My Thoughts on Hiring Domestic Helpers

It’s Sunday afternoon again. I am having my cleaning lady help me do some housework now while I try to write this journal entry as quickly as possible. For the past 10 years, I have hired a part-time domestic helper to tidy up my apartment for three hours on a biweekly basis. She helps me iron my clothes and clean my bathroom, kitchen and living room.

For three hours’ worth of housework, I pay the domestic help agency SGD 83 (approximately USD 61), which I find quite reasonable. The lady who currently services my house is from Myanmar. Although her knowledge of English is somewhat limited, it’s sufficient for her to understand the tasks that need to get done, so overall I’m quite happy with her level of service.

Here in Singapore, hiring a domestic helper is a very common practice, due to the prevalence of double-income households and an aging population. Most domestic helpers are from the Philippines, Indonesia, and Myanmar. They are attracted to Singapore for the higher wages compared to their home countries, and the relatively low language barrier to overcome as people here speak English.

When I was in Japan more than 20 years ago, it was very rare for Japanese households to hire domestic helpers, as it was taken for granted that each person should take care of their own housework and paying someone else to do their domestic chores was generally frowned upon as a sign of laziness.

However, these days, things are slowly changing in Japan. A few weeks ago, I read a report on a Japanese news site that in big cities like Tokyo and Osaka, there has been a significant increase in demand for domestic help in normal middle-income households as people experience more pressure at work.

I think it’s a good change, because paying others to do your housework is not something that you should be ashamed of. I believe that lack of open-mindedness is holding back Japan’s economic development, and it’s high time that Japanese people started changing their mindsets.

Given its shrinking population, Japan should also consider allowing more immigrants to settle in the country. The language barrier is a major impediment, as Japanese people generally aren’t fluent in English.

For immigrants to adapt successfully to their new environment, the government should provide more support for immigrants, including helping them learn the Japanese language and local customs. Granted, it’s an expensive and time-consuming undertaking, but it needs to be done as Japan’s very survival as a nation is at stake.

Watched "18x2 Beyond Youthful Days"

I have a busy day planned for today. First, I need to write this journal entry and have it proofread by ChatGPT in preparation for my online English lesson on Tuesday; then, I need to go to Farrer Park for grocery shopping for the upcoming week. In the afternoon, I am going to the nearby cinema to catch “Article 20,” the latest film directed by Zhang Yimou, one of my favorite directors; after that, I am going to the gym across the street for a one-hour workout. When it’s done, I’ll finally come home to cook dinner.

Speaking of films, last night I went to the movie theater in my neighborhood and watched “18x2 Beyond Youthful Days,” a Japanese-Taiwanese co-production directed by Michihito Fujii. This is a love story between Ami, a young Japanese female backpacker in Taiwan, and Jimmy, a Taiwanese boy whom she meets locally. It depicts their encounter, their interactions during Ami’s short stay in Taiwan, and Jimmy’s railway journey in Japan 18 years later where he reminisces about their fleeting but happy days together.

As this film opened only a few days ago, I can’t give any spoilers in this journal entry, but I can say that it was enjoyable and worth watching. The dialogues were in Japanese and Mandarin, both of which I speak and understand, affording me a deeper level of appreciation for this touching story.

Due to historical reasons, I feel that Japan and Taiwan share many commonalities in terms of culture and the general ways in which people think and behave, in a way that feels much closer than the relationship between Japan and Mainland China.

Many Taiwanese grow up reading Japanese comic books and watching Japanese cartoons and television series; Japan is also their favorite travel destination, where they enjoy exquisite local food, well-maintained cultural sites, and spectacular nature. Both peoples savor each other’s cuisines, which tend to be more lightly yet subtly flavored compared to food from other Asian countries, like Mainland China or Korea.

I traveled to Taipei on a company trip last October and enjoyed myself to the utmost. Given my very short stay in the city, I focused on visiting local bookstores, one of my favorite things to do wherever I travel. I ended up buying a few Japanese comic books translated into Chinese. As I’m focusing on learning French now, I still haven’t gotten around to opening them. However, whenever I get tired of French and feel like a change of pace, I’ll definitely binge-read those beautifully drawn comic books and get my fill of the Chinese language.

Switching My Gym in June

Today is the last day of the long weekend of the Good Friday holiday. Aside from writing this journal entry, I only have some mundane tasks planned for the rest of the day, like shopping for groceries and hitting the gym.

Speaking of which, I have a membership at the gym located in the shopping mall near my apartment. I’ve been going there since July of last year on a one-year contract. Although I’m happy with its facilities and services overall, I’ve decided not to extend my membership when it expires at the end of June.

The reason is that my new office has its own gym, which is open to the employees at about half the price of what I’m paying at my current gym. Given that I only ride the treadmill and never lift weights, I only require the most basic facilities for my workouts, so I’ve decided to switch to the company gym.

Like many gay guys, I admit that I find muscular guys more attractive than guys who are lanky or chubby, and I have previously harbored a desire to become muscular myself. However, it didn’t take me long to figure out that building up muscles is no easy task–it requires total dedication, where I should be prepared to work out daily for about 90 minutes, as well as tailor my diet to maximize my protein intake.

As I’m currently focusing on my French studies, which take up a substantial amount of my free time, dedicating an hour and a half to muscle-building on top of that is an impossibility for me, so I have no choice but to give up on the idea of acquiring a beach-body physique–at least not anytime soon.

However, that doesn’t negate the importance of exercising twice a week or so, especially walking vigorously to the point of breaking a sweat. I’ve read that moderate exercise like walking is hugely beneficial in terms of maintaining the health of your brain and slowing down the overall aging of your body.

Accordingly, I am determined to keep up my current exercise routine of a 60-minute uphill treadmill ride every time I visit the gym. As the saying goes, health is priceless, so while I’m pretty busy with my language learning, I’m going to do whatever is necessary to stay healthy, regardless of whether or not I look attractive to the other gay guys.

Should Have Perfected My English Vocabulary

Yesterday was a public holiday here in Singapore for Good Friday. I spent a good part of the day studying French words.

As of today, I am 28 percent of the way through my dictionary. Typically, I spend about three hours a day learning French vocabulary, allocating two hours to learning new words and another hour to reviewing the words I’ve learned during the preceding two days.

Not many people try to study vocabulary by going through their dictionary from beginning to end, but I have done it for French at least twice before, so I’m quite used to the idea and also know very well what to expect.

While it’s an efficient method to acquire an extensive vocabulary in a relatively short period, you also forget many of the words you’ve learned. It sounds like a largely wasted effort, but I’m not dismayed by this phenomenon anymore as I’ve experienced it so many times before.

The important thing is that you shouldn’t feel disappointed by the number of words you forget; instead, adopt a zen attitude about it and continue learning a new set of words every day without worrying too much about retaining them in your memory.

Since I’m not too concerned about forgetting words, I don’t use flash cards in my attempt to secure them in my long-term memory either. All I ever do is peruse the dictionary entries meticulously without explicitly trying to commit them to memory. As a result, while certain words will stick in my head, other words will inevitably be forgotten, but I'm perfectly fine with it. 

When I am done learning my current dictionary, I intend to either study the same dictionary again, or switch to another dictionary and learn the contents from cover to cover. Either way, I should be prepared to spend a few years repeating this cycle of studying an entire dictionary to acquire a vocabulary extensive enough for reading French novels without feeling frustrated.

By the way, when I was learning English earnestly during my first two years of college, I also studied tens of thousands of words and expressions, including idioms, slang, and phrasal verbs. Sometimes I spent more than five hours a day studying, which certainly helped to boost my ability to understand English. By the end of the second year, I was already able to read English novels comfortably.

Little did I know back then that my English learning journey would be far from over. Although I read dozens of books, somehow it didn’t contribute too much to my spoken fluency in English. Since then, I have tried various methods, such as shadowing movie dialogues and English broadcasts, as well as memorizing novel passages verbatim, in which I’ve achieved varying degrees of success. I’m quite fond of my current learning method, which is writing a journal entry and having it proofread by ChatGPT, as I find it quite effective in identifying problem areas in my English.

If I could start all over, I would have persisted a bit more in perfecting my knowledge of English vocabulary before starting to read novels. Up until now, I still encounter a few unknown words or phrases when I watch an American movie or series on Netflix, especially slang and colloquial expressions. Although I can still follow the general flow of the story, I feel slightly uncomfortable when I come across unknown words, and get a bit jealous of native speakers for understanding the content perfectly.

Now that I’m learning French intensively, I don’t have the time to relearn English vocabulary for the foreseeable future. However, if and when I get tired of my French studies and need to take a break, I’ll be more than happy to plunge back into learning English and deepen my understanding of its colorful colloquialism.

Sticking to My Current Learning Method

More than three months have passed since I began learning French vocabulary from a dictionary in earnest. As of today, I have covered about 26 percent of its contents - a remarkable achievement, if I do say so myself.

I study French vocabulary almost every day, not out of a sense of obligation, but because I genuinely find it enjoyable. 

At first blush, studying words directly from a dictionary might sound like a silly and quixotic idea, as the popular belief has it that the meaning of a particular word tends to stick to your head more firmly if it’s memorized in the context of a story.

However, as I soon discovered after I started this undertaking, there are huge benefits to studying words in alphabetical order, even if the method seems mechanical or robotic.

One benefit is that the words that are derived from the same source tend to be shown right next to each other in the dictionary, so that I can study them all at the same time.

For example, the basic verb “déchirer” (to tear up) appears right after the noun form “déchirement” (tearing up), which is preceded by the adjective form “déchirant” (heart-breaking), allowing me to observe the patterns in which a word changes its form depending on its grammatical attribute.

Another benefit to this learning method is that it helps me identify the so-called “faux amis” (false friends), which have very similar, if not identical, spellings to English words and yet have radically different meanings from their English cousins.

For instance, while the word “affection” can mean a feeling of fondness in a way that’s similar to English, it can also mean an ailment or disease, which is hardly imaginable to an Anglophone. The same goes for the word “allocation,” which can be understood as a distributed amount as in English, but it can also refer to benefits or subsidies granted by the government.

If I faithfully follow the sequence of words in the dictionary, I can easily detect such various nuances of a word and obtain a comprehensive understanding of its possible meanings in a matter of minutes.

Conversely, if I stick to learning words strictly through a contextual method as advocated by some language learning specialists, it can literally take ages before I can grasp the whole picture surrounding a particular word, tiring me out in the process, with no end in sight.

Accordingly, I will gladly stick to my current method of studying and keep learning the dictionary entries word by word, page by page. At the rate I’m going, I expect to finish learning the entire contents by the end of the year. Even at that point, my French will still be far from perfect, but at least my reading and listening comprehension will be greatly enhanced compared to now, so it’s definitely something to look forward to.

Reading "Just Keep Buying" Now

 

This morning, I woke up naturally around 8 a.m. without needing the alarm. Typically, on Friday evenings, I have a tendency to stay up late, mostly watching YouTube videos in a leisurely way, but last night, I took the precaution of going to bed around midnight because I had to get up early enough to make it to my hairstylist appointment at 10 a.m. today.

After having my morning coffee at my apartment, I walked to the hair salon instead of taking the bus. It took me around 30 minutes, and I reached there just in time for my appointment. It was a pleasant walk, but the weather was rather hot, and I perspired quite a bit on the way. It was a good thing that I had put on the sunblock before leaving home. This time, in addition to a haircut, I had my hair dyed dark green, my favorite color.

I was expecting to spend around two hours at the salon, but the entire process only took around an hour, freeing up an extra hour for me. So, I headed over to the Starbucks in the nearby shopping mall to relax. Although the coffee shop was somewhat crowded today, I managed to find a table and sat down to do some reading over a cup of latte.

The book I am currently reading is titled Just Keep Buying: Proven Ways to Save Money and Build Your Wealth, authored by Nick Maggiulli. This book is about how you can efficiently save and invest your money in preparation for your retirement. 

The most intriguing part of this book is what the author thinks about buying a house as opposed to renting, as a means of growing your wealth. He doesn’t give a definitive answer as to which is the better option, as the soundness of a real estate investment depends on market conditions and your specific financial situation.

Whether you are buying a house or renting, each option comes with its pros and cons. In view of my current situation and the recent high interest rate environment, I am tentatively leaning in favor of renting, but I’d really like to buy my own place one day, because I want a slightly bigger space for myself.

By the way, I am reading the Japanese version of this book. I bought it last year at a bookstore in Japan during my vacation. As I haven’t read the original version in English, I can’t comment on how good the translation is, but in terms of its readability, it’s written in natural Japanese and in a style that’s straightforward and easy to understand, so I believe that the translator must be very skillful.

Overall, it’s an enjoyable read, so it shouldn’t take me too long to finish it. I’m curious to find out what other interesting tips the author presents in the remainder of this book.

Enjoying Hong Kong Now

Last Saturday morning, I took a Cathay Pacific flight from Singapore to Hong Kong for a four-day vacation. Today is already Day 3 of my stay, and I am enjoying myself immensely here, like I normally do whenever I visit this former British colony.

Yesterday, I went to Peng Chau Island by ferry for a little excursion. I got there early in the afternoon, and explored pretty much the entire island within two hours. It had some nice hiking trails through lush green hills and beautiful beaches with clear, turquoise blue water. The tracks were neatly paved and easy to walk on, which made my journey around the island a pleasant experience. 

However, besides beautiful nature, the island didn’t have much to offer by way of enticing cafes and eateries or attractive souvenir shops, and there were no hotels. I found myself a bit bored toward the end of my stay and felt relieved when my ferry back to Hong Kong Island finally departed from the Peng Chau Island Piers at 5 p.m.

After returning to downtown Hong Kong, I headed to Causeway Bay to visit Perfume River Vietnamese Restaurant, one of my favorite dining establishments in town. I had beef curry with steamed rice and spring rolls for dinner. As expected, the beef was extremely tender and blended nicely with curry, and the spring rolls were pleasantly crunchy. I will certainly revisit the place on my next trip here.

By the way, compared to my previous visits, I’ve noticed that there are much fewer visitors from Mainland China. I’ve read in a news article that it’s due to the fact that the Chinese economy is not doing well these days. The unfavorable exchange rate of the Chinese Renminbi against the Hong Kong Dollar, which is pegged to the mighty US Dollar, isn’t helping matters for Mainlanders either.

The same article also mentioned that there is now a reverse flow of people, with more Hong Kongers visiting the neighboring Chinese city of Shenzhen for cheap shopping and dining experiences than the other way around. 

I’ve visited Shenzhen three times before. To be perfectly honest, it felt like a boring city that lacked the beauty and allure of Hong Kong, but it could be because I didn’t know my way around Shenzhen and ended up visiting only boring places. The next time I travel to Shenzhen, I should really plan ahead and go to more cool and fun places.