Speak in English (aka: the Channel 5 joke)

[technobatta]

My company has mostly local employees and during the office meetings the discussion starts invariably in English. However, after a while when two Singaporeans speak to each other they switch to Chinese which leaves me all bored and wondering what's going on. Noticing the confused look on my face someone suddenly speaks up to the group. Nodding towards me, they say "Channel 5. Channel 5" and then the people who were chatting in Chinese say "sorry" and start talking in English again.

This has happenned to me many times in office meetings as well as during social meetups. This "Channel 5" joke seems to be widely used in the Singaporean society.

Can anyone provide more insight to this "Channel 5" joke? I am guessing it is some tv advertisement long time ago....

[taxico]

i THINK it means to switch back to english (ch5 being an english channel).

heh!

[danialgoh]

It's like this. I remember this joke was around since 15-20 years back. I came from a school where there were Chinese, Malay, Indian students. Like most of us, we normally tend to stick to friends of the same race.

If there are any other races in the group, we tend to speak in English, for the benefit of the other friend who is a different race.

In Singapore, the English channel is Channel 5.

Do you get it now?

[sundaymorningstaple]

Daniel appears to be part verbose parrot. He said exactly the same thing as Taxico but it took him 4 paragraphs to say what taxico said in 14 words.

I'll bet you talk non-stop when you are driving. Would have to really annoy anybody who had the misfortune to hire you I'd think.

[danialgoh]

May I kindly ask the following to the moderator, sundaymorningstaple.

1) How long have you been in Singapore?
2) Are you British?
3) Do you know any of Singapore's history?

I have nothing against expats. In fact, I love them. They bring money to our economy. Some even come here, fall in love with our women and they go on to become PRs.

If you have been in Singapore long enough, you would have known that the British ruled here once. The British employs amahs, also known as helpers. The British appreciate any kind of help they can get here. They know they are visitors to this country and locals would be of great help.

My point is, getting advice from SE forum is one thing but getting help on the whole is another. What may be useless to you may be useful to someone else.

Cheers...

[durain]

so you like your history, like you like to dig out old history post on this forum!

[danialgoh]

History is something which I don't lke. History is something I know.

Cheers.

[DimWit Kid]

My point is, getting advice from SE forum is one thing but getting help on the whole is another. What may be useless to you may be useful to someone else.

Cheers...

I just don't like the tone and I'm kind of have nothing to do at night so let me take the bait..

danial, isn't the "help" you mentioned actually was given by taxico? And did you not repeat what he said, plus showing off your knowledge of history which may or may not be interesting to the OP (and I don't see the help of it in the context)? And on top of that, you replied to somebody who wrote almost three months ago - which is durain's point, and if you understand English as well as you claim to understand History, you would have caught the meaning and not responded the way you did.

Well.. if I want to dissect your English I could even be offended by implying that we come here and become PR because we fall in love with YOUR women?? Let's stop flaming. I won't say anything condescending about Singaporean in Singapore forum, and let's not starting mudslinging to expat in expatforum.

[danialgoh]

Finally after a looong time, someone has used the right word. The word here is flaming.

Take a look at the posts I made. Who started all this flaming issues?

I got offended when a moderator (yes, a moderator) started flaming every posts I made and even accused me of soliciting business from expats. And since you corrected my sentences, how do you define solicit?

Somewhere in my posts, I mentioned that at no time, did I ever 1) Reveal my handphone number. 2) Reveal my private email.

So when you get accused of something you never did, you would naturally speak up right? So that's what I did. I spoke up. Its the same as someone punched you. You don't sit back and let him/her punch you over and over again right?

I admit that I used the sentence strongly, "Some came here, fell in love with our women and get PRs. Well yeah that was meant to hurt. Well, lets just skip this part.

Be it asians or westerners, flaming in forums are everywhere. Just that I am a little disappointed with a certain moderator.

I am pretty sure this flaming issue will clog this forum. Isn't this stupid?

PS: I have nothing better to do too. Hence, the reply.

Cheers...

[sundaymorningstaple]

Excuse me, but in several of your posts you did what is called passive advertising which is creative advertising nonetheless. Any type of advertising, passive or active, is advertising.

I deleted your comments in one post regarding "expats who hire me to take them to JB" and another in one of your other posts "expats who hire me to go shopping for them". This is a form of placing yourself "out there" as a person for hire. That's solicitation even though you didn't come out and say call me or PM me. Therefore those posts were edited to remove the "come-on".

I left this one, so here's a good example:
http://www.singaporeexpats.com/forum/su ... ore#372283

We've seen 'em all, so don't get your dander up too high because you weren't singled out. You guys are very easy to spot. Usually we just delete the posts and lock the account. I didn't to that in this case because most of your posts yesterday were just useless one-liners trying to build up your post count as otherwise they added nothing to the thread. Maybe I was too lax?

Your posts today are looking a little bit better.

May I kindly ask the following to the moderator, sundaymorningstaple.

1) How long have you been in Singapore?

I'm almost willing to bet I been an adult here just as long as you have and most probably a lot longer.

2) Are you British?

No.

3) Do you know any of Singapore's history?

Probably as much as you do if not more as I've actually studied it as do most foreigners here once they make the decision to stay. I've lived a lot of it. I visited Singapore the first time in 1967. I've lived here since 1982 (over 26 years).

I have nothing against expats. In fact, I love them. They bring money to our economy. Some even come here, fall in love with our women and they go on to become PRs.

Funny thing about that, Both of my kids were born in the old KK hospital and went to local schools. Both speak Mandarin as their 2nd language although their mother isn't Chinese. And yes I've been a PR for a long, long time. I also own my own HDB flat. So take issue with me if you like. I'm up for it.