Cheers!
*all non-English words will be attached with meaning in the appendix
“So let me tell you what happened to me when I was on the way to work today. It was a bit paiseh and without a doubt gu niang.” says a radio DJ one fine afternoon trying to recount an incident. This, my friends, is but just a small example of a language aptly named Singlish.
Let’s get some facts straight. Number 1, English is mainly used for most official bodies, documents and instructions. Even in the educational system, English is the forefront of how the children are being taught. For the record, the national language of Singapore is Bahasa Melayu. Similarly, there are also the other languages recognised in Singapore which are Tamil and Mandarin. However, despite all the official methods of the above, one has triumphed and emerged the winner as Singapore’s unofficial main lingua franca. Cue the drum roll please... It’s Singlish! So where in the world did Singlish come from? No, it’s not from outerworld space. It is just the plain old citizens of Singapore who unwittingly created and amplified it. A cultural melting pot of early immigrants from the Chinese, Indian, Malay and British has unequivocally created this mixture of English, Mandarin, Malay, Tamil, Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese in this day. In fact, Sir Stamford Raffles would have probably considered Singlish to be a blasphemy and proceed to prevent its creation and evolution. But, is Singlish truly a monstrosity? Languages have been evolving ever since any form of communication has been created. So, given that Singapore is such a small island with people coming from all walks of life, it would be impossible for the English language not to evolve.
When the Europeans came and started doing tradings in Singapore, the locals realised that the Europeans had major spending power. They saw that it was a great opportunity to trade and earn their living from the Europeans. However, the downside was that, the only way they could have any proper footing in the trade was to learn their language so as to start the communication and the business dealings. And so, they saw the value of learning the language. Of course, as such, trying to overcome the difficulty of learning a new language, they start to infuse their own language to make themselves better understood and hopefully have a better grasp of the new language. As Singapore progressed, schools were built to provide the children of Singapore an education. It was also at this point of time that the locals realised the importance of education. The Europeans had placed special emphasis and tended to give prospective desk jobs to people who could write and speak English well. The locals saw that their future generation would be better provided for with an education and thus started to send their children to school. This gave Singlish a boost as the educated children in English try to grasp the concept of multilingualism and communicating with the older generation. Once a way to attempt to communicate in more than one language has now evolve to one of the most criticised, most identifiable subset of the English language. Singlish has evolved so much that it has become a way of life, a culture, an identity. There is a reason why it is called Singlish. Created in Singapore, "developed" by Singaporeans, used to identify Singaporeans no matter where you are, this language is the epitome of our identity.
Whether you’re in Vietnam or Nigeria, the moment you hear someone say “Wah lao eh”, it is instant recognition that they were likely either a) from Singapore, b) picked up the slang from long term exposure, or c) are true born and bred Singaporeans. In Singapore, there are ‘unofficial’ groups of people. You have the attas people (people who are not from the the upper class but act as though they are), the people from the upper class, the middle class, the blue collar people and last but not least, the foreigners. But all these classifications do not and never will matter. Whether you are a factory worker, a National Servicemen, a hospitality manager or even a hotshot CEO, Singlish works and is spoken across the board. So long as you say something along the lines like “Sorry ah, I catch no ball” the label “Singlish speaker” just sticks to you, much like a shadow.
Singlish is one of the most eclectic mix of languages all rolled into one, much mentioned as before. However, there is more to it than just injecting some random hokkien words into a sentence. Such an example would be “He kena lottery leh!” or “Time to jiak!” Some call it the replacement method. In most cases, Singlish is simply used in day to day conversations whereas in other situations, it emphasizes the point even more than it would be in plain English. Ever so creative, Singaporeans have even come to start creating more words to the constantly growing vocabulary of Singlish. It is strange why is that Singaporeans instead of saying, ‘He’s having the runs” or “He has food poisoning” or even, "He has diarrhea", choose to say and at the same time coin a new word, “He at home laosai-ing.” This would indeed be one of the highest level of Singlish. The loss of grammar, the invention of a new word which is actually a cross between hokkien and English, the breakdown of sentence structure... The truest form of Singlish. Singlish is often used to exaggerate a certain action or emotion or to even better explain a context that just doesn't seem to cut it when described in English. There is an effect on Singaporeans and a mutual understanding when using Singlish or even when coining new words for the first time. To us, saying, "He won first prize in the lottery!" just doesn't quite cut it, in comparison to saying "He tior beh pior leh! First prize!"
In Singapore, the local government strongly admonishes the use of Singlish. They keep saying that it makes us look as though we are not properly educated despite our first world status. Is Singlish really so astonishing? Language is subjective, and is always changing its form to adapt to the circumstances and environment. The dance of words, the flexibility and the flow, it is the only thing that can evolve that much faster than any known pathogen in the world. What people use to communicate has become something more than just words. It is emotion and expression. It is just different from what other countries have adapted in their own culture. It is not to say we cannot speak proper English. We are more than capable to do so and we do it in the right time, place and situation.
In her encounters overseas, Megan once said, “It is like you can go anywhere in the world, and expose yourself to any and all the colourful cultures of the world. But the moment you hear someone say 'Don't like this leh', it is like the light just switches on. The rapport you feel is instant. The sense that you are not the only one who is different is just gone. It doesn't matter if this is a person you probably will never talk to in your life whilst in Singapore. You will never feel lonely, and you will realise, Singlish is something that brings people together and bonds them.” At a networking event, out for drinks and all, we landed on the discussion of accents and languages and such. An acquitance, Jeremiah mentioned, "I can speak chinese, even perfect English or the Queen's English. But speaking in that way in Singapore, makes you come across as very pompous and fake. Unapproachable even. Singlish is the language where you can make people feel at ease, where you do not have to be exactly perfect. It helps people to bring down their barriers which, of course, in turn smoothes things out."
Languages are beautiful in the sense that it can be anything you need it be, anything you want it to be. The main point is to make people understand what you are trying to say. In Singapore, Singlish does this perfectly because, it makes people comfortable no matter the level of your command in English. That is the power of Singlish, uniquely ours.
Appendix
Paiseh - Embarrassing
Gu niang - Effeminate
Wah lao eh - Similar to ‘What the hell’
Attas - People who pretend to be from the upper class
I catch no ball - I do not understand
He kena lottery leh! - He struck lottery!
Jiak - Eat
Laosai - Diarrhea
Laosai-ing - Having diarrhea
Tior beh pior - Struck lottery
Don't like this leh - Don’t be like this
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