Singlish

[hellothere]

Hi everyone out there...especially to foreigners !

I am a Singaporean and speaking on behalf of all or most Singaporeans that we do want to and try to speak proper English if we can. However, being in a multi-racial/language society and surrounded by Singlish-speaking environment, we are totally immersed in Singlish. Hence, it is unavoidable.

Being a mother, I constantly correct my daughter to speak the proper English. I have to admit that my English is pretty lousy at times and will try to improve. One of the ways is to serve this forum which I know, has many English native speakers where I can pick up good English.

Its pretty disappointing...to know of some foreigners who only wish to stick to their 'own kind' just to avoid picking up Singlish. Pls put aside this flaw of ours and get to know our beautiful values and culture.

Thank you for listening.

[dot dot dot]

Ayo, its ok lah!

no need to worry meh?

Eric

[earthfriendly]

I don't know how to help but perhaps listening and watching BBC or American programing may help.

What about writing to the Sg govt. to encourge the nation to learn and write proper English. Govt. can only do so much since the young Singaporeans think it is cool to use Singlish instead of standard English. It has been a shock when I visit Singapore and hear the prevalence of Singlish and mispronunciation. The standard of English language in Sg has deteriorated tremendously.

My concern is not so much Singlish but I really want my daughters to have a good and accurate command of mandarin as I deem it imperative for her cultural identity. It is very difficult for most to master two languages equally well, unless you are linguistically gifted. This is especially so when the languages invloved are structured as differently as English and Mandarin. After you master the Chinese wrtiing system, there is only so much brain memory space left to learn another language. I think Singlish and Sing-Mandarin are the by-products of a system that promotes bilingualism. However, Singapore has no choice since it is multi-cultural. Unless the government changes its stance on bilingualism and allows parents to put their kids in a single-meduim education system. Singaporeans will continue to be lacking in their language skill. As the saying goes, Jack of all trade but master of none.

Good luck.

[Baron Greenback]

Singlish is a flavour of English & as languages evolve it should not be discouraged. Language is a means of communication - no matter how you talk as long as you are understood then you are communicating.

But if you want to speak 'proper' english I would suggest you tune your radio into the BBC world service as local radio DJs seem to speak more Singlish than English.

Best of luck

[Saint]

I'm British born and bred but wouldn't admit to speaking perfect English but then again I've yet to meet someone who does. Old lizzie while out in public probably does but in private while watching the gee gees (Horse racing) over a bottle of stout, I bet it's a different story!

You have so many different accents and dialects throughout Britain itself that it's virtually impossible to say what's perfect English.

A few years ago myself and a Scottish colleague of mine were entertaining a couple of Sceptics (Americans). After a few cold ones (Beers) the Sweatty's (Scots guy) Scottish accent became stronger and stronger and in the end I was having to "translate" for the Americans!!

Singlish is just another form of English which has evolved over time and yes at first I had problems understanding but in time i didn't have a problem.

When the trouble and strive (The wife) first came to old blighty (England) and we went out with friends, they found it very hard to understand what her in doors (The wife) was saying, but in time the wife has toned down her Singlish.

So I guess I'm saying there isn't such thing as perfect English.

[sundaymorningstaple]

I'm British born and bred but wouldn't admit to speaking perfect English but then again I've yet to meet someone who does. Old lizzie while out in public probably does but in private while watching the gee gees (Horse racing) over a bottle of stout, I bet it's a different story!

You have so many different accents and dialects throughout Britain itself that it's virtually impossible to say what's perfect English.

A few years ago myself and a Scottish colleague of mine were entertaining a couple of Sceptics (Americans). After a few cold ones (Beers) the Sweatty's (Scots guy) Scottish accent became stronger and stronger and in the end I was having to "translate" for the Americans!!

Singlish is just another form of English which has evolved over time and yes at first I had problems understanding but in time i didn't have a problem.

When the trouble and strive (The wife) first came to old blighty (England) and we went out with friends, they found it very hard to understand what her in doors (The wife) was saying, but in time the wife has toned down her Singlish.

So I guess I'm saying there isn't such thing as perfect English.

Excellent example except for one very noticable difference that I think makes all the difference in the world.

While you use different slang/words to mean the same thing, you still primarily use proper grammer and sentence structure and spelling. The problem with singlish is that it doesn't. I believe that's where all the gripes come from. This is a discussion that's been done to death so this will be my only comments.

I use some singlish when with some of my in-laws and close local friends (rarely as it is actually seen as an insult to most of the locals that "I've" talked to about it - cannot speak for 'other' posters on this forum). They seem to think it looks like we are patronizing them or dumbing down our speech when talking to them. I would never use it in the office or in an official capacity.

Even the Government acknowledges it is an embarassement hence the various pogroms - (okay campaigns)

[Saint]

I hope you are taking the michael with your last post sms?!

[Vaucluse]

I hope you are taking the michael with your last post sms?!

Don't see why he would be, makes excellent points.

Regarding Singlish - it's a quasi language, and Singaporeans have every right to have something which unites them and makes them unique.

Having said that, it frustrates me when our kids come home from school and start their Singlish thing here. It's not so much an accent, more of a pidgin derivative. Sentences consist of only a few words, tenses lose their meaning, singular and plural are intertwined. Personally, at home I hate it. To think they spoke so well when we arrived.

What is worse, however, is that teachers are using sub-standard english - simply awful.

Again - Singlish is excellent and fun to listen to, but it has its place.

(Mind you, the general standard of English here is better than anywhere else in Asia, by far - which makes living here so much easier)

[kpinsg]

Though I sometimes joke about Singlist, I see no problem with people speaking Singlish here in Singapore. This is your language, your culture, and way of life. When we first move to Singapore, I expect my boy to pick up some Singlish, and I am quite sure that when we move back home, he will pick up whatever ABCish that is spoken in that place.

Honestly, as a parent, I would like my kid to speak "proper" English. However, having living in California and talk to Californians and people from Texas, and then living in Scotland and talk to people from Glasglow, I am confused to as what is "proper" English.

As some has mentioned above, grammar is crucial. If my kid cannot write proper grammer (which is easier to define), I will be very concerned. But as a local language, which is very fluid in nature, Singlish is perfect for its local use.

My experience in Hong Kong shows a similar thing. The Hong Kong people speak Cantonese, a dialect that is spoken by many in the southern China. When we travel to Shenzhen and Guangdong province, I feel that they are not speaking "proper Cantonese." Of course I am measuring them from a Hong Kong perspective. However, "their" Cantonese serve them well. They might not even recognize some of my "proper" Cantonese.

In writing, however, Cantonese speaking people follows the Mandarine way of writing, the "proper" way.

My point is, I see no problem for my kid to speak Cantonese, even different versions of Cantonese as long as he lives in Hong Kong. However, I would still want him to "write proper Chinse," becuase that is the national standard.

On the other hand, it seems imperative for us, foreigners, to at least learn some Singlish in order to appreciate the culture here. There are something that the Singlish can express well, and which is foreign to the foreigners.

[k1w1]

I think Saint makes a couple of good points here. As a kiwi I certainly could be described as having a somewhat unusual (shall we say...) accent. I don't deny it (as if I could!) and am actually pretty proud of it.

However, I understand too that other English speaking countries do not use the words I use for things (If I asked sms or bh10y if they had seen my thongs, they may not react the same way an Aussie might ) Most of the time, we can adapt accordingly.

I have met Brits who put "me" at the end of a sentence: "I'm buyin' a shirt, me" and Americans who say "I done did the shopping today". Hardly perfect grammar! I guess the difference that sms was pointing out, is that despite these little differences, most of the time English speakers still understand each other.

However, Singaporean English is a whole other board game. Intonation is frequently on the wrong part of the word (in my opinion the biggest barrier to understanding by other Englsih speakers), and sentence structure seems to follow different rules entirely. A student asked me this weekend: "write a sentence here, can?" I had no idea who he was referring to as there was no subject. The "lah" etc is cute and I like that: kind of like their own spin on the langauge which, as I said, we've all done in our own way.

So on that bright note: I'm off to chuck the ankle-biters into their resting pads, before staring at the idiot box and wrapping my laughing gear round a cold one. On ya.

[kermit]

hi k1w1 Singlish is directly translated from Chinese. And it tends to follow Chinese sentence structure. In Chinese "can" or "may i" will be at the back of the sentence. Therefore "write a sentence here, can?" will be the correct sentence structure in Chinese as opposed to proper english of "May I write the sentence here? That's why it maybe confusing to you.

[GordonGekko]

Hi hellothere,

If there is people behaving like that, the best you can do is to ignore 'em. Still, I don't think that the majority of foreigners are keeping away in order to speak "pure" English, but rather that they are afraid of not getting understood or maybe even ridiculed.

A friend of mine is living in Japan and speaks fluent Japanese, which is not expected of a westerner. His own experience is that the Japanese were rather uneasy about this, and he felt pressured to speak English instead.