Hope everyone is staying happy and healthy! I’ve been well and enjoying my time back in California, although I’m currently stuck in the middle of a heat wave with temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit each day throughout the week.
Since I’m now home from my study abroad program in Singapore, I thought it would be appropriate to talk about my experiences there and my personal opinions on studying abroad. I’ve written a couple of blogs about off campus studies in the past, that contain some of my thoughts about studying abroad and some information about Carleton’s off campus study programs. So if they are of any interest, they can be accessed here and here.
The majority of Carleton students choose to study abroad, and Carleton offers many different off campus studies programs all around the world. While most Carleton students that study abroad choose to go on a Carleton-sponsored program, I took a slightly less common choice and studied at the National University of Singapore as an exchange student. I’d like to talk about my experiences on my program and expand a little bit on the differences between my exchange and Carleton’s study abroad programs.
I arrived in Singapore in early January, not knowing what to expect (I didn’t do much research about the region online and it was my first time in Southeast Asia). I don’t quite know how to describe my first impression of Singapore, but to put it simply, I was completely blown away. Given its tiny land size, Singapore is essentially an extremely large city, and I was stunned by its cleanliness, organization, and advanced technology. It is almost impossible to see trash as littering is a serious crime there, and one will hardly even see twigs or leaves on sidewalks, as cleaners sweep the streets regularly. Cash and credit cards are rather obsolete, as the norm is to pay with a smartphone by scanning QR codes, and in some cases, even paying through a touchless handprint scanner. My university campus even had a fully self-driving shuttle bus! And the wonders of Pulau Semakau speak for itself. It truly is a wonderful country, and I hope that the United States will be able to adopt some of these technological advancements in the future.
As English is one of the official languages of Singapore and used as the mode of instruction in schools, practically everybody in the country is bilingual, with many residents speaking more than two languages. Singapore offers wonderful cultural diversity with a large mix of Chinese and Indian immigrants, along with locals from nearby countries, the majority being Malay and Indonesian (but many from all other Southeast Asian countries as well). I really appreciated the mix of cultures during my time there, and was able to meet all sorts of people with absolutely fascinating backgrounds. As an exchange student at a university, I was able to have a high level of interaction with lots of different people, through class discussions, group projects, dorm life, and intramural activities, to name a few. I took four classes during my time there and with lots of time to travel around the region on weekends, two and a half months flew by before I had to return home, due to the COVID 19 situation.
I didn’t want to make this blog too long of a read, and have come to realize that there are quite a lot of important differences between my program and the typical Carleton-sponsored program and do not want to leave out any details, as I think understanding the differences are crucial in shaping how you might want to think about studying abroad. So I’ll cut my blog short here for now, and will expand in detail next week!
Alvin is a west coast kid at heart (coming from San Jose, California), but is loving his time in Minnesota. He plays for the soccer team here at Carleton and loves exercise. If he’s not on the soccer field, in the gym, or out on a bike ride during his free time, he can be found in one of the lounges playing Exploding Kittens, or in the music building playing piano. He is a Computer Science major with an interest in Economics and Statistics. Meet the other bloggers!