Queen Mary University of London Medicine student Lina reflects on a Singaporean Summer thanks to one of our funded GO Summer! programmes. More information about Summer 2025 options will be available to you soon. Watch this space!

Hi! My name is Lina and this summer, I had the privilege of attending NTU Singapore to study Bahasa Melayu (Malay language) for over a month through the QM GO Summer! programme. There was a good variety of choice for destinations such as Mexico, South Korea and some European destinations but I was set on Singapore for several reasons. Singapore is in Southeast Asia which makes for an excellent location for those wanting to travel to neighbouring countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia. It is a cultural hub with many people who have immigrated from all over the world alongside 3 main ethnic groups; Chinese, Malay and Indian. And lastly, safety was very important to me and Singapore is named one of the safest cities in the world.

As Nanyang Technological University (NTU) was a partner university to Queen Mary, the tuition fees were waived. Furthermore, with support from the GO Summer! bursary and the Turing funding, I was able to cover the major expenses of the trip. As you can imagine, this was amazing as it meant I only needed to pay for my living costs, activities and the travel I planned to do while I was there.

As a Black hijabi, I wasn’t sure what to expect from Singapore. I knew that there is a huge Muslim population, so I wasn’t worried about how I would be perceived as a Muslim but I had not read much about the Black experience in Singapore. Surprisingly, I was often mistaken for a Malay and was always spoken to in Malay. It’s a good thing I was learning Melayu! But for this reason, I don’t think I experienced what it would be like to be perceived as Black in Singapore.

Some days were thunderstorms, and other days were sunshine but one thing for certain is that Singapore weather will be humid every single day. I found it difficult to adjust to and to be honest I don’t think I ever did fully adjust to it. Singapore was so beautiful with greenery and nature everywhere, it felt refreshing to live somewhere so different to London. Singapore has malls everywhere; it is too hot and humid to be outside. So the cafes, restaurants activity centres and libraries are all in the mall meaning this was my destination most days. Every day was a bubble tea day, they had such fun drinks and snacks.

Food in Singapore is extremely affordable, especially compared to London and there are always halal options, mostly Malay, Indian, Korean or western chains. Disappointingly, NTU did not have many halal food options for students but the options in the area were widespread. There were so many Asian halal food options which are not common to find in the UK so I definitely took advantage of this and tried new foods every day. My breakfast favourite was a Prata and Teh from the local PrataWala.

Our teacher took us to a Malay restaurant in Kampong Glam as a class trip and we got to try many traditional local Malay foods. There were dishes that you don’t usually find in Malay restaurants in London rather home cooked style foods. NTU had a range of fun activities planned for us such as city tours and culture nights, but my favourite was a prata making workshop where we learned about the history of how Kolkata Prata was introduced to Singapore and made our own prata.

As the Turing grant and GO Summer! bursary had covered everything else, I was able to cover frequent trips to Malaysia. NTU was about 1.5 hours from Johor Bahru, the neighbouring Malaysian city, so I made many trips there. I also travelled to Kuala Lumpur for a weekend and Kuala Lumpur is an unforgettable destination. It is such a vibrant city with personality and culture.

I also took a ferry to Batam, Indonesia which was also about 1.5 hours from NTU and got to experience a bit of Indonesian culture. I went to a tufting studio and made this mini watermelon rug and my friend made a rising sun. This was our first time tufting, so I think we did okay!

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Singapore. Thanks to the help of the GO Summer! team, the funding made available to me and the exceptional people I met on this trip, I had an unforgettable experience.