u/Training_Focus4060

Ok hear me out, there were much larger plots of forests like Tengah, Tampines North, and also kampungs with lush forests surrounding them all across SG that were cleared over the past 30+ years since the 90s to build HDB and BTO flats(I stay in a HDB so I'm not wealthy) and I feel that the gov would always be able to plan the neighborhoods very well and plant back the same or a very similar amount of trees to what they've cut down. Urban redevelopment is inevitable everywhere but from what I can tell, the protest had alot of rich nepo babies living in landed homes at Sunset Way(Maju forest is just behind) who are advocating for the forest to not be removed and instead build homes at other places. Are they just nimby and don't wanna welcome "peasants" to live in HDB flats next to them cuz of their elitist mindset?

Fyi my father's side of my family is Singaporean, we would have bi annual gatherings at a condo of one of my richer aunts. I find that the gatherings are toxic af cuz my uncles and aunts would talk to me and my parents about my academics and brag about how their own kids(my female cousins) are academically inclined since last time(express stream, o levels, Poly/JC, then year and this year uni doing internships with $1500 salary) then I also tried to bond with my female cousins by inviting them to do Tiktok dances but they just mostly dont consent or anything and give me the awkward cold shoulder. I just accept the fact that Im not part of my father's side of my family cuz Idc the amount of angpaos and Christmas presents(which they always give me) cant bribe me for the same stupid social anxiety inducing humiliation ritual about academics. So I will never ever go for any future Christmas parties or CNY reunion dinners). The angpao money and Christmas gifts would never come from a point of sincerity.

Dont get me wrong as a current iphone user who used to have Samsung(sucks due to problems like overheating and green lines so fair enough) and Oppo phones(good but I switched to iphone to try out IOS). I kinda wanna switch to Oppo again in the future cuz of 80w fast charging that can go from 0-100% in 30 min, 100mp cam, 6000+mah battery and other crazy specs at midrange prices($500-800+) that Apple and even Samsung could never make. Now that Im an iPhone user I still dont understand the iphone hype in Singapore(my country) other than Airdrop and superior gaming performance, I feel that I might have to switch back to Oppo in the future cuz Oppo phones are better optimized for me as a content creator who will be out the whole day filming stuff and livestreaming especially cuz of the 6000+mah battery and 80w fast charging cuz 0-100% in 30min can be very useful. Literally every other country in the ASEAN region has a higher Oppo, Samsung and android phone market share than iphone. To be fair I'd never use a Samsung, Xiaomi or Vivo cuz those brands suck too imo, and I love my iPhone alot(in the future I plan to keep it as a game console at home cuz iphones are good for gaming) but its not worthy of being my main phone for outdoor use

Dont get me wrong as a current iphone user who used to have Samsung(sucks due to problems like overheating and green lines so fair enough) and Oppo phones(good but I switched to iphone to try out IOS). I kinda wanna switch to Oppo again in the future cuz of 80w fast charging that can go from 0-100% in 30 min, 100mp cam, 6000+mah battery and other crazy specs at midrange prices($500-800+) that Apple and even Samsung could never make. Now that Im an iPhone user I still dont understand the iphone hype in SG other than Airdrop and superior gaming performance, I feel that I might have to switch back to Oppo in the future cuz Oppo phones are better optimized for me as a content creator who will be out the whole day filming stuff and livestreaming especially cuz of the 6000+mah battery and 80w fast charging cuz 0-100% in 30min can be very useful. Literally every other country in the ASEAN region has a higher Oppo, Samsung and android phone market share than iphone. To be fair I'd never use a Samsung, Xiaomi or Vivo cuz those brands suck too imo, and I love my iPhone alot(in the future I plan to keep it as a game console at home cuz iphones are good for gaming) but its not worthy of being my main phone for outdoor use

Im an iphone 16e(usbc iphone) user who used to have a Oppo Reno 13 phone and I do kinda regret moving to iphone now cuz of the fact that I wanted to try out IOS 26 and liquid glass. So far Im enjoying my iphone cuz of the awesome battery life, lightweight, compact size of the phone, autofill, and ofc IOS 26 cuz of Liquid Glass and the ability to customize ringtone to Laufey songs(she's my fav singer) for free(previously only on Android). But I do definitely miss somethings about my Oppo phone like the 80w superfast usbc charging which charges the phone to full in 30min compared to 1h 30min on my iphone(20w usbc), 2 days long battery(compared to a full day on my iphone), and most importantly the price cuz the iphone is $888 while the Reno only costed $588. My future phone will most likely be Oppo again cuz idw to deal with slow charging anymore

So in SG I observed that most service staff are straight to the point and cold when they get things done, some would even ask me why Im there or to hurry up and show a very angry face(especially the PRC and older gen Singaporean Chinese staff who don't speak English and expect me to speak Mandarin). But once in a while I met friendly service staff in SG who are willing to go out of their way to chit chat a little and know more about me(to be fair some of them recognized me on TikTok), when I go to browse the products at Apple stores the staff are always acting like my close friends that I knew for many years.

But when I travel to Malaysia and Indo everywhere regardless of the shop, the staff will always talk to me like a close friend and I feel that service is generally better in those places. Taiwan is also the same in terms of friendliness when I went there a few years ago

I heard that in western countries like America, Canada, Australia, NZ, and the EU countries, the customer service standards are quite high and people would always do small talk with you, while East Asian countries like China(especially HK), South Korea, and Japan they'll also have cold customer service

Nowadays there are alot of China businesses in SG, particularly fnb where all of the signs including the menu are in Mandarin(simplified Chinese) and there's no English, all of the staff are mostly northern China mainlanders speaking with the dong bei accent and they like to shame local Singaporeans especially us teochew/hokkien/Cantonese locals for not speaking Mandarin, "Ni shi hua ren dan shi wei she me bu hui Jiang zhong wen?"(You're a Chinese person why can't you speak Mandarin). I feel that our Chinese population is also losing the ability to speak our dialects(our ancestors came from the southern china regions).

As a born and bred teochew Chinese Singaporean who's mom a chindo is from Pontianak, Indonesia, things are very different there. In every local Chinese food stall there(run by teochews) regardless if it's bakmi kepiting(crab meat noodles) or chai kue(soon kueh in SG), the menus will be entirely in bahasa Indo and everyone who's a local there can easily order it. Plus, the Chinese in Pontianak literally speak both bahasa and teochew, not losing their dialects. The kopi Asiang place run by a Chinese Indo uncle is a local legend there for brewing coffee while being shirtless and he takes orders in both teochew and bahasa Indo

In Malaysia, especially JB and KL. I find that the local Chinese are embracing Mandarin but also able to speak their dialects and Malay, the food menus are in traditional Chinese and malay(or sometimes English too). They always take my order in English as most of them can speak it.

Ok, so he's a 17 yo guy from the Philippines(he's a PR) and his parents migrated here when he's young. He likes to play the guitar, is a big fan of Linkin Park and told me that he wants to form a band and go back to Manila cuz he doesn't like our class, he kept saying that our classmates are "toxic" without really describing what made him think of them that way to me(cuz our classmates are so nice to me). But I really wanna advice him not to drop out since we're already halfway into year 1 and as a 21yo myself who has previously dropped out twice and wasted a lot of time searching for jobs I advised him not to follow my footsteps(of wasting a few years doing nothing). He also has an older brother who's studying in TP and his parents would probably not agree to let him drop out given how they migrated to SG from the Philippines.

Probable scenarios I can think of:

1. There will only be a single bridge linking SG and JB at woodlands(the causeway), but people will be able to drive freely across both sides without any immigration clearance

2. We won't have any mrt networks but will still have the KTM train at Tanjong Pagar

3. Our airport will still be Paya Lebar, but it will be upgraded to have aerobridges

4. Our CBD skyline will look very different, without any MBS, Gardens By The Bay or touristy sights.

5. Sentosa will still be called "Pulau Belakang mati", and it will still be linked to mainland SG by ferry

6. Everyone will rely on taking Grab everywhere cuz public transport is non-existent

7. No mandatory NS for guys cuz Malaysia doesn't mandate military service

8. Food will be tastier cuz there's no health pyramid thing and everyone will actually know how to cook properly

9. We'll be earning ringgit and spending our myr in Batam every weekend instead(SG to Batam ferry prices will probably be RM50 only)

10. We'll speak both malay and English everywhere just like every city in Malaysia that I've visited

So I was living 2 blocks away from this guy who used to study pharmaceutical science at RP from 2022-2025. He would always harass me by coming to my house and talking about how "useless" me and all of the other ITE students are and how he's a "genius" who's gonna study in Monash uni Melbourne and he loves to obsess over a VJC girl. Well, one of his former classmates reached out to me and said that he plagiarized other students' work so that his grades can go from D to A, he screwed up his internship at Guardian and had to be transferred to Pfizer(covid vaccine company) to intern, wrongly mixed a dose of meds that can overdose a patient, and there was once a lecturer was hungry and gave the class a short break so that he/she can eat, the guy shouted "I paid you for an education!". Im glad to say that he has since moved out to Melbourne and I wont be seeing him anymore.