00:00I thought she was interested in me, that's why she's keep talking to me.
00:03But then I found out that she was talking to me because she wanted to learn English.
00:07Yeah.
00:08Hi.
00:08Hello.
00:09Hello.
00:10Hello.
00:11Hello.
00:11Hello.
00:12Hello.
00:12Hello.
00:13Hello.
00:13Hello.
00:13Hello.
00:16Hello.
00:21Hello.
00:21My name is Ravindan Yoko.
00:24This is Ravindan.
00:26Yeah.
00:26And I'm a gangster.
00:27I'm a gangster.
00:28I'm a gangster.
00:28I'm a gangster.
00:29I'm from Sri Lanka.
00:31I grew up in Tokyo.
00:33It's a city side.
00:35So everything is available.
00:38I was the only child, so basically everything I want, I could get.
00:43My mom is a stay-at-home mom, so she cooks for me every day, three times a day.
00:49And she can do the sewing.
00:51She can basically do everything.
00:53Till now, I feel the pressure that I need to be like that, but I need to be the perfect
00:57mother and wife.
00:58I think for me, it's a bit opposite because Sri Lanka was, when I was growing up, it was
01:04going through a civil war.
01:06But luckily, I was living in the Colombo, which is a city area, so we have to be struggling
01:11for higher studies and all that.
01:13So that's one of the reasons I've been in Singapore.
01:15So that's one of the reasons I've been in Singapore.
01:17I moved 24, 26 years, I think.
01:19So what happened was I wanted to study overseas.
01:22The profession I chose was design.
01:26So in my country, we don't have much of an option to study for the design.
01:31Then while I was working, I saw this advertisement from Singapore University, Lasalle SIA, advertising
01:37that they are looking for talented people that you can join and study.
01:42So then I studied here for about four years, and then I found a job.
01:47That's how my life changed from Sri Lanka to Singapore.
01:51I came here to Singapore 2012, and I wanted to go somewhere other than Japan and looking
01:59for an opportunity.
02:00At the time, I had three options.
02:02One is Bangalore, another one is Bangkok, and the last one is Singapore.
02:07For Singapore, it was great.
02:09I found it very similar to Tokyo, everything that like a transport system, how people behave,
02:16how their lifestyle, everything is quite similar to my hometown, Tokyo.
02:21Of course, I do have a difficulty in communication because I have no chance to speak English
02:26in Japan.
02:27So when I came here, I really had the difficulty to understand what the Singaporean says.
02:37Because she was here for a business trip, so one of my mutual friend is a designer also.
02:44I was in, so he's her friend.
02:46He said, oh, my friend is coming to Singapore, and he's a designer.
02:50Let's share.
02:51Let's entertain her.
02:52When I come to Singapore, he explains everything.
02:54Oh, if you want to go there, you might see this kind of thing, or you might experience
03:00this kind of thing.
03:01In that case, you do this.
03:03She's also very kind and very open-minded as well.
03:05I thought she was interested in me, that's why she keeps talking to me.
03:08But then I found out that she was talking to me because she wanted to learn English.
03:12Yeah.
03:13Then luckily that he's not the native English speaker, so we both are talking in the broken
03:19English, and I don't feel any pressure to talk to him, so I'm very comfortable.
03:23We talk every day.
03:24Every day and night.
03:25Yes.
03:26Then we do the Skype, the video call as well.
03:29So after that, whenever we don't talk, we started missing each other.
03:34So that's why we thought, oh, something is there.
03:36It's not always very successful with different culture people coming together.
03:41Both need to have a very open-minded, because we will really, we're going to face certain
03:46things that, hey, this is going to be a very shock, this is how this is done.
03:50Both of us are facing the similar thing that kind of help each other to talk even more
03:55and express ourselves.
03:57While we are both growing like that, then I think it's bonded that even more closer.
04:02Together, hey, let's face together.
04:04I think we are a good team.
04:05Finally, I proposed to her in Japan.
04:07Then we moved, she moved to Singapore.
04:12We, we wanted our wedding to have three cultures influence inside.
04:17Oh, then my mom was wearing the kimono.
04:19Oh yeah, kimono.
04:20Oh yeah, kimono.
04:21Then the arouse mom wearing the sari.
04:23Oh yeah, there's a vindi.
04:24Oh yeah.
04:25It's very nice.
04:26So this was a small touch that she wanted to bring out our culture inside.
04:30We even have a live prata station.
04:33And the Japanese, we had a desert making thing also, right?
04:37Yeah.
04:38So we were in our opposite language.
04:41I speak Tamil, he spoke Japanese.
04:43Do you still remember it?
04:44Of course.
04:45Can you say it?
04:46What kind of family are you doing?
04:48I love you.
04:49I love you.
04:50I love you.
04:51I love you.
04:52I love you.
04:53I love you.
04:54Then I think it's a racist history now.
04:55It's like 12 years' marriage.
04:57We decided after that to have our children.
05:00It was quite an obvious choice to choose Singapore for us.
05:04The school is very near and the studies are very good.
05:06very good. I have two kids so one is Akilen and the other one is Hiroshan as a Tamil name.
05:13We call them Aki and Hiro then it sounds like a Japanese name. They bring us English and they
05:19teach us like some of the words like Papa you don't understand this is La you need to put it
05:23here you shouldn't be put it there this is looks weird. Actually for the mother tongue they take
05:27Chinese. It is another introduction for us from a different culture. Small things comes in like
05:32how they talk and all that's influenced her to study Chinese as well so she goes for Chinese
05:37classes. Yeah I'm going to the community center to learn Chinese and they don't want us to know
05:41something they will talk in Chinese and then they plan everything and then it comes to us.
05:53Hey what we are cooking today? We're gonna cook yakisoba then we will mix with the Sri Lankan
05:58soya meat. I like that. Having dinner together as a family is very important so I do cook every day
06:07then I'm trying to incorporate all the culture like Singapore, Sri Lanka, Japan all together.
06:14Oh this is my kids children's favorite food basically you can mix anything any kind of meat
06:21any kind of veggie. Today I put the Japanese leek and the mushrooms and we want to add on the Sri Lanka
06:28soya meat. So our favorite Singapore food is ha chonggai. Yeah my kids also love it so much. Yes our
06:37nearest hoka center is has a one famous store there in the ha chonggai. Sometimes I buy for my kids for lunch.
06:46Okay it's done. Thanks. Sri Lanka soya meat to yakisoba.
06:54Itadakimasu!
06:58I just started my passion as a business. I do 3D filming so it is a home-based business I'm doing it. I'm
07:09looking forward to grow that up in for the next few years so then I can do for the community as well.
07:18This is a 671 RN center where I do my community service as a grassroots leader. I'm a vice chairman
07:24here. I think this is one of the good chance for me to how to give back to the society and the
07:30culture around the community over here. We do enjoy the ARRAs at the event organized by ARRA
07:37and we brought our children to the children's day and of course the Christmas celebration then we get
07:43to know all the neighbors. We have a good chance to learn about more things about the culture here
07:49so that helps me to study and at the same time to adapt to it and give it back to the society also.
07:54It helps me a lot. I think I'm a very proud Singaporean. Everything is available, a good education system,
08:01very safe and in a small place many things happening. It's very exciting too so I think we made the right choice.
08:10I feel the same.
08:11I feel it. I'm very proud of my children.
08:13I feel it. I feel it. I'm a great coach.
08:15I feel it. I feel it. I feel it. I feel it. I'm a good coach.
08:19It's a great coach for me to learn more about the culture and to get out.
08:23I feel it. I feel it. I feel it.
08:30Singapore is very important.
08:32Now, we have two children of Singaporeans.
08:37We are happy to learn in the green and safe,
08:40and we are proud to be able to grow and grow and grow.
08:46We are grateful for our heart.
08:48In this country, we would like to celebrate this beautiful city.
08:55愛を込めて、あらえんよこ。
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