Home is where the heart is

WHEN I graduate in a few months' time, home is where I will gravitate to from my campus hostel.

Specially built dorms for young working adults? No, thanks - I'd rather drown in the love of my nagging parents.

When I am half-crazed with work pressure, nothing can make me feel better than the smell of home-cooked food. It took me three years of hostel life to figure out that I missed my mum's bak kut teh and the accompanying dinner conversations which gave it a unique spice.

It is high time I gave something back to my parents. Instead of them cooking for me, I will get down to learning how to cook my mum's bak kut teh for her.

Lee Khai Yan, 22, is a fourth-year student at the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, NTU

It will solve baby shortage

THE idea of mixed dorms for young adults may be a solution to Singapore's flagging birth rates.

When a large group of young working adults live in close proximity to each other, they will be able to interact extensively with the opposite sex.

Such interaction can take place without the social stigma of joining a dating agency.

Many of my peers who live in campus hostels fell in love with fellow hostelites. The same effect can be expected when we have dorms for young working adults.

This time, however, the love that blossoms in these dorms may lead to marriage and then babies.

Affordable, private accommodation for young working adults on the one hand and babies for the Government on the other - everyone will be happy.

Jonathan Kwok, 24, is an honours student in Economics at NUS

Not another demarcation

DORMS for graduates? Interesting, but not an option for me.

I stand by the traditional idea that I am my parent's child until I am married. I want to stay at home and support them.

In fact, why should there even be separate areas demarcated for different groups in society?

Already, there are private apartments for foreigners, boarding schools for school-goers, studio flats for the elderly and dorms for foreign workers.

Another living space exclusive to a specific group will further impede integration. Dorms for young working adults do not bode well for a country seeking to be cosmopolitan and united.

Nurul Asyikin Mohd Nasir, 18, is a second-year International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme student at ACS (I)

Oh, for a 'Club Med' room!

PERSONALLY, the prospect of graduating and moving home after staying in campus hostels for the past four years is highly daunting.

Living independently with my peers has been liberating and enjoyable. Going home to my parents every day after graduation, on the other hand, will be more claustrophobic than ever before.

Moreover, as esteemed poet Virginia Woolf once argued, budding writers like me will need a 'room of one's own'.

Hence, a Club Med-style dorm in a quiet, respectable area which only grants exclusive entry to eligible singles really appeals to me.

Christine Chong, 22, is an honours student in Literature at NUS

Just a hive of problems

WHILE dorms for young working adults sound perfectly feasible, is it not possible that they might incur the wrath of nearby residents a la the Serangoon Gardens uproar?

Already, I can count several occasions during my two years in campus hostels when we received warning letters and complaints from those in adjacent landed properties: from accusations about objects stolen from their compounds to complaints about the noise levels from our late-night parties.

Surely, dozens of young adults housed in such dorms would incur similar negative sentiments?

As any attempt to impose rules on them is bound to cause resentment, leave them with their parents until it is time for them to marry.

Bryna Sim, 22, is an honours student in History at NUS

It will promote good values

THE one thing I learnt from living with 10 people in a bunk for two years during National Service is the importance of learning how to handle situations appropriately within a community.

Living with other young working adults in a dorm after graduation will be a more complex experience. Apart from the differences in personality, preference, habit and privacy needs, one also has to be mindful of the opposite sex.

To live harmoniously as a community, it takes mutual understanding, reciprocity and tolerance to prevent conflicts.

Such an experience will go a long way towards promoting these values in my life and teach me to co-exist with different types of people in my workplace too.

Kenny Tan, 22, is a third-year Economics student at Singapore Management University

This article was first published in The Straits Times on 20 Oct, 2008.