Curiosity level: For everyone, and especially for those Singaporeans who think Singlish is stupiak (stupid + a slap sound)! (š by @marshallcavendish) Written by Gwee Li Sui
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āAt the core of Singlish is surely PRAGMATISM, a sibeh (super) Singaporean hallmark. For example, rather than saying, āWhere are we heading?ā just āGo where?ā can liao.ā
Singlish for Dummies
I didnāt know what to expect from this book at first: is it a Singlish dictionary or a guidebook?
Turns out itās a bit of both, with a sibeh (very) good introduction on WHY SPEAK SINGLISH. Indeed, who says we canāt be well-versed in both English and Singlish leh? The common argument is that if we use Singlish too much, we'd forget what proper English is like. But it doesn't make sense, seeing that people can be bilingual or trilingual with no issues on switching between the languages.
"But it's a broken type of English," you cry. However, wouldn't you also say that the standard of Singaporean Mandarin is far more "broken" than China's standard of Mandarin? Cannot even compare lor! What about the sing-song Malaysian Mandarin? Would you tell your Malaysian friend, "Ey! Stop talking like that, that's not the right kind of Mandarin!"? Of course you know it's not something that's meant to be "edited" because their "broken" language is also a rich tradition that's passed down orally (and not something they deliberately made up just because they were lazy), and thus has its own intrinsic cultural value also?
Singlish is looked down upon as an ah beng or ah lian (male and female gangster respectively) language and if you speak it you're degrading yourself. Singlish isn't a broken type of English. Simply put, it's just how we've adapted the British's English to make it conversationally our own. We have more than enough common sense to know that an email that's going out to the client or an employer shouldn't contain Singlish words in them. Or that when we speak to International friends, we'd tone down or remove the use of Singlish because it's not natural anyway.
I find it a marvel that Singlish connects us all right away to each other - and there's this "Singlish accent" that is actually only workable if you're a Singaporean, because funnily, Singlish doesn't naturally emerge when we speak with international guests (at least most of the time). Not trying to be clique-ish here, because honestly, that's just how it works.
Anyway, back to the book!
Gwee Li Sui - get this- wrote the entire book in Singlish, which, by the way, is a lot more conversational than youād expect. It was an interesting exercise, reading out loud the text because Singlish in print is kind of odd. Singlish is really funny. You wouldn't consciously think that, but when you listen to Singlish out loud in Gwee's scenarios, they are hilarious.
Filled with funny comics and laugh-out-loud, āOh ya hor!!ā moments, this book, apart from the Singlish dictionary by Colin Goh and Woo Yen Yen, is just about the only book thatās - dare we say? - 100% in āshiokā Singlish! He makes us appreciate our Singlish and Singaporean heritage, and restores the maligned language instead of letting it go down the godforsaken road of "failed Singaporean practices".
Reading Singlish is not the same as speaking it, and you would need to hantam (roughly/anyhow guess) the meanings a bit at first, but as the words repeat themselves, youād slowly get the hang of them - orā¦ you can just flip to the appendixes at the back (I wish there were footnotes- yep I'm lazy!).
If youāre a foreigner wanting to learn more about Singlish, you may go wah piang eh (what on earth?!) at first, but donāt worry - why not grab a Singaporean and read the book together?
Anyway, it's quite sad lah, apparently people on the whole think that those who speak Singlish are lower class (but more friendly XD) than those who are upper class (they speak good English and are "domineering"). Wah, this stigma is legit hard to get rid of. So that's why this book is here, to tekan (punish) all the Singlish = lower class nonsense.
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