Not because National Day is coming soon, not because I like broken English, not because I'm particularly proud of our monotone-and-dull accentation of words, not because I'm out of my mind, but I really really am proud of Singlish.
Singlish - as you see from the make-up of the word - is made up of two syllabi: "Sing" and "glish". Put them together, it means Singaporean English. As a Singaporean for the last 20 years of my life, I've never felt proud of it before. I've always hated it when people can't pronounce words properly. Especially when they speak Chinese and pronounce "shi" as "si", omitting the "h" in oh-so-many-words. "wo si xin jia po len. wo xi huan ci ji fan. wo gen ni jiang hor, wo jin tian sen me dou mei you zuo, zi zai jia sui jiao leh. wo bu zi dao na ge len si sui." Yea, it gets on my nerves big time. Even now, it still makes my hair stand on edges when I hear people speaking like this.
My friend and I were brooding over the characteristic of Singlish one fine day during English lesson. We were required to mark out the stressed consonant in each word. Try it:
-guitar
-desperate
-enthusiastic
-balance
-acknowledge
-comfortable
-appropriate
-injure
-pathetic
-genuine
Be honest! Say it in the way that you'll say it in your everyday life.
Do you realise we don't stress on any parts of the words at all?! Hahahaha we had a really good time laughing about it. I've never realised that!
But being overseas and away from Singapore for too long, it makes you realise the beauty of Singlish. Americans think our English is not up to standard, China Chinese think our Chinese is not up to standard. So we're like jiapalang, somewhere in the middle. But think about it, when Americans speak English, we as Singaporeans do understand what they're saying perfectly, while China Chinese, if they are not speaking in their own dialects and are not too thick-accented, we still do understand them. I've heard people in my school telling me, " What was it that you guys were saying? I couldn't understand a word!" when in fact we were not speaking gibblish, but Singlish.
Hoho this always makes me smile in glee. So Singaporeans do have our own language we can call our own! The beauty of it is the delicate mix of dialect, English, Chinese and Malay in it that is unique only to us Singaporeans.
Did you know there's a Singlish dictionary called "Coxford"? I looked through it and I was surprised at the number of Singlish that I have never heard of in my life. Of course some are really far-fetched and not daily-conversational words, but oh boy, do we have much to learn!
Many of my international friends have been trying to incorporate Singlish into their sentences, much to my bemusement. It sounds far too unnatural. For example, "See you later, lah." or "Not funny, ah", (ah pronounced in the same tone as lah). The most common mistake is probably the usage of "lah". We are known for our lahs, lehs and lors and you know what? I'm so proud of them myself too! Wahahaha. It's so cool to know that we Singaporeans speak a language that we can call our own plus having other nationalities actually think it cool to want to learn it.
The Singaporean egotism :D
Not to mention, when you're overseas, the moment you hear a group of people with their lahs, lehs, lors, you know for a fact that they are from Singapore. Singlish has never sounded so sweet to my ears before. It immediately establishes a sense of comraderie between I and them (although we are perfect strangers), and you feel like you're home.
But Singaporeans! Please don't throw face and use Singlish and speak monotonously when you're talkin to people of other nationalities please. They don't understand you! Please know when and how to use Singlish properly. Only then is when you have truly mastered Singlish.
Hahaha.
Ah, I dunno lah. Maybe it's just me who feels this way.
When you realise how lengthy an exposition you've written about "Singlish", you know that's when you really miss home, the good and the bad.
(The government would probably want to exile me because my post is literally anti-AntiSinglish Campaign.)
Singlish - as you see from the make-up of the word - is made up of two syllabi: "Sing" and "glish". Put them together, it means Singaporean English. As a Singaporean for the last 20 years of my life, I've never felt proud of it before. I've always hated it when people can't pronounce words properly. Especially when they speak Chinese and pronounce "shi" as "si", omitting the "h" in oh-so-many-words. "wo si xin jia po len. wo xi huan ci ji fan. wo gen ni jiang hor, wo jin tian sen me dou mei you zuo, zi zai jia sui jiao leh. wo bu zi dao na ge len si sui." Yea, it gets on my nerves big time. Even now, it still makes my hair stand on edges when I hear people speaking like this.
My friend and I were brooding over the characteristic of Singlish one fine day during English lesson. We were required to mark out the stressed consonant in each word. Try it:
-guitar
-desperate
-enthusiastic
-balance
-acknowledge
-comfortable
-appropriate
-injure
-pathetic
-genuine
Be honest! Say it in the way that you'll say it in your everyday life.
Do you realise we don't stress on any parts of the words at all?! Hahahaha we had a really good time laughing about it. I've never realised that!
But being overseas and away from Singapore for too long, it makes you realise the beauty of Singlish. Americans think our English is not up to standard, China Chinese think our Chinese is not up to standard. So we're like jiapalang, somewhere in the middle. But think about it, when Americans speak English, we as Singaporeans do understand what they're saying perfectly, while China Chinese, if they are not speaking in their own dialects and are not too thick-accented, we still do understand them. I've heard people in my school telling me, " What was it that you guys were saying? I couldn't understand a word!" when in fact we were not speaking gibblish, but Singlish.
Hoho this always makes me smile in glee. So Singaporeans do have our own language we can call our own! The beauty of it is the delicate mix of dialect, English, Chinese and Malay in it that is unique only to us Singaporeans.
Did you know there's a Singlish dictionary called "Coxford"? I looked through it and I was surprised at the number of Singlish that I have never heard of in my life. Of course some are really far-fetched and not daily-conversational words, but oh boy, do we have much to learn!
Many of my international friends have been trying to incorporate Singlish into their sentences, much to my bemusement. It sounds far too unnatural. For example, "See you later, lah." or "Not funny, ah", (ah pronounced in the same tone as lah). The most common mistake is probably the usage of "lah". We are known for our lahs, lehs and lors and you know what? I'm so proud of them myself too! Wahahaha. It's so cool to know that we Singaporeans speak a language that we can call our own plus having other nationalities actually think it cool to want to learn it.
The Singaporean egotism :D
Not to mention, when you're overseas, the moment you hear a group of people with their lahs, lehs, lors, you know for a fact that they are from Singapore. Singlish has never sounded so sweet to my ears before. It immediately establishes a sense of comraderie between I and them (although we are perfect strangers), and you feel like you're home.
But Singaporeans! Please don't throw face and use Singlish and speak monotonously when you're talkin to people of other nationalities please. They don't understand you! Please know when and how to use Singlish properly. Only then is when you have truly mastered Singlish.
Hahaha.
Ah, I dunno lah. Maybe it's just me who feels this way.
When you realise how lengthy an exposition you've written about "Singlish", you know that's when you really miss home, the good and the bad.
(The government would probably want to exile me because my post is literally anti-AntiSinglish Campaign.)
3 comments:
wo bu xi huan ci ji fan leh
melissa: na ge si wo by the way
hahahahahahaha good one. you're officially one of those Singaporeans that gets on my nerves! xD
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