Posted on

Wilson’s First Week Testimonial

My first week at Jurong Frog Farm so far has been an eye-opening experience. Being constantly surrounded by high rise buildings and bustling traffic in my everyday life, this internship at the farm gave me a valuable opportunity to immerse myself in a fresh scene. I understand that not many people have the chance to work in a farm environment and I am of no exception. Being a nature lover myself, I am glad to be working in an atmosphere where I’m surrounded by flora and fauna. I am able to learn new things everyday like how a farm operates and the continuous effort it takes to maintain it. Apart from that, I also learnt new skills such as cashiering. I enjoyed my work in the Royal Frog shop very much, especially interacting with people from all walks of life. I find joy in forging bonds with the customers and it really satisfies me when they leave the farm with a smile. However, since it is only my first week working at JFF, I believe I will have much more to learn and I definitely look forward to many more new experiences to come.

Posted on

An unusual routine

This is an unusual routine when the Circuit Breaker just started on 7 April. Most of the days I’m working from home instead of at the farm. This means that I do not get to interact with customers as often as I would like. However, I do get more free time in the morning! With more people staying at home, there is lesser traffic coming into the farm. Nowadays, only a few of our regular customers will come by to pick up produce every other hour. Most of them do come by leave promptly whilst observing the strict rules we have placed for social distancing.

As a front-line worker during this tense period, I’m spirited by the cooperation and mutual support that our customers are giving! I hope everyone else is coping well and taking the Circuit Breaker seriously! 4 more weeks to go!

Amanda

Posted on

2-month Internship @ JFF – by Wan Aliff

Hello! I am Wan Aliff, the latest addition to Jurong Frog Farm. I am currently an NIE undergraduate under the NTU-NIE Teaching Scholars Programme and on a track to be a Science/Mathematics teacher. As part of the BUILD (Building University Interns for Leadership Development) programme, I will be serving a 2-month internship at JFF with the objectives of learning leadership and operational skills from an industry apart from education as well as to value add to the company through means such as projects.

It’s only been my second week here and already it has been one huge experience. Set in a remote, opposite end of Singapore, it takes me about 2.5 hours of public commute if I am travelling from home. However, there is no reason to complain as the foreign workers on the farm wakes up diligently at 6 am every single day to wash and feed the frogs. Who knew running a farm could be this busy? Every single person on deck is responsible in ensuring that the farm runs smoothly.

Initially, I had some trouble memorising the content as well as delivering tours for preschool students as I wasn’t used to interacting with students of that age group. I had the privilege of having Zheng Xun and Jackson to occasionally provide tips for improvements during the tours. Although I had some experience conducting tour groups at the Sports Hub last year for older students, this was a completely different experience. During my first few tries, I made many assumptions based on the content given to me. For example, once I was telling the pre-schoolers that most of the tadpoles do not live to be an adult frog due to cannibalism which was not entirely true. Zheng Xun, the Froggy Guide who was observing the tour was quick to correct me and explain that tadpoles die for many other reasons too such as diseases, predators and often naturally.

Once, I had the chance to try out deboning the frog for a day. It took an entire day to completely debone them for me as compared to the workers who can do it in half a day. It left me with sores and aching legs and by the end of the day, I crashed on my bed and slept dead as a log by 9pm in exhaustion. It got me to reflect however. Not all jobs are ever pleasant. There I was silently complaining of the stench and the back-breaking work but at the end of the day someone must do the work. This had only been a day’s work for me and I could only just imagine the workers who had to debone the meat for the past few years. Also, I would not have been able to complete deboning the frog by the end of the day without the help of Jen and the director of JFF, Chelsea. Yes, that is right, sometimes even the boss must get her hands dirty to get the job done. To run the company, you must understand what each of your workers are doing. This was a very valuable lesson for me.

What I was really impressed thus far is the passion by the people working here for the farm. From young we were taught that Singapore’s economy had to evolve from agricultural to manufacturing and now towards high-value added technology to stay competitive. Little emphasis is thus given to understand the small agricultural scene here. The struggle to remain relevant and to preserve this rich heritage of Singapore is evident through the daily operations on the farm. You need passion. You need innovation and you need perseverance to keep a farm running in Singapore. Jurong Frog Farm is open come rain or shine through weekends and public holidays. The people here are always ready to welcome anyone to the farm with a smile and I think that is what makes the place a magical one.

Posted on

Ribblette’s Final Hop!

My favourite picture while I was working here! 🙂

Ribbit ribbit! Ribblette speaking! This is my last week of internship and it has been a wonderful 4½ months here as an intern!

Personally, I really love frogs at a young age and I was excited when I got accepted by Jurong Frog Farm as an intern.

During the first week of internship, I was assigned with many different tasks such as retail operations, managing of social media, packing of stocks and even conducting tours! At first, it was really challenging for me because of a number of different tasks I am given. However, as time passes, I was able to adapt to the working environment and was able to handle the tasks with confidence!

Of course, there are still times where I did not perform well during work but my supervisor, Zheng Xun, and my manager, Jackson, was there to lend me a helping hand! They were friendly and patient with me throughout the internship.

In this internship, I learnt many valuable skills and one of the most important things I learnt is to not make any assumptions. There were times when I made assumptions at work and it caused a few miscommunications and affected the workflow. Thus, instead of assuming, I decided to ask my supervisor and manager whenever I am unsure about certain issues or questions.

I also had lots of memories from my experience at Jurong Frog Farm such as the opportunity to meet many different celebrities from Mediacorp, participating in JFF’s 35th Anniversary, selling our products at events, celebrating Christmas and gift exchange with JFF, counting down to 2017 with JFF and so much more!

The experiences I have experienced here is really one of a kind and nothing will be able to replace these memories and experiences.

Last but not least, I am really thankful for Chelsea, Zheng Xun, Jackson, the Bangladeshi workers, the housekeepers and also Uncle and Auntie (Mr. and Mrs. Wan) for all their help with work and food during my internship!

Hopping off,

Ribblette AKA Kayleen

Posted on

Riblette hops into JFF!

Hello! My name is Kayleen aka Ribblette The reason why I chose this nickname is because frogs go “ribbit, ribbit” so, I decided to add in “lette” to feminize it! This is my 2nd week in JFF as an intern. I chose this internship because I am not afraid of frogs and I like how I get to have lots of social interaction with not only frogs but also the tour participants. I am an extrovert and I love to soak in the energy mingling with people! Besides the above, I hope too that my time here as an intern in JFF would help me to discover more about myself and apply what I would learn here for all my future endeavors.

I look forward to the opportunity to be hosting you around the farm!

Posted on

Azrul aka Frosch, your new helpful froggie guide hopping into Jurong Frog Farm!

Hi! My name is Muhammad Azrul aka Frosch, your helpful and hopefully (going to be) amazing froggie guide who has just hopped into Jurong Frog Farm! Frosch is a German word for Frog and also a character name of a cat disguised as a frog from an Anime series ‘Fairy Tail’. The reason why I choose that because the attributes of the cat is positive and happy-go-lucky like me!

My first week as an intern here can only be described as busy! I was kept occupied as there were just so many aspects of the business to learn. It was tiring and scary at first but I still keep my spirit up.

The first few days I felt pressurized with the amount of work needed to be done and especially afraid on conducting the tour all by myself. When I did my first dry run of the ‘Gabbe’s Adventure’ with Mr. Jackson at the “hands on the frog” station, I felt relieved and in fact quite proud that I have stepped out of my comfort zone with this public speaking challenge!

I was even tasked to explain about the parts of the frogs to the kids of Swiss School in Singapore. From that experience, I was sure I’ll be a better frog guide/host for future tours! I also learned about more different things in the retailing sector where I got to learn the use of the cash register and the website systems used to manage online orders and tour bookings.

All in all, the week was productive and I was greeted with smiling and friendly customers who were patient with me knowing that it was the first week of my internship!

Posted on

FRACTS #12

Hi everyone Frog boy here!

As we all know that frogs are friendly and kind creatures especially in our farm. =) But there’s a new species of frog found at the Peruvian Cloud Forest! It is said to have spines on its head and it is poisonous which would cause extreme pain!

The poison is more deadly than the secretions of a pit viper, and one of the discoverers, Carlos Jared of the Instituto Butantan in Sao Paulo found out the hard way. While collecting C. greeningi he got a spine in his hand: intense, radiating pain followed for the next five hours. It is one of the most venomous frogs!

2161

Click the link to find out more:
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/aug/06/ribbiting-news-frogs-poison-spines-revealed-and-new-species-discovered

Posted on

A new Frog Boy has arrived!!

Hi Everyone!!!  I’m Frog Boy which has just joined the frog club!

Why am i Frog boy? well… it is because I’m a boy and with the frogs. sounds reasonable right? =)

So i will be joining the JFF family for the next 5 months of internship which i feel that its gonna be exciting! At first i was afraid of touching frogs which i felt that others out there has the same fear as me too. But after overcoming my fear, they are actually cute and friendly creatures which i believe you would feel the same way as me after experiencing it at JFF (an achievement for those who never touched one before)!

As my attachment goes on, there was not much we could do outdoors for now due to the haze as it was at a unhealthy range and rainy days. But instead, I was being guided around the farm to understand different stations and their purpose. Tour dry run has been done too as i messed it up on my first 2 days due. But hey, practice makes perfect right! I was surprised that Singapore would have farms too which i found that I’m not the only one that is surprised as my friends and some others out there does not know about any farms in Singapore too. I would highly recommend everyone to come and take a visit to the farm as it is very interesting.

There are some challenges that i have faced like for example when i was holding 2 frog with both of my hand and i accidentally released and dropped(oops!) a frog which causes it to be hurt. So lesson learnt is to never release a frog even though it is struggling and this lesson is for everyone too, If a frog struggles, do not let it fall on the ground but to firm your grip or pass the frog back to any tour guide that is in-charge of it to prevent harm to the frogs.

I hope that in time i would be able to get used to grabbing on to those frogs nicely and also to be able to guide tours confidently and smoothly. =)

IMG_6302

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, and I’m Joseph aka Frog boy. =)

Posted on

Sgt.Frog is Hopping off the Farm!

Hi everyone,

Sgt.Frog here!
So this will be my last blog post here in the farm.

I have been on the farm for my internship for four months and now it’s time to share my experiences here.
The first time I heard my teacher said that I was posted to a frog farm, all my friends already starting joking that I’ll be eating frog porridge everyday!

So in my head when realized being posted to a frog farm, sweating under the hot sun and being surrounded by hundreds of frogs.

The Bullfrogs

So what did i learnt from this internship?
Learning to communicate way better than I ever did. Before the internship, I was shy and only open up to friends that i know well.
But now I’m able to talk to visitors and customers confidently on the spot and assisting them!
Also I’ve learned to react to unexpected situations calmly and appropriately. I have to say I have messed up at times during the internship but fortunately Chelsea was a forgiving person.

The first few weeks of my tours were supervised by Chelsea in case I froze during the tour.
She was friendly and patient with me throughout the internship, helping me with my flaws and teaching me the correct ways to conduct a tour and my other job scopes. It includes admin work and taking care of the shop during weekends.
I was a slow learner, so it took me a longer time before Chelsea felt that I was able to manage the tour by myself.
But before the internship started I never would have thought I’ll be able to lead a guided tour around the farm by myself!

Having my internship here at the farm was definitely one of the best experiences I ever had.
I have definitely learned many new things and improved my skills that can be applied during my future working life.

Frog riding a Beetle
(Picture by Indonesian based wildlife photographer Hendy Mp)

And with that, this is Sgt.Frog saying farewell.

Posted on

First post by hmm…Froglette?

Hello everyone, Froglette here!

So, how did I come up with this nickname for myself? I don’t particularly LOVE ‘Smurfs’, but actually got the idea from the female Smurf’s name: Smurfette. So there we go! Froglette joins the JFF family for the next 4 months, or maybe even longer.

There were a total of 3 tours that I conducted today (some together with my colleague), and I’m still getting the hang of it. My first tour group consisted of people my age, and I was honestly very anxious throughout the whole duration of this tour. But they were very nice, and a few of them standing closest to me were telling me that I shouldn’t be nervous because they won’t eat me! For my last tour of the day, it was the Gabbe’s Adventure tour, and I conducted this to quite a big group of primary 1 kids. They were very cute! I had lots of fun speaking to them, but at the same time, they were very hard to control. Crowd control is a skill I would have to pick up very soon, if not I’ll easily get overwhelmed. I’m actually very nervous about conducting tours because I have never liked talking to, or interacting with big groups of people. But maybe there is a purpose for me in coming to JFF for my internship, and hopefully by the end of my internship, I would be a more outgoing person, more willing to initiate conversations with all sorts of people, and be a changed person overall.

I’ll probably be writing more in the near future, so look out for Froglette’s posts! Bye for now! 🙂

Hi I'm Felicia (Froglette)!
Hi I’m Felicia (Froglette)!