By Bea Johnson – November 11th, 2010
I was sitting down at Boat Quay one morning, shortly after my
arrival in Singapore, and overheard two young Asian girls chatting
at the table next to us.
When I didn’t immediately understand what they were saying, I
assumed they were speaking Mandarin. However, after a few more
minutes, I realised I could understand a few words, and then
to my astonishment, I realised that they were in fact speaking
English. I was even more amazed when I realised that this must be
their first language. How then could they speak it with such a
funny accent?
Before I came to Singapore, I had of course heard of Singlish,
but had assumed it was more a case of sprinkling the official
language of English with a dash of Chinese or Malay slang. I had
not realised that it is actually a stable, fully-fledged language
and more recently, rather a controversial topic.
This very local dialect is viewed with pride and affection by
most Singaporeans, and considered to be an important part of
local heritage.
However, in recent years, the government has become increasingly
concerned that the popularity of Singlish could lead to
deterioration in the population’s “proper” English, thus limiting
Singapore’s trading opportunities with the outside world and
denigrating their appearance abroad.
As a result, not only is Singlish banned on television, but
somewhat amusingly the Speak Good English Movement’s latest
campaign suggests that the next time you see a sign written in poor
English, you should whip out your post it notes and paste a sticky
note over it, correcting the error. The idea has been described as
guerrilla by some, and seems a tad excessive (not to mention at
odds with the strict rules on vandalism).
On launching this year’s campaign the Minister for Community
Development, Youth and Sports Vivian Balakrishnan replaced the
ubiquitous and perfectly comprehensible sign at the Xin Food Court
saying, “No outside food allowed” with one which reads “No food
from elsewhere, please”. Seriously, the original was fine.
Taxi drivers are one of the best sources of Singlish and
are a constant source of amusement for us “ang mohs” and,
sometimes, of frustration. We wonder why when we say an address,
the taxi driver will sit and ponder for a few minutes until
repeating it seemingly identically.
On one occasion, a friend got a bit tongue-tied when asking for
an address and it came out as “Reonie Hir”. As we looked at each
other in horror at this unintentional faux pas, the taxi driver
merely repeated “Ah, Reonie Hill lah, OK.” Apparently no offense
was taken, and off we went.
On one occasion, my lack of Singlish was a serious hindrance. I
had received a voucher for a facial, which I duly tried out. The
next day I received a call from an unknown number and, assuming it
was the beauty salon calling to harass me about future treatments,
was a tad curt. However, after a few minutes, to my horror, I
realised it was a telephone job interview!
By this point, I had no idea who the company was or even what
the role was, and spent the next ten minutes alternately cringing
every time I had to ask the interviewee to repeat herself, and
wondering what the heck we were talking about! Aiyo! Needless
to say I never heard back about that one.
Someone who seems to straddle both worlds with ease is the
YouTube wonder kid, aka the “Singaporean White Guy”, a hybrid expat
Singaporean/American high school boy, well worth checking out.
In my ongoing quest to improve my Singlish, I have just been
informed of a fascinating word: “kiasu”.
It is not just a Hokkien adjective meaning literally
“afraid of losing” but most interestingly of all, TalkingCock.com
(not a porn site but an excellent tool for
Singlish enthusiasts) calls “kiasu-ism” Singapore’s most
defining national characteristic. It is this attitude that leads
Singaporeans to join a queue, even if they don’t what it is for —
just in case they might be missing out.
Most educated Singaporeans realise when to use Singlish and when
to use “proper” English, and a blogger summed it up perfectly when
he wrote: “Ban Singlish cannot but must learn when
to use, lah.”
A little taste of Singlish I’ve managed to decode in my short
time here:
- Yahoo!Singapore