The ruling elite here think we should speak proper English. Singlish which is our unique hybrid is frowned upon and widely discouraged. I love Singlish! It is an interesting way of speaking and no one else does it the way we do! As it is, our minds and actions are already controlled enough, please leave us be and let us continue speaking Singlish.
I should start a campaign (as opposed to the speak good English one) on lets speak Singlish!!
My sister in Australia is appalled that I advocate speaking Singlish. We grew up in a household where Dad made us speak proper English, we were not allowed to say lah! A convent education also helped drill into us the correct and proper way to speak. Don't you think Singlish is so much easier? For example one can say in proper English ( or my version of proper English as I am not an educator or some professor of the language so ignore all the flaws in my grammar) " How do you think we can solve this problem" or in Singlish it would be " so How??" or my favourite. "Do you think this is possible" and the Singlish version would be " Can or not??"
Simpler! easier! and just as effective! I use Singlish daily in my interactions with people I work with, at home however, we do speak in full sentences. If I tried to speak proper English to the hawkers I doubt I would get very far, I'd probably be laughed at or scolded or worse, ignored!
I don't see what the fuss is all about, why is speaking Singlish considered so bad? So what if the tourists can't understand us? We cant understand them either, and it isn't because we cant speak English, its because of the accents. I actually like accents, its musical. you can tell a Malaysian Chinese from a Singaporean Chinese just by the accent, and of course a China Chinese is easier to spot. Same goes for an Indian Indian and a Singaporean Indian. but that's a whole different topic altogether!
So lets embrace Singlish, its one thing that sets us apart from the rest. Who wants to sound just like everyone else anyway.
I should start a campaign (as opposed to the speak good English one) on lets speak Singlish!!
My sister in Australia is appalled that I advocate speaking Singlish. We grew up in a household where Dad made us speak proper English, we were not allowed to say lah! A convent education also helped drill into us the correct and proper way to speak. Don't you think Singlish is so much easier? For example one can say in proper English ( or my version of proper English as I am not an educator or some professor of the language so ignore all the flaws in my grammar) " How do you think we can solve this problem" or in Singlish it would be " so How??" or my favourite. "Do you think this is possible" and the Singlish version would be " Can or not??"
Simpler! easier! and just as effective! I use Singlish daily in my interactions with people I work with, at home however, we do speak in full sentences. If I tried to speak proper English to the hawkers I doubt I would get very far, I'd probably be laughed at or scolded or worse, ignored!
I don't see what the fuss is all about, why is speaking Singlish considered so bad? So what if the tourists can't understand us? We cant understand them either, and it isn't because we cant speak English, its because of the accents. I actually like accents, its musical. you can tell a Malaysian Chinese from a Singaporean Chinese just by the accent, and of course a China Chinese is easier to spot. Same goes for an Indian Indian and a Singaporean Indian. but that's a whole different topic altogether!
So lets embrace Singlish, its one thing that sets us apart from the rest. Who wants to sound just like everyone else anyway.
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