attended a lecture at NUS today by Kumar from Kumar and Clark! Yes the legendary lady who wrote this textbook that is the lifeline of med students!

after the lecture, i couldn't help but feel the difference between the environment in melb and in singapore. Kumar kept asking why the audience was so quiet and inhibited as this was not the case in the UK. i just felt kind of strange cos just a couple of days ago i was in melbourne where i am getting used to people just shouting out their thoughts and opinions spontaneously, within reasonable limits of course.

back here, i sensed a lot of tension in the air. people do not like to speak up, and if they do, do not articulate themselves properly.

i guess its an asian thing. to not be willing to speak up. its something that will always remained ingrained in us if that is the culture in junior schools and high schools. that's why going overseas has been such a challenging experience these few months. so many of the beliefs that we have hung on to for almost all our schooling life have been questioned.

the funniest part was when the professor asked if anyone had questions. no one raised their hand. then after the lecture, a whole crowd of students surrounded her.