I’ve learned the ropes in the last year. If you’re ever in the States, I hope you’ll visit me in Chicago (or wherever I end up). I’m already looking forward to the day I return to Singapore and see the island nation transformed on my way to queue for a plate of hokkien mee 🙂