Singapore Books

Finding recent information on the higher education system in Vietnam, published in English, is quite difficult. This book provides good background information on what the system was like up to 1995. Authors of the chapters are Vietnamese who were in postions that gave them excellent access to data. Although Vietnam's higher education system is still in a state of change, the book helps to inform the efforts of today's researchers. The book also provides specific information valuable to anyone researching Can Tho University, in the Mekong Delta.

This guide isn't very current, but allows the reader a chance to peak at the 'old' Malaysia or Singapore. It's still a pretty good book with concise descriptions of tourist haunts of yester-year. The pictures are also wonderful. It has that old world feel to it. Give it a thumb through if you get your hands on a copy.

The essays are very readable, though some can be very academic (like the one on Singapore leaders). One the whole, I found the collection insightful, especially from a Singaporean's perspective.

For instance, Singapore's policy on Bilingualism in the education policy: Having gone through the Singapore education system, it's a weird but pleasant feeling reading it now and going "So that's why I had to study those subjects in school"). It was also a minor relevation of sorts when reading the essays on the Singapore population policy, the planning of recreational facilities (something I wasn't aware until I read the article), and the issue of a National Identity.

I thought it was interesting to have the article on "Religious Truth and the meaning of life" in this collection. Contrary to my expectation, it's not about politics or the workings of the government (as I thought it would, since the collection of essays are somewhat quite academic in nature). But it's really about philosophy, and increasingly as the Singapore society gets more sophisticated, more and more people would start articulating thoughts of such a nature. Now I bet our forefathers thought about the meaning of life too, but just not presented in this way.

This book would appeal to those who want a deeper insight into the workings of Singapore, and what makes Singapore and Singaporeans tick.

This book gives an overview of language policies and education in Singapore. Many of the papers have been updated since the 1994 edition, and others have been added. The book is divided into 3 parts: Language in Singapore, Language in Society, and Language in Education. The language experiences and status of the three major ethnic groups of Singapore, Chinese, Malay and Indians, are each described in separate chapters. Singapore English is also considered extensively.

One striking fact about Singaporean language policy that comes out repeatedly in the papers of this volume is how the government gives preferential treatment towards Mandarin Chinese, and dismisses other dialects of Chinese as merely "dialects". It would have been nice if the book had included a paper on the motivations behind this policy and how non-Mandarin speakers feel about the policy. However, such questions may not be political acceptable to the government so the omission is understandable.

On the whole, the papers in the volume are very well written, with few exceptions. Many of the papers in the first 2 parts of the book might appeal to anyone interested in sociolinguistic and language planning issues. The third part of the book may only interest Singapore specialists, however.

Very detailed and easy to understand. from what i've learned, it was written because there was a lack of such teaching materials in the university in Singapore. Thus, this book is targetted at the students at the School of Building and Real Estate in NUS

Singapore is a shopping paradise. The nation's many modern world class shopping malls offer a rich cornucopia of goods replete with leading brand names. Sitting astride the crossroads of the Eastern and Western world Singapore has long been a station for trade and cultural flows. Since 1819 and the arrival of the British it has been a city of the mercantile age.

Goods and services are the life blood of the city and its well being and raison d'etre center on these; Singapore is after all the world's largest port in terms of shipping tonnage, or at least competes toe to toe with Hong Kong for that title.

Chua Beng Huat an academic at the National University of Singapore has brought together a selection of his essays on the consuming habits of Singaporeans. He shows some of the meaning that getting and showing possessions brings to Singaporean lives. He discusses food, clothing, the Singapore presence of the globally ubiquitous McDonald's, deals with uses of language (Singlish, Hokkien) and class, and local cinematic representations of Singaporean culture and society. He deals with the interactions of culture in Sinagpore and the influence of the Japan-Hong Kong-Taiwan-Korean-China axis on local youth culture. He helps show us how multiple layers and registers of cultural exchange play out in Singapore.

This recently published guide covers the key topics a Singapore expat needs to know. I was pleasantly surprised to find how much was covered - not just the essentials I'd learned on my own over the last few years living in Singapore, but also new things I never knew before but wanted to know. Like what to do if construction noise is a serious disruption, or what career resources are available in the city. The section on children and schooling is particularly comprehensive.

The section on shopping is very useful for the expat rather than the tourist. However, the food section is the opposite - it reads like a tourist guide and doesn't give long-term residents the flavor of the neighborhoods.

I find myself reaching for the guide to learn more about business and legal matters, an excellent chapter. I also enjoy the travel section which is both practical and very good fun!

This is a worthwhile purchase for expats in Singapore, and not just the new ones.

As a native of Singapore, i bought this book in hopes to duplicate some recipes of the local hawker center.
The book does not disappoint with detailed recipes for local Singapore Hainaneses Chicken rice and Laksa among a whole list of others. Unfortunately, they are spread throughout the book and you basically have to thumb through cover to cover and make your own index for reference.
The book also goes further to give tips for tourists and explanations of culture and practise that i found interesting.

All in all i was pleased with this purchase and have already started using the recipes in my home.

Very captive novel starting in occupied Netherlands, Nazi travails and falling in love. Escaping war torn areas for new adventures in Far East.

Filled with short, blurb-ish sidebars for quick bites of info as you're bouncing along in a taxi. Could use a few more good pictures, but that's a complaint for most travel guides. :o)