Sora Minecraft House

Sora's Minecraft House

Seven Virtues vs Seven Sins

Patience, Wrath

Reference: aga-aga

Aga-aga = roughly, more or less.

Happy National Day!

TLL

Refers to The Learning Lab. THE Elite Tuition Centre in Singapore.

Taking on another job

Refers to the phenomenon in Singapore where more than 80% of school children goes for additional private tuition on top of their daily school. This means that children in Singapore spend more than 50 hours studying every week. Higher than the number of hours a lot of working adults put in their day jobs.

Foundation Training

Refers to the part of Singapore's education system where the weakest students are asked to do remedial training and will be barred from entering Express Stream in secondary schools. This would mean that these weaker students would take one more year to complete their secondary education.

Certificate of Entitlement or COE

Refers to the piece of paper needed for someone to buy a car in Singapore. It ranged from $40,000 to $70,000 in the past 1-2 years (2011-2012).

Tio dua ki summon

Tio - received
Dua Ki - big, heavy, massive
Summon - Refers to a parking ticket in Singapore

Hence the whole phrase means receiving a huge parking ticket literally but the whole phrase is implying that Moe got a huge fine for employing underage girls.

This is also a satirical remark on the underage prostitution case in Singapore in 2012 when 50 men were criminally charged for obtaining sexual services from an underage prostitute girl.

EM One, Two and Three

The streaming system in Singapore's education framework. This has since been discontinued although variants of streaming exist widely in our primary schools.

Sora - Yamato Tank

Sora - More Laputa Robots

Sora's Laputa Robot

SAF Rifle Pledge

I, hereby swear, before the flag, that I will be brave, honourable, discipline, vigilant, and I will take good care, of my rifle, AT ALL TIMES!

Sora's MBS

Sora's version of Marina Bay Sands

Sora's Laputa

 Aeroplanes
There are two boats

Sora's Singapore 1

Gardens By the Bay
Marina Bay Sands
Singapore Flyer
Merlion
Smurf House
Cable Car

Reference - Teachers' Pay

Public school teachers in Singapore are overworked and underpaid.

Reference - Third World Countries

Singapore has always pride its transformation from Third World to First. But in many ways, we are still in living in a Third World Country.

Reference - Tee

Tee represents the private tuition industry in Singapore.

Reference - Ms Lim

Ms Lim represents the dedicated teachers of Singapore.

Reference - Su Zhen

Su Zhen represents the children of Singapore.

Reference - NIE

NIE Logistics refers to NIE in Singapore. National Institute of Education, the national teacher training institute.

Reference - Glossary of Singlish terms

Glossary of Singlish terms

aiyo - for goodness sake
aiya - never mind
kiasu - afraid of losing out
pasa - business
lah - singlish slang to place emphasis, but no particular meaning by itself
meh - singlish slang in a question

Reference - Federation

Reference to Federation of Malaya. Singapore was never the part of the Federation. The author exercised poetic licence.

Reference - Mei

Mei represents children who cannot excel in the Singapore school system.

Reference - South Ocean

South Ocean = Nanyang

With reference to the top primary school in Singapore.

Reference - Hope

"Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies" - Andy Dufresne (played by Tim Robbins) in Shawshank Redemption (written by Stephen King).

This ending of this story is about hope. A hope that the Singapore education system can improve.

Reference - Line One, Two, Three

Singapore's primary school streaming system in the early 2000s with names: EM1, EM2 and EM3. These names and differentiations have now evolved.

Reference - National Day

Singapore's National Day.

9th Aug 1965

Reference - Deputy Commissioner

Lianhe Zaobao's readers voted the word 色 as the word of the year to describe Singapore in 2012. For the non-Chinese readers, this word meant colour but it could also mean lust.

It won the popular vote as a result of the multiple sex scandals that happened in 2012 including

1. Cecilia Sue and Ng Boon Gay (Former CNB director)
2. Former SCDF commissioner Peter Lim
3. Speaker of Parliament: Michael Palmer
4. NUS law professor Tey in the sex-for-grades scandal
5. Fifty over men involved in underage paid sex with a 17-year-old prostitute.

This tongue-in-cheek reference used a Deputy Commissioner, but it must be stressed the Singapore Police Force was not involved in any sex scandal in 2012 per se although a police Sergeant is now currently under investigation for a violent double murder (in 2013).

Butterflies Over the Ocean (0 of 10)

For my Dearest Kimiko, Sora and Shizuku.

This story is dedicated to the teachers, parents and children of Singapore.

Links

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Thian Hock Keng Temple

Clark Quay

Night View from the Barrage