Episode Details

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. Leng Ng Tai recounts his childhood in the staff quarters of the Singapore Harbour Board where his father worked as a fitter. He dropped out of secondary school to join the engineering apprenticeship scheme at the Dockyard Technical College of the Singapore Naval Base in Sembawang. He talks about the excellent sifus (masters) who mentored him. As their ‘coffee boy’ and ‘lunch boy’, they taught him not only technical but equally important personal skills.

Part 1 | https://youtu.be/GDGLS2sZuJw

Part 2 | https://youtu.be/P8ayDbs_HuA

Part 3 | https://youtu.be/xtr_BgVOBuc

00:00 Introduction

01:32 The Singapore Harbour Board

08:02 Our Staff Quarters

14:41 Trafalgar School

23:23 The Apprenticeship Scheme

29:27 From Tanjong Pagar to the Naval Base

35:24 Mr Wong, My Sifu

41:40 Other Sifus

49:20 Personal Skills

Welcome to Chronicles of Old Singapore. This is Dr Loh KS, the people’s historian, and I speak to people on their memories of Singapore before it became a global city.

Do like the video and subscribe for future episodes. This will help the channel a lot.

Write to lkshis@gmail.com if you have any of these stories:

• Old places or kampongs.

• Communities – their way of life & culture.

• Childhood & schools.

• Work or business.

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