Non-obvious Things You Should Know About Singapore 

As a Singaporean basically raised by my domestic helper in terms of character, I wholeheartedly agree with that last segment. My helper, who I call my Aunty, played a massive role in my upbringing to the point I consider her my second mother. My mother was rarely home being the breadwinner and I had a deadbeat father. My Aunty made sure I spoke proper English from a young age and instilled values in me. If not for her, I'd certainly turn out for the worse. Ever since hearing stories about her life in Indonesia as a kid, I've had huge respect for domestic helpers.

Her speech show how much in depth she knows about life and living in Singapore. Generally, not to take good things for granted in life...There is no perfect country in the world...we are striving to making it better for everyone to live here in a continual manner.

This is a great interview. Supremely obvious to all, Ana is a digniified person, Singapore makes the right decision to accept her as a PR for she has much to offer. Firstly with her life and attitude. I enjoy this episode tremendously.

Many thanks Ana for your honest views & thoughts on Singapore and Singaporeans. I especially like the part on domestic helpers. You are obviously an intelligent, well-read & well-travelled person who is able to embrace different culture & ways of governing. Happy to hear you are enjoying your stay here. And many thanks to Max for another superb conversation. I really love your videos. Keep it up

Incredible !! It took me 3 years of living in Singapore to get a Permanent Residency. I came from Zurich, Switzerland. My late paternal grandfather is a Singaporean Chinese ( grandma is a white Dutch ) so I always feel that Singapore is my root.

I really like this lady. As a Singaporean, I'm proud to have you as one of us. And thank you for giving dignity and pride to the domestic workers.

Ana is so coherent and opinionated in a well balanced manner, it’s so amazing listening to her. Spot on on all the points, coming from a Singaporean myself :)

I cracked up at the "then you have so much time to complain about things you don't like!" :D

Yes, I totally agree with this lady regarding to domestic helpers. They are working a job just like anyone of we working at our workplace. I would usually chat with my late parents' domestic helpers when I have the time. In fact, my late mother sometimes would said the helper was like her another daughter, in fact, both my mother and the domestic helper cried when she had to return to take care of her own mother. People with genuine hearts will bond like family rather than just employer-employee relationship.

I recruit for hospitals and a number of my friends work there as well. the verification of particulars is to make sure that meds are dispensed correctly. didnt realise it until Ana brought it up, to us locals we are just used to it LOL. in the wards the nurse in charge of dispensing meds wear a bright coloured vest (sometimes red or yellow) and it will say something like do not disturb, nurse on dispensing duty something like that. they take patient safety very seriously so i dont mind that they double, triple check ;p really enjoyed this interview as I think Ana brought up interesting views. hope you enjoy your time in singapore, we welcome you!

Hola Ana, u r superb ! This interview has got so much depth. Really enjoyed watching. Thanks Max 👍

Great interview with Ana. Looking forward to the next incredible story. Thanks for the effort!

Really enjoyed this interview. Makes me love my Singapore even more. Keep them coming.

I was born and raised here in Singapore and I'm not proud to admit that I was one of those monsters on the road more than 10 years ago. Then I went to Brisbane, Australia to study and living among the Brisbanites taught me what a terrible driver I was.

This is such a great video and its always interesting to know how foreigners view singaporeans. It really helps us reflect upon ourselves and how we can do better. Ana says stuff objectively without putting us on the defense. She's a great addition to our country :)

As a SGrean who had lived and worked in a couple of countries in the region, I totally get what Ana said as an expat and she said it so well.

I think this is your best interview so far! Ana is such a kind, intelligent and gracious person and obviously Singapore has made the right decision to grant her family PR, I believe, not only on the basis of the obvious contribution of her talent and capital to Singapore, but more importantly, she is very international in mindset, respects different cultures and assimilates very easily into Singapore's culture. Two quick comments in response to her remarks: 1) Singaporeans turn into monsters once behind the wheels because of the ridiculously high COE prices, and cars become the extension of a mobile version of a big chunk of their life assets. 2) Doctors and nurses ask 'gazillion' times if you are who you are, because Singapore takes healthcare very seriously, one wrong dosage, one wrong surgery on the wrong part of one's body, will break the strong trust we have in the healthcare system. Hope this helps :)

Great interview. Thank you for speaking up for domestic helpers.

Great video! Ana spoke beautifully. Well done :-) from a native singaporean ❤

Thank you very much for this video, Sir 🙏🏽🙇🏻‍♀️ It is awesome to listen to this interview, i absolutely agree with Ms. Ana about gender equality of these women who come to Singapore to work is in the responsibility of employers who provide dignity to them. Singapore is one of the kindest country in SouthEast Asia. As a foreigner from neighbouring country becomes local citizen sometimes still find hard to be in a circle. However, it is a blessing to be able to live here while not much choice for me. May she and her family enjoy living in Singapore 🙏🏽🙇🏻‍♀️🌹❤️

Just to come back to this video to say as a local Singaporean, I tk PR youtuber like u for producing non gaslighting informative videos. There are many divisive videos around and urs is like a breath of fresh air.

Great video! Thank you Max ... your interviewee was very interesting ... great to hear a different perspective 😉

One of the best interviews on your channel. Ana’s insights are most insightful and balanced.

Wow this interview is so balanced & unbias loved her perspective on life❤

Very expressive and has depth of character. Cool guest. Thanks for this video.

My first here and subscribed because of this interview. As a US expat I had lived for 2 years before the pandemic and have always loved my experience of living there. I am looking forward to move there again with my work relocation request is in progress. I agree with a lot of her opinions as the rules that seemed prohibitive for Westerners, but I’ve never felt more safe and secure than living there. I’m looking forward for more episodes about your experience there. Thank you.

Another awesome video. You're working so hard Max. You deserve more views and subscribers and all the success!!! Keep at it and I'm sure it won't be too long before your channel blows up( in a good way ofcourse). 😊 On the issue of PR, your RU-vid channel may come handy in giving you an advantage. Your confent is introducing as well as educating many people all around the world about Singapore. I being one of them.

Probably one of the best interview videos so far. Very insightful even for a Singaporean like myself.

Awesome. From every video of yours I learn something new about people s life style, interaction and culture. Thank you

This lady is amazingly articulate, lucid, fair, and compassionate. What a great interview, what beautiful advocacy for Singapore's (mostly) pros, and perspective for its rare cons.

Lovely interview. Great questions and great thoughtful responses.

The asking of FIN or even NRIC for locals I think is just to confirm they are talking to the right person, it is the same for locals as well. Which I think is a good thing, you cannot be more certain especially when coming to dealing with diagnosing and prescribing medicine for patients.

Nice interview - she has made a number of observations in a short duration

This is really a great interview. Her personality is interesting, entertaining and animated too. Her qualifications and experience definitely is the kind of PR we should attract and retain.

I am a born and bred Singaporean and I agree with all that she had mentioned in this interview. Totally agree on the part about domestic helpers. Thanks for doing this :)

Hey, I liked your video interview with the lady from Spain who has gained her PR here... She is wonderful, has alot of insights, very intelligent too and I learn from her as well.. Good job

As a local Singaporean, I love bread too. In fact maybe 30-40% of the time I'd rather have bread than rice. I wish our local neighbourhood bakeries sold bread that is more like the not-so-sweet European kind, but I guess that's too much to ask for their typical price point.

This was a great interview with Ana, a charming guest. By the way, I have found that filing taxes in Spain is also very efficient and has been painless. They have a well-organized system here, too. Ana made some very important points about domestic workers, dignity and fairness. I hope people really take her comments to heart. Anyway, Thank you again!!! Please keep up the good work!😊

Congratulations 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉that was super-fast!

Exactly. Efficiency is why I love Singapore.

Well done Ana. I especially like that you appreciate the roles and responsibilities as an employer of domestic help. Many in SG unfortunately only see domestic help as buying a service and that dramatically changes the working dynamics.

Thank you for your visit today!😃

Ana is clearly a very intelligent individual and it seems her experience in the UN has given her the skills to be very diplomatic with how she talks about Singapore. I am sure she knows full well politics is a touchy subject here, and especially if you're a foreigner speaking about it. I did wish she would specify what Singaporean policies she didn't agree with, but I understand if she didn't want her comments to be made public. Her lighthearted joke about "playing with fire" talking about chewing gum definitely has truth to it. A few points I'd like to highlight: 1. I don't know if Singaporean drivers simply ignore traffic rules, but it makes sense that Singaporean drivers aren't the most pleasant. Remember, car ownership is a very costly thing in the country; not many people have access to them. And well, with wealth comes certain egos and bad attitudes. 2. Medical staff constantly asking for your FIN number is a pain, and yes it must be really annoying if you don't remember it by heart. But as Ana has said, Singapore is a rule-based country, and medical staff have to keep verifying your identity in order to reduce liability and likelihood of medical mishaps. 3. The part about "rules make you free" is something that people from Western liberal democracies will rarely ever understand about East Asia. While individual liberties are of the utmost importance in the West, East Asian countries generally prioritise community over individuality. This is why you didn't see mass protests about wearing masks in China, SKorea, Japan, or Singapore, because people here understand that it's better for everyone. Or using China as an example, mass surveillance isn't so much an invasion of privacy, but rather a contributor to security. 4. I have mixed feelings about calling domestic helpers "modern day slavery". Why? Because I've had jobs that paid lesser than domestic helpers, and I never felt that I was a slave because I got paid! Most full-Time national servicemen in Singapore also get paid lesser salary than domestic workers, and many of them have to stay in their camps with weekend duties. At the end of the day, a salary in Singapore is directly correlated to the availability of job candidates. There are countless young girls and women from less affluent neighbouring countries who would seize on any opportunity to come work in Singapore, because the reality is, opportunities in Singapore are by and large better than what they have in their home countries. I'm not saying I agree with their low salaries, but that's kind of the unfortunate nature of a free market economy. Overall, this was a really good interview. I agreed with pretty much everything Ana said, and she also offered me new insights into the country.

Great content Max! You got yourself a subscriber!

Ana- your words on are point, wise and expressed with sensitivity and great compassion. You are a credit to Singapore and we need more like you. And by golly, you are right- Singapore drivers can be very rude and not generous with the road. Every time I'm home and driving in SG I'm pretty amazed by the unique driving mentality.

wow you are getting into some real immigration for singaporean stuff, thanks a lot for the content recently!

She can really empathise with domestic helper in terms of their plight.

Brilliant video. Ana is so kind and awesome

Keep up with these great interviews Max! See you at 100k subs soon!

Shes really good in speaking and pleasant person to have around

很好的访谈🎉❤谢谢🙏Anna and max

Ana is incredible! 👍🏻

Really interesting interview. Thank u Max & Ana❤

Bro, once again, smooth ad insert. Kudos!

Singapore also wants to diversify its new PR intakes. Note she said she didn't meet many Spanish people in Singapore. It's much harder for people from China and the UK to get PR status in Singapore (chance wise).

this is seriously a great interview.

amazing content!! immediate subscription!

This is a very interesting vid. Where I live in Ontario, the hospital in my locality checks and rechecks my identity and what I'm there for, at each station that I need to go to before a medical procedure gets done, kind of similar to what Ana described about Sg. I used to get annoyed with the repetition, but later realized that was important to avoid mistakes , like carrying out the procedure on the wrong person, or doing a wrong procedure, as had happened in the past. Servers in well established restaurants here very often do repeat an order back to confirm they have not taken it wrongly.....and for me, I like that. I have not seen the 'not giving way' on the roads behaviour in Sg that Ana talked about in my last visit to Sg. In fact, I find that drivers in Sg are very polite, compared to the aggressive and 'not giving way' road behaviour in Ontario. Will pay more attention when I'm in Sg again this mid-April, but I really don't think Sg has any bad road behaviour compared to Ontario. I've seen really bad road behaviour in Taiwan and Vietnam, as they really stood out.

Anna, if you reading this, the best bakery in Singapore is at Crown Plaza. The bakery is call Crown Bakery...

Exactly. Singapore is efficient. Everything works. Thanks for appreciating and acknowledging it.😊

welcome to Singapore Ana. I thank you for being a wonderful person. ❤

When Ana says "there's a price to pay for that comfort", she is, to me, showing her true colours. Truth is that she is not paying for her comfort. Rather it is others who are not being adequately paid for providing her with that comfort.

Hi Max great interview! I enjoyed it alot! Anna articulates her opinions so well. Anyway, there was an interview with a stand-up comedian in Malaysia, was it removed? I dont seem able to find it, as the subject was very interesting to me and I would like to view it again.😅

Your work is great,.. subscribed

I really enjoyed listening to this very compelling lady's commentary and observations on life in Singapore. She made some excellent points (I loved the one about there being two seasons, and particularly her humane comments about employing domestic helpers). My only complaint: too short Lah!

I am singaporean and was raised by a domestic helper . when i was young my best friend would be my helper. i would say 80% of singaporeans treat their helpers well and fairly and there are manpower hotlines/agencies and feedback to protect these helpers. the helper could make a complaint with evidence and get the owners into trouble

She spoke so well.

anna is great! very fair and objective.

Ana is so woke, and what she shared is so well-articulated! Respect for the both of you :)

Well said !!

Singapore should allow domestic helper whom have been here for 5 years and above with the same employer to be permanent resident automatically.

18:50 What the lady says about domestic helpers is spot on...

Singapore is a great place as a soft landing in asia for western foreigners with first experiences.....people very polite and organised in a nice environment. Knowing how Singapore has changed from poverty and hard work to today over the years. My personaĺ experience of living in China many years, Indonesia and recently in Thailand and caught up in Myanmar Civil War gives a contrast where you exchange adventure for a relaxed lifestyle.....and appreciate it for short or long periods.

Agree totally on responsible and dignify. 😊

Really like the part when Ana talked about domestic helper. There's definitely quite a number of employers who do not treat the helpers with dignity and respect.

The bread part is kind of true, i current traveling in the u.s. Bread, potato chip had a different textures after leaving to open air in several hours. The humidity in s.e.a is wet , crunchy stuff become soggy/chewy. I experience this with chips here in u.s , bought a pack and could not finish in a go (giant size pack) then i try it the next day, surprisingly it is still good. Im from malaysia, if i leave an unfinished potato chip pack for several hours it become chewy if you know what i mean. Since im from malaysia, i tend to love soft bread, the caucasian people love toasted bread and french bread textured like (hard as steel).

Interesting POV! ❤

Agree that there is room for improvement in terms of driving etiquette in Singapore.

Singapore is an upgrade version of Switzerland. ❤ thank you

That’s an amazing view, mind revealing which area this is? Or the condo building even. Thanks

this is the best interview you've done although honestly what did you really need to do besides let Anna start talking amiright? :D she spoke more openly and honestly than most interviewees who mince their words and simply repeat the same boring travel brochure PR about SG being multicultural and having good food. please push more interviewees to speak as freely as her. i know thats hard though since most people here, foreigner and local, do not like to speak freely so maybe the less interesting interviews are in reality more representative of SG afterall!

Singaporeans are busy and can be in a hurry, but we are always willing to help those in need. We Singaporeans don't make deep connections with foreigners partly because many foreigners are not here for the long haul. They come for work or study and leave after a few years.

What she said about Italian traffic rules being a suggestion is so true. I am a Spaniard and visited Italy, and I can tell that the roads there are so dangerous for pedestrians.

Singapore, like other countries in this region, is a densely populated city. Regarding use of roads, we expect everyone drivers and pedestrians (and especially to you bicyclists) to follow the rules so that traffic s smooth and efficient.

Everyone is an asset in singapore, foreigners and locals. 😊

Singapore 🇸🇬 welcome Ana, she's a great citizen. 👍👍👍

There is a stall in joo chiat...handmade bread..french style. Try it

It is rare to see you seated in an interview. This is one of the more comfortable interviews you had

Amazing, positive lady. 🎉

As a Singaporean staying 20 years in Germany and drive in both countries, sadly to say, in Germany the drivers respect pedestrians and cyclists much much better than in Singapore. They are much patiently gracious and ever ready to give way to car need to over take or merging from side streets. It’s sure a pleasant to drive in Germany. I alway show my SG visitors about the driving etiquette in Germany. I humbly hoping one day my motherland will improve in the driving etiquette. MAJULAH SINGAPURA!🇸🇬

Wow well said Anna...

Yes! Good bread is difficult to find in Singapore!

The repeating of the identification number for medical visits is really a systematic way to ensure the medicines are prescribed to the right person and that there are no drug allergies. Better repeat yourself a few more times than to take a wrong drug and suffer potential ill effects

Congrats....Greetings from Singaporean 😊

great content as always !

It's part of SOP in hospitals to keep asking for your name and ic #, and what are u visiting the doctor for, even if its in the records for them to read, even when u move from triage to attending doc to admissions, every handover stage, they need to ask u so that 1) check your alertness and orientation (if thats a prob when u came in) and 2) they dont get a pass-the-message watered down version of your condition from the last person who got it from the last person, and so on; they need to hear it from your very own lips. I don't know if that's a universal hospital SOP. And repeating at restaurants is bc they dont want the order wrong and risk getting food sent back. Margins are so thin with so many eating places competing in a small area.

I'm Singaporean but wanted to move to Australia or NZ as I enjoyed the 4 season and cheap cars, plus they got better work live balance. 😅 When I heard they moved to Singapore, I wondered why. 🤔

Excellent interview, and indeed brilliant conversation. Ana is a very articulate and balanced person, and a joy to listen to her views. I lived and worked in Singapore for 5 years, and enjoyed it very much. I concur with much of what Ana mentioned. One thing I find puzzling in all the interviews I watched from Max though, is that apparent obsession around the PR status. I get it that PR is an attractive thing to get, to a point, and it is definitely part of the expat experience in Singapore, but there is an important element that is always overlooked: it is actually not permanent. In most developed countries, once you acquire the equivalent of PR status, it is for life, unless you do something horrible. But not in Singapore. As Ana rightly pointed out in her interview, one has to apply for renewal every 5 years, and not only can you be turned down for renewal for any undisclosed reason, there is the near-certainty that PR will not be granted/renewed once you get to a certain age. Obviously, most foreigners do not really intend to stay in Singapore in retirement, for obvious financial reasons, for others, PR is the gateway to citizenship, and there are other categories of long-term stay that may be available, so that it is probably less of an issue than it could be, but still… Calling it Permanent Residence is somewhat of a misnomer.

Watch next 👉 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-iZuizUbSh5I.html The story of a foreign woman who obtained Singaporean citizenship. Will she ever truly belong in Singapore? 🤔

i felt like this woman share how daria telling stories..open-minded-carefully-choosing-word type describing a person/condition that comes with it..its a good sharing video nonetheless max...thanks for making this vid..