Can't tar all with same brush
IN THE hostel where I stay at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), female students share a toilet, and I have spent two of the past three years cleaning up after the Chinese nationals I shared mine with.
The sight of dirt-streaked floors and stained toilet bowls smeared my image of students from China.
But I was forced to reassess my opinion of them after going to Shanghai on a six-month exchange programme last year.
I was impressed by how gentlemanly some of the university boys could be. On group dates, the guys would stand up when the women arrived and they would insist on paying the bill.
Their respectful behaviour made me realise that there is more to them than their hygiene habits, and how wrong it is to tar everyone with the same brush, just because of bad experiences with one or two.
Lee Khai Yan, 22, is a fourth-year student at the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, NTU.
Grain of truth in stereotypes?
I AGREE that it is wrong to stereotype particular groups of foreigners just because of unpleasant incidents involving isolated members.
Still, I find myself having to fight the urge to do so time and again, as I undergo one bad experience after another.
For example, many China nationals I have encountered are either brash or plain rude. Two weeks ago, I dropped my shopping bags and almost fell down when one such woman shoved me aside in her rush to board the train, without a word of apology.
And just a few days later, a woman boarded the bus I was in and spent the entire journey virtually shouting into her mobile phone, with no regard for others.
When most of my encounters with foreigners end on a sour note, it is hard not to feel that there is some truth in those stereotypes we are taught to abhor.
Bryan Toh, 16, is a first-year mass communications student at Ngee Ann Polytechnic.
Keeping an open heart
GROWING up, I would stereotype foreigners from other developing Asian countries based on first- time impressions and what I knew of them from the media.
I regarded Chinese and Indian nationals as 'uncouth country people', while those from South-east Asia were 'uneducated'. But as I interacted with more of them, I realised my initial opinions were wrong.
One of the most sophisticated, cultured persons I have ever met was my Mandarin tutor from China.
And when I desperately needed an ethnic costume for Racial Harmony Day, my neighbours from India thoughtfully lent me one of theirs and taught me how to wear it properly.
If we willingly reach out to foreigners with an open heart and mind, and we refuse to judge them by appearances or stereotypes, we will learn many things about them - and ourselves.
Eef Gerard Van Emmerik, 20, has a place to read law at the Singapore Management University.
Some choose to be aloof
I USED to think foreign students came to Singapore to experience a new learning environment and make friends.
Yet, those in my hostel seem to be doing anything but that.
Four months have passed, and they have skipped most of the hall activities that were planned to help them integrate themselves.
They isolate themselves, or leave halfway through mandatory hall events and orientation programmes. Not even free block suppers can get them to open their room doors.
It seems they are here just because they enjoy guaranteed student accommodation for the first two years of their study programmes here.
Such anti-social behaviour only serves to reinforce the existing stereotypes that others have of them.
This is why Singaporeans cannot always be blamed for keeping their distance from foreigners - it takes two hands to clap.
Berton Lim, 20, is a first-year business administration student at the National University of Singapore.
Being on the receiving end
AS A Chinese Singaporean studying in London, I find myself being stereotyped all the time.
People think I roast pigeons for lunch, or lock myself in my room and study all day, with no concept of what it is to have 'fun'.
Three weeks ago, two British teenagers ran up to me and screamed in my face - just for kicks. Not quite the hospitable image of Britain I once had in mind.
I have long become used to being part of a racial majority, but now, I finally know what it feels like to be singled out for taunting and hectoring because I'm a 'foreigner'.
There are 'badly behaved' people everywhere - especially when there is safety in numbers. We shouldn't be too quick to target foreigners in our own country, unless we're ready for a taste of our own medicine elsewhere.
Bonnie Oeni, 20, is a second-year English literature student at Royal Holloway, University of London.
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