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Question: Will foreign kids in local schools speak Singlish?

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madura
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Post by madura » Thu, 11 Jun 2009 9:39 am

The mission schools would be a good place to start your research, if you are comfortable with the church-affiliation. I think they would fit your criteria and I've seen quite a number of expats enrolling. Can't say for sure whether it was an easy process.

Darth Vader
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Post by Darth Vader » Tue, 16 Jun 2009 5:03 pm

Funny concern about Singlish. I would have thought that the ability to move seamlessly through society would be a positive..

Here in expat-land-europe the question is always asked 'local school' or 'intl school'. With three kids aged 1, 3 and 5 we've just been using local and my oldest is fluently spoken in 3 languages, the middle in 2 and the youngest obviously doesn't speak yet.

Of course fluently spoken is not the same as fluently reading and writing which will be harder task in years to come, especially as English is not on the curriculum until age 11 or so...

As we're not anticipating staying here much longer, its likely that they'll forget their local languages in a few years but I still think it is an advantage for them to go through the learning process for future languages. I would have thought an attitude to Singlish the same.

FWIW, Kindergarten 9/11 explaination seems OK for me, I'd be surprised if it happened here but even NewsRound (Childrens news show about 5pm in the UK) covered it so why not???

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Plavt
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Post by Plavt » Tue, 16 Jun 2009 7:12 pm

Darth Vader wrote: I would have thought an attitude to Singlish the same.
There is nothing funny about concerns regarding Singlish Should you care to have a hunt around this website since this has been discussed before; Singlish is not standarized in that it varies in the different parts of Singapore.

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Post by Darth Vader » Tue, 16 Jun 2009 9:33 pm

Plavt wrote:
Darth Vader wrote: I would have thought an attitude to Singlish the same.
There is nothing funny about concerns regarding Singlish Should you care to have a hunt around this website since this has been discussed before; Singlish is not standarized in that it varies in the different parts of Singapore.
Not sure what your point is, all languages have dialects. German differs state by state, in Switzerland German differs valley by valley. In Belgium Dutch is different to The Netherlands. In Wales, gaelic is different village by village.

That people don't want their kids learning it because it is a waste of time or slang is fair enough but its not something to panic about, I'd consider it an extra skill rather than a problem. A bit like skateboarding, sure its noisy and you can break your leg but its part of childhood. If kids are growing up in NY they'll have their own slang from there, and baggy jeans with baseball caps that only go backwards.. If kids grow up in LA they'll have their own slang and their therapist on speed dial... it just is man...

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Plavt
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Post by Plavt » Tue, 16 Jun 2009 9:57 pm

Darth Vader wrote: Not sure what your point is, all languages have dialects.
I am well aware of that but in Singapore it is not a question of dialects, in different parts of the island speakers have their own particular version of Singlish. Just how that came about on such a tiny island I don't know but I remember that from the discussion. Not sure I can find it for you but will post the link if I can.

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Post by Plavt » Tue, 16 Jun 2009 10:08 pm

Can't find the discussion I was looking for but these might give some indication;


http://www.singaporeexpats.com/forum/ft ... t=singlish


http://www.singaporeexpats.com/forum/ft ... t=singlish

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