still is "singaporeans speak singlish"

[sundaymorningstaple]

Thanks to Plavt, this whole thread was almost completely rubbished. I have taken the following from Google's cache and while it's no longer in the lead. I am deleting durain's one-liner and appending it in this post in order to put the perspective back into play. The posts by crocss22 have been edited and replace with other BS by him before we could stop him but as enough posters here quoted him, his stupidity and immaturity can be still recognized by all.

crocss22
Joined: 26 Feb 2010
Posts: 1
Sat Feb 27, 2010 12:25 am

Post subject: singaporeans speak singlish


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gbsBdG-7q0

durain
Joined: 23 Aug 2007
Posts: 2886
Sat Feb 27, 2010 7:00 am

Post subject: was Singaporeans Speak Singlish
yes we know.

And my initial post.......

That one is an intelligent one! How do I know? Because he didn't type anything at all. He already knows he got nuttin' worth saying.

And the idjit on the video who was surfing this site, well, I loved his percentages of English speakers in the home! English speakers in the home? Try singlish speakers in the home. They speak and write singlish in the work place so why would they revert to English at home? And who was calling it "English" in the home? SingStat? Who doesn't know sh*t from shinola. They think because somebody says in a survey that they speak "English" at home then it's the gospel? :ROFLMAO:

[Splatted]

hehe, this person seemed to home in on a lot of your posts SMS. I can see your avatar so clearly @4:10

[crocss22]

@sms

that is my youtube video. many singaporeans do speak a mixture of singlish and standard english. many can code switch to standard english as well.

whatever. i am just speaking singlish, which is my country's dialect. i have no idea what shinola is as well. is it a farm thing?

[sundaymorningstaple]

Yeah, I noticed that! One of our regulars with an axe to grind? I also noticed he was on the AB as well.

I liked the bit about the psychological problems. Sure, you take a kid who is an American or Canadian and spent his first half dozen years in schools here and hanging around locals (without a large dosage of proper English speakers to counteract it), then take him back home and put him in school, his speaking the Singlish he's been taught in school here is going to sound like he's got a two digit IQ compared to the kids speaking English there.

I liked his SingStat analogies as well. What he didn't realize is he's defeating his own argument. The percentages for (s)inglish speakers in the home is the lowest for the largest segment of the population - Chinese. The smallest ethnic percentage of the population speaks the largest percentage of singlish in the home - Indians. And as I said, none of it's proper English but singlish. Why would they change from English at home to singlish in public/work/school?

[sundaymorningstaple]

@sms

that is my youtube video. many singaporeans do speak a mixture of singlish and standard english. many can code switch to standard english as well.

whatever. i am just speaking singlish, which is my country's dialect. i have no idea what shinola is as well. is it a farm thing?

I sure wouldn't have admitted to it.

Shinola? You are so good with google, why didn't you google it?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinola

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/114000.html

Oh, singlish(tm) is not a dialect. The rest of the world does not recognize it as such. Only Singaporeans try to classify it that way in order to try to give some legitimacy to their general poor level of English.

[crocss22]

i think we call it kiwi in singapore.

i was just being a little sacarstic in my previous reply. i never thought of singlish as an international dialect. i have always considered it pidgin english. that was just way i was brought up and taught in school. come to think of it, i never spoke heavy singlish in my life before. everyone around me seems to speak either mandarin or english. i am just a typical guy from a typical family.

none of my friends speak with a serious case of singlish. it seems that only the old singaporeans above 40yo and the "chinese helicopters" speak heavy singlish. and quite understandably so.

i dont understand why foreigners like you walk around crying that everyone speaks singlish and singaporeans cant speak any language. like we are all mute or something. there are a lot of fluent english and chinese speakers around me. most of the time, you get a shitty dose of singlish only when you try to speak english with a chinese speaker (chinese helicopter).

being singaporean, we only need one good look to tell a chinese speaker (chinese helicopter) from an english speaker (potato eater). and you just need one good look to tell if someone is a mainland chinese, malaysian, pinoy, australian, american or british.

you dont try to speak english with a "chinese helicopter". it is an exercise in futility. you will only get pidgin english and singlish.... tok tok tok tok tok tok.

foreigners like you dont get it.

[sundaymorningstaple]

crocss22,

Your skin is too thin. Of course there are a lot of good English speakers here (Singaporean ones as well). Most of the Singaporeans who when overseas for the uni educations actually have learned to speak proper (or better) English while overseas and immersed in those communities. However, as of late, it has been noted that Singaporeans don't tend to mix at the Uni level while overseas, but tend to stay within their own little clique - this is not good and borders on xenophobic and it also inhibits their English from improving.

It's just like the "kiasu" mentality. This country is known as being "extremely" kiasu. So much so that's it's considered part of the description of being a Singaporean. Now. How did they get that "trait"? Are you going to say ALL Singaporeans are like that? Of course not. BUT. A larger percentage of Singaporeans exhibit this trait than others in other countries do. Therefore, while it may well not be the majority, the percentages are much, much higher than the norms. Therefore the 'trait' is stamped on the citizen. This bastard of a language, singlish, is much the same. How long ago did you do your primary schooling here? Have you, as an adult (I'm assuming you are one) ever gone back to listen to an English class being taught in primary schools here? Have you ever taken a good look at written English exams/papers here since you left school? You would be horrified. Yeah, the mechanics of Science and Math are irrefutable so Singaporeans excel there. But English? Sorry, I still have to disagree.

And yes, the question I've just asked you, I've done myself. Both of my kKids went through the local system from Primary to O's to tertiary. One speaks proper English all the time and has to make an effort to speak singlish. The other, well, lets just say he went to a neighbourhood school where the first didn't. He can code switch anytime he wants as well, but he's more in tune with singlish but due to hearing proper English at home from both parents he can speak proper English any time. (one parent is a Singaporean - but taught by native English speakers back in those days of the British Occupation). My kids are fluent in English, singlish, Mandarin and understand Tamil but don't speak the language out of preference.

[Splatted]

none of my friends speak with a serious case of singlish. it seems that only the old singaporeans above 40yo

Really? Only old Singaporeans?

I take it you've never been to Mcdonalds and sat next to a study group, and never been to the cinema and sat through a movie where everyone in the cinema constantly chatted.

[EADG]

Word.

[QRM]

i i have always considered it pidgin english. that was just way i was brought up and taught in school

You hit the nail on the head, the average Singaporean does not speak proper English because of the way it has been taught at school.

Both Ris Low and this woman on this clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p30khvWj ... re=related would have tick the "I speak English at home" survey box, which makes a bit of a mockery of the statistic figure.

A number of the times when a Singaporean (who thinks he speaks English) is interviewed on a international TV program English subtitles would be required.

To most English speakers who have never visited Singapore would find even your English "odd" and to some people a bit grinding, which as a kid in an overseas school would guarantee a daily wedgie , I am not saying its wrong its just different and like you said its not your fault it is the result of the way you were brought up at school.

You just have to ask yourself why is the Govt spending fortune on "Speak Good English" campaigns if its not an issue?

[ozchick]

i i have always considered it pidgin english. that was just way i was brought up and taught in school

You hit the nail on the head, the average Singaporean does not speak proper English because of the way it has been taught at school.



A number of the times when a Singaporean (who thinks he speaks English) is interviewed on a international TV program English subtitles would be required.

I am not saying its wrong its just different and like you said its not your fault it is the result of the way you were brought up at school.

You just have to ask yourself why is the Govt spending fortune on "Speak Good English" campaigns if its not an issue?

This post prompts me to mention that the Sg Government currently has high-profile advertisments for teachers posted on International teaching websites. Trouble is, the salaries/packages offered are about one-third of what is offered at International Schools here. One would have to be desperate or very wealthy to apply.
The "Speak Good English" campaign is on a slow boat to China methinks. Yibbida.

[EADG]

Again, word, this time on QRM.

After reacting to another driver by saying something like 'why he horn me" when I told the taxi driver that 'horn' is not a verb, he defended it by saying 'that is what I was taught'.

Interesting YouTube comments. Well, not so interesting as voluminous - something like 5000.

[crocss22]

i i have always considered it pidgin english. that was just way i was brought up and taught in school

You hit the nail on the head, the average Singaporean does not speak proper English because of the way it has been taught at school.

Both Ris Low and this woman on this clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p30khvWj ... re=related would have tick the "I speak English at home" survey box, which makes a bit of a mockery of the statistic figure.

A number of the times when a Singaporean (who thinks he speaks English) is interviewed on a international TV program English subtitles would be required.

Nothing personal but your video clip to most English speakers who have never visited Singapore would find your English "odd" and to some people a bit grinding, I am not saying its wrong its just different and like you said its not your fault it is the result of the way you were brought up at school.

You just have to ask yourself why is the Govt spending fortune on "Speak Good English" campaigns if its not an issue?

to my singaporean ears, both ris low and that women in your clip VERY CLEARLY do not speak english/singlish at home. singaporeans who do speak singlish, yes singlish not english, at home do not sound like that. it is instantly clear to me both ris and that women do not speak english as their first language.

you cant tell simply because you are a foreigner.

anyway, ris low's first language is mandarin, she admitted she speaks mandarin/hokkien at home in this interview. ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmicVxvMe0Y ) her english is pretty bad but it is not all that bad for a second language.

can you speak mandarin or any other language besides english? even at a basic level?

as i said i speak with a typical singaporean accent. i have been speaking like this since i was born. why don't you do me a favour and record a clip of how you speak to show everyone what "normal" sounding english is supposed to be?

if you travel around the world, i think you will find that many many people from america to australia who think british accents are "odd" and "very hard on the ears" as well.

[nakatago]

(sigh)...flogging a dead horse.

Dude, duck.

[crocss22]

none of my friends speak with a serious case of singlish. it seems that only the old singaporeans above 40yo

Really? Only old Singaporeans?

I take it you've never been to Mcdonalds and sat next to a study group, and never been to the cinema and sat through a movie where everyone in the cinema constantly chatted.

dont cut off my quote halfway. here is the full quote. chinese helicopter is a local slang for chinese speaking singaporeans. throw in malay and tamil first language speakers as well.

none of my friends speak with a serious case of singlish. it seems that only the old singaporeans above 40yo and the "chinese helicopters" speak heavy singlish. and quite understandably so.