Frog Boy’s last cycle

Hey everyone! Frog boy is here to share his thoughts!

Today is my last day of my internship as 5 months have just flew by at the blink of an eye! This is the last post where I will share my experiences in the farm!

When I was informed by my lecturer that I’m assigned to Jurong Frog Farm, I was confused! “Does Singapore even has a farm??” My friends were equally surprised when I told them where I would be having my internship. Some of my friends even laughed and joked that I could eat frogs every day. I was stunned at that point of time where it got me thinking what would I learn by being a farmer.

However, a week into my internship at Jurong Frog Farm changed my preconceived impression of how a farm work. I thought that being a farmer was to just take care of the frogs, grow them and sell them that’s all. But I was wrong, by being a farmer is definitely not as easy as I thought as we not only have to make sure that all frogs are in good condition and have no sickness. There are also many areas of work like hosting of educational tours, office work and also updating of social media which can keep a new age urban farmer busy 24/7!

I have learnt to create invoices for purchases & tour bookings made by customers. It was a challenge replying to emails back then as I am not trained to replying emails in a formal manner. With the guidance of my intern supervisor Jackson, I have improved on my email writing. I was tasked with another huge challenge as I have to come up with a promotion and also to promote it through social media and to design a poster to be placed in the retail shop to advertise.

I remember the first day when I was being attached to the farm and one of my tasks was to catch a frog. It is like Fear Factor to me as I was very scared. Somehow, I managed to muster my courage and carry one although I was still afraid of it. When the frog moved, I dropped it and this was still an incident I felt bad for. Frogs were yucky and slimy creatures to me back then. Now that I have gotten used to them, they are actually cute and friendly.

I can also still recall the jitters when Jackson told me to get ready to conduct my first tour. Although I was given many dry runs and practices, I was not comfortable and confident being in the centre of attention. To make things worse, that particular tour group required a mandarin speaking tour guide. My mind was a total blank and I almost threw in the towel. Jackson helped with the first segment which was the presentation part and that was the hardest to me because all the slides have to be interpreted from English to Chinese.

After the first segment was done, it was my turn to do the hands-on-frog segment. I was very stiff as I was too nervous. Fortunately everything went well. Although I was a greenhorn in this field, I was fortunate to have Jackson as my supervisor as he is a very patient person and gave me time to learn.

Throughout the internship, I felt that I have learnt many life skills and also through the on the job training, built up my confidence which I didn’t have back then. I am now able to host tours more coherently and confidently now. I am also able to reply emails more professionally. Marketing a product is much easier for me now as back then I thought that I would never be able to sell anything! 

 

I would like to thank Jackson again, for being so patient and guiding me slowly although I have screwed up most of the times as I can be sometimes very forgetful and miss deadlines!

 

Jurong frog farm has taught me so much and also given me an amazing and unique experience! I was also advised that these skills that I have learnt can be applied in my future working life. I wouldn’t mind to keep working at Jurong Frog Farm as I find farming is a very interesting job despite the challenges.

 

Oh, and lastly , I would like to thank Jackson for organising a farewell BBQ for me. It was an enjoyable get together with all the past and present JFF crew.

 

 

 

 

 

So, as for that last day as an intern, this is Frog boy aka Joseph saying farewell.