"Weather along
the way is quite swee, but to be safe, please kiap your seatbelt
tight, hor."
Travellers
returning to Singapore this National Day will hear this message
telling them to buckle up or other announcements sprinkled with
Singlish on selected Jetstar flights this National Day.
The budget
airline will use Singlish - the national slang - to make in-flight
service announcements on Aug 9 as part of the airline's National
Day celebrations.
These include
announcements on, say, duty-free sales: "Later we'll also be coming
around for duty free. If you haven't buy from the airport yet, then
you can buy from us lah. All same price, confirm plus chop".
Singlish lines
will be provided to the crew, but they are free to add their own
flair to the announcements, a Jetstar Asia spokesman told The
Straits Times.
It is
implementing this initiative following the success of an April
Fools' video the airline posted online which showed Jetstar staff
in classrooms learning how to make flight announcements in
Singlish.
"Singlish is a
part of Singapore's identity and heritage so we hope the public
will see this as a fun celebration of local culture on National
Day," the airline said.
But pre-flight
safety demonstrations and announcements will still be made in
standard English.
Associate
Professor of English Literature at Singapore Management University
Kirpal Singh said Singlish is a key component of the Singaporean
identity.
"Whenever
Singaporeans are abroad, one of the clearest markers of identity
is, in fact, hearing somebody speak Singlish," he said.
He downplayed
the possibility that delivering announcements in Singlish might
give foreigners the impression that Singaporeans do not know how to
speak accurate English.
"It doesn't
really matter what others think because the majority of
Singaporeans who use Singlish are actually very at home with good,
proper, formal English as well," he said.