English? Chinese?

Before we knew it, we had been in school for a month.

My ears still hadn't adjusted, and my English listening skills hadn't improved much.

When the teacher spoke, I understood half by listening and half by guessing.

The bond between our ironclad trio of guys grew stronger by the day. To make chatting easier, we always found seats together in class.

One day, seeing that so many of us were too dazed to take anything in, the teacher told us a story to lift our spirits.

"I have an older brother... He studied computer science. Computer technology changes every day, so he has to keep learning every day.

"Luckily, I studied accounting. To maintain continuity and stability in the global economy, accounting systems stay fairly consistent, barely changing over several decades. Once you've learned them, you can use them for the rest of your life.

"As accountants get older and gain more experience, they become more sought-after.

"But my brother was so worried about falling behind technological advances and being forced out of the industry that all his hair fell out." As he spoke, the teacher rubbed the few remaining hairs on his own head. "He has even less left than I do. Goo-goo jee-jee goo-goo jee."

The class burst out laughing.

There hadn't been any unfamiliar words in the story, and it was pretty easy to follow, but I hadn't understood that last line. I had no idea what the joke was.

Seeing everyone laughing so happily, I covered my mouth and quietly asked Naja, "What did he say at the end?"

English was an official language of Sri Lanka.

Naja's English was better than ours, so whenever I didn't understand something, I asked him.

This time, though, Naja frowned slightly and slowly turned to look at me, his face full of confusion. "That last sentence... wasn't it Chinese? I was just about to ask you what it meant."

"Huh? That last sentence was Chinese?!" I'd thought it was some obscure English word.

The two of us whispered back and forth, debating whether it had been Chinese or English. A local Singaporean woman sitting in the row ahead apparently couldn't stand listening to us anymore. She turned around and explained, "That was Hokkien."

Me: !

Naja: ??

Only gradually did I learn that to communicate without a hitch in Singapore, you needed to know a little Malay, an Indian language, Thai, Cantonese, and Hokkien, besides Chinese and English. Singaporeans' favorite expressions crossed language and ethnic boundaries.

At the very least, you needed a foundation in seven or eight languages.

The road ahead was long; I would search high and low for the way.

Since arriving in Singapore, I hadn't had time to go online and chat. Now that everything was settled, I finally had the leisure to log into QQ and check my messages.

A lot of coworkers and university classmates had heard I was in Singapore and sent messages asking how things were going.

In 2008, university graduates generally earned only two or three thousand a month. After everyday expenses, they pretty much had nothing left.

Washing dishes in Singapore, on the other hand, could get you four or five thousand, with meals and accommodation included.

Coming here to make money was fine, but whatever you did, don't get a student pass!

That was a lesson learned through blood and tears!

"You're an international man now, with broader horizons. If you get a chance, help me get over there too!" Li Guang had left me a message.

Li Guang had been one of my dormmates. He was 1.85 meters tall, big and burly, and looked like Li Kui.

He was even worse with words than I was, though. After graduation, he'd found a job at a machinery factory, but hadn't made much of himself.

"Sure, I'll keep an eye out for you," I replied. "But although Singapore has a lot of ethnic Chinese people, its official language is English."

I had to give him fair warning so he wouldn't get his hopes too high.

Living in Singapore was easy enough. As long as you spoke Mandarin, you were fine, even with an accent.

Singapore was an international melting pot. In everyday English, accents flavored with curry, sashimi, kimchi, or tom yum were all common.

But the official language was English. If you worked in an office, emails, paperwork, and phone calls were all handled entirely in English.

With Li Guang's level of English, he'd have a hard time managing.

He was only about on par with Bai Zhigao. Well... maybe slightly better.

How good was Bai Zhigao's English?

Put it this way: apart from words like "the" and "of," he'd looked up pretty much every word in his textbooks and written in the Chinese translations. The notes were packed so densely that anyone with trypophobia wouldn't have been able to look at them.

I'd been taken in by the rosy promises of that bullshit-spouting father-and-daughter duo and arrived in Singapore full of hope, only to have my illusions shattered within days.

They were all old classmates, and I didn't want them repeating my mistakes. Coming to make money was fine; they just shouldn't imagine it would be too wonderful.

"As long as I can make money." Li Guang's brief reply distilled the very heart of what he wanted to say.

That put my mind at ease.

Making money in Singapore was still pretty easy.