April 22, 2004

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The Singaporean Government is worried local English standards are declining, corrupted by Singlish, lah. Which is evident if you've ever spoken to a Singaporean in English, lah. Every sentence ends in lah, lah. Some examples of Singlish:

But people here also speak a patois - known as Singlish - which is a mishmash of Chinese dialects, Malay, Tamil and English. "Wah lau, you makan yet?" means "Have you eaten yet?" and "Hey he talk cock, lah" is "He talks a lot of nonsense." Or "So kiasu, one" is "He is really aggressive."
Thus the "Speak Good English" campaign. With a campaign name like that, it's bound to take off. From the same people that bring you signs like this.

posted by Simon on 04.22.04 at 11:45 AM in the




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Comments:

Hey, they say "lah" in HK too!

posted by: richard on 04.22.04 at 02:38 PM [permalink]

there is some gross exaggeration there, especially the "wah lau, you makan yet?" i don't know how or where the IHT journo got that sentence from. "wah lau" is an expression which not a true-blue singaporean would utter before the start of a conversation.

and no, not every sentence ends with lah. it is cringeworthy and plain disgusting hearing certain white expats acting cute by doing just that. either to impress certain sections of singaporeans - read: amoebic - or simply to insult our intelligence - read: the 0.001% of the population.

but i can't deny that the words "speak good english" is a literal translation from the chinese.

posted by: breanagh on 04.23.04 at 02:25 AM [permalink]




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