{"id":2987,"date":"2020-07-28T14:33:01","date_gmt":"2020-07-28T06:33:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tzlee.com\/blog\/?p=2987"},"modified":"2020-07-29T02:11:37","modified_gmt":"2020-07-28T18:11:37","slug":"why-you-should-chope-your-seat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tzlee.com\/blog\/2020\/07\/why-you-should-chope-your-seat\/","title":{"rendered":"Why you SHOULD chope your seat, especially during COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Chope culture.<\/em><\/strong> A uniquely Singaporean culture where diners at open food centers place small items such as tissue packets, business cards or water bottles to reserve a table or seat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know many people are not in favour of this, and I personally used to hate it, but let me explain using the logic of parallelism<\/strong><\/span> that it is in fact more efficient. Everybody should<\/em> chope their seats and split up and quickly order their meals, so that they can convene, eat, and leave ASAP – especially during this COVID-19 situation where half the seats have been crossed out for safe distancing. Quicker turnaround means more people get their seats, less community spread, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

… using the logic of parallelism<\/strong> that (chope culture) is in fact more efficient<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The other reason to socially accept the “chope” culture is because those eating alone or carrying a child can find it very difficult to find a seat without a companion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So why do people hate it? Because “chope” is not gracious? Rubbish lah. It’s exactly because we are ungracious – when we want a seat, we feel a sense of entitlement to a vacant seat. We see an inanimate object, and feel that it doesn’t deserve a “seat”. Seriously, what’s the difference between a tissue packet and a fully grown man waiting at the table?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

… what’s the difference between a tissue packet and a fully grown man waiting at the table?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

With that, I shall share a true story…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

I went to ABC brickworks hawker this afternoon Tuesday 28 Jul 2020 at around 1PM to eat lunch with my colleague. We placed one tissue + Fisherman’s Friend on table to “chope” a 2 pax table, and quickly left to order our food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then this father (50+) and his son (20+) duo came, sat down, and moved our “chope” away. (I saw with my own eyes as my stall is nearby.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then when we returned, the son initially denied moving the tissue, then the father came and say our tissue never put in the center, cannot see properly, etc. etc. A big pack of lies.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I said: “Please lah, it was in the middle. I saw you move it, so please admit it.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

OK, they left. Then we started eating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eat halfway, the uncle came back and started scolding us. Say this is neighbourhood hawker, no such thing as reservation, etc. etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I say, please lah, we “chope”, quickly order, quickly eat, quickly go. Isn’t it more efficient than one person sit, one person order and take turns?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then he started lecturing us, “You listen carefully (\u4f60\u542c\u597d\u597d), I tell you (\u6211\u8ddf\u4f60\u8bb2), this place is not CBD, not restaurant, this is neighbourhood, etc. etc.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lot of hokkien arguments ensued (when I switch to hokkien, things are getting serious…)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said, look, so what you want? Limpeh eating my lunch halfway. Say sorry? OK, “sorry”. Now, leave and let me eat my lunch. Then you still not happy, what you want? Call police?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then after my meal, I turned around briefly looking for a stall to order drinks. Then I heard the uncle shouting from his seat: “Come lah, come come. Come!!” I didn’t even see them – they were sitting at another table. That’s when I realised they were behind, still wanting to pick a fight. \u00af\\_(\u30c4)_\/\u00af<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

We went, ate, and left all under 20 minutes. Including the 3 minutes or so spent arguing with the uncle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Please, “chope” is more efficient. Trust me, I’m an engineer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chope culture. A uniquely Singaporean culture where diners at open food centers place small items such as tissue packets, business cards or water bottles to reserve a table or seat. I know many people are not in favour of this,… Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[129,10],"tags":[592,593],"class_list":["post-2987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food","category-people","tag-hawker","tag-singaporean"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tzlee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tzlee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tzlee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tzlee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tzlee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2987"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/tzlee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2987\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3007,"href":"https:\/\/tzlee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2987\/revisions\/3007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tzlee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tzlee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tzlee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}