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Can Singlish show to the rest of world?

peter ng

Alfrescian
Loyal
Singlish is a trend made by Singapore youngsters !!!!!!!
We can stop a train, But wonder we can stop a trend?
Is singlish comprise our culture or behavior?

" No language is "perfect". ALL are constantly evolving." by Sammyboyfor.
The problem is that many singaporeans no longer know what proper English is.

I agree with you as my poor english show here.
 

tonychat

Alfrescian (InfP)
Generous Asset
There is nothing wrong with singlish. The problem with sinkie is their behavior. HEcan speak the worst form of alien language but he can be a person of the finest and lovable character.
 

peter ng

Alfrescian
Loyal
There is nothing wrong with singlish. The problem with sinkie is their behavior. HEcan speak the worst form of alien language but he can be a person of the finest and lovable character.

Then how to make the rest of world understand our singlish?
 

Agoraphobic

Alfrescian
Loyal
I never gave this (singlish) much thought because ppl the world over mix their own lingo with adopted languages, English included. Jamaicans have exported their brand of English all over the world with their music, and they be jamming alright. Will Singlish find its niche?

Cheers!
 

char_jig_kar

Alfrescian
Loyal
Singlish is a trend made by Singapore youngsters !!!!!!!
We can stop a train, But wonder we can stop a trend?
Is singlish comprise our culture or behavior?

" No language is "perfect". ALL are constantly evolving." by Sammyboyfor.
The problem is that many singaporeans no longer know what proper English is.

I agree with you as my poor english show here.

I have poor language skill, doesn't matter English, Chinese language or others. Anyway, here's my take on Singlish.

Singlish is speaking Mandarin, Chinese dialect, or other Asian languages in English. Which means it is an inefficient language: adding a layer between the speaker and Asian language.

If wanna speak Asian language, such as Mandarin or Chinese dialect, just go to the source, use the Asian language directly. Whats the point of adding one layer of English language?
 

char_jig_kar

Alfrescian
Loyal
Its a gamble. This phenomenon of Singaporeans ditching Asian languages and go for Singlish/ English.

You see, in Shanghai, there are some senior citizens, who speak English the way Singaporeans do: speaking Asian language in English. They learn it when they are young, so that they could deal with the British in Shanghai. Due to some colonial period of time, they learn their English.

But they know how to speak Shanghainese, Mandarin. They have strong grasp of Shanghainese and Mandarin. They are good in their Shanghainese and Mandarin. As for the Singaporean Chinese, what do we fall back on?? Lame standard of Mandarin, chinese dialect, and written chinese?? Its like we are gambling. We are burning our bridges. All because of PAP and the LKY, this country go into unnecessary gamble with our language policy.

Is the result good? Its debatable. Take Korea for instance. They don't have English as first language policy, but they are innovative in I.T. sector. We keep harping on how English has help us in the Information Age, tell me, how do we fare compare to Korea in I.T. sector??
 
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char_jig_kar

Alfrescian
Loyal
Here's my take on Singapore PAP government's gamble, placing most of their chips on English language (90 over percent of the subject in school are in English):

We could communicate in English language. And we could communicate in Asian language too.

But we are not fluent in either one of it. We are not here nor there in our languages. Middle of nowhere.
 

phouse3

Alfrescian
Loyal
Singlish is not a mixture of dialects or languages.

Singlish is not ungrammatical English.

Singlish is not about ending your sentences with 'lah' or 'lor'.

Singlish is learnt.

Singlish is acquired.

Singlish is low-brow.

Singlish is non-standard English.

Singlish is unintelligible English.

It came about due to more and more marginal speakers of English. In other words, when the Ah Bengs and Ah Lians started attending heartland schools. Examples of Singlish are "catch no ball" and "sup sup water". And here's a classic from a mother to her child: "Don't make me, wait want to rain already!"

Contrary to what some linguists are telling us, Singlish was never part of our culture. Singlish was not invented until the 1970s. It is shocking to hear people tell us that we should be proud of Singlish as it is part of our identity. We can identify another Singaporean by his Singlish but that does not mean it is our identity. If culture means all things manmade, then Singlish is very recent culture and not heritage.

Foreigners can figure out ungrammatical English but they can never figure out unintelligible English. Hence, imperfect English is acceptable but not Singlish. Singlish is something to be ashamed of.
 

Ramseth

Alfrescian (Inf)
Asset
Singlish isn't here because of any policy. It's been here since Chinese immigrants who weren't even educated in Mandarin Chinese arrived and tried to communicate with the British colonists and Malay natives.

Don't think too highly of other languages too. More than half of Japanese vocabularly are either Chinese or English loanwords, with pronunciation "modified" (i.e. corrupted) to fit into the Japanese pronunciation system to sound Japanese, and dignified with written kanji or katana in the writing system.

The problem with Singlish is that the "pioneers" were illiterate and dialect-based, mostly Hokkien. Singlish is not unique to Singapore. Malaysia, with whom Singapore shares lots of common heritage, has its Manglish too.

Mandarin Chinese is one language that's most resistant to transplanted loanwords. There are, but very few, phoenetically transliterated foreign words. The most common ones are actually "reverse-loan" Japanese-coined kanj words. But these went along quite unnoticeably as they're dignified with Chinese writing, as Japanese kanji writing is already in Chinese characters. They just fit into the Chinese language snuggly and naturally as they already have Chinese pronunciation.

The so-called "proper" English, is actually Germanic-based in grammar but overloaded with vocabulary of Latin and French origins.

There's no such thing as "pure" or "standard" languages in the world today. During empire days, the British aristocrats belittled the "corrupted" English spoken all over their various colonies, referring to them as "pidgin" English. Then English spoken in England must be "pidgin" German, right?

As the US got independent and became more powerful than Britain, the American English becomes no longer "pidgin". It became an alternative standard. So theoretically, if Singapore can become as powerful as the US, we may even see Singlish keyboard layout and Singlish spelling checker software.
 

char_jig_kar

Alfrescian
Loyal
Singlish isn't here because of any policy. It's been here since Chinese immigrants who weren't even educated in Mandarin Chinese arrived and tried to communicate with the British colonists and Malay natives.

But its the language policy (English as first language policy) here which give rise to the popularity of this language Singlish.

The problem with Singlish is that the "pioneers" were illiterate and dialect-based, mostly Hokkien. Singlish is not unique to Singapore. Malaysia, with whom Singapore shares lots of common heritage, has its Manglish too.
Yes, but the English language policy is the cause of pushing most people here in this country to use Singlish/ English.

There's no such thing as "pure" or "standard" languages in the world today. During empire days, the British aristocrats belittled the "corrupted" English spoken all over their various colonies, referring to them as "pidgin" English. Then English spoken in England must be "pidgin" German, right?
Issue here is not about pure or impure language. Its about proper English.

the US got independent and became more powerful than Britain, the American English becomes no longer "pidgin". It became an alternative standard. So theoretically, if Singapore can become as powerful as the US, we may even see Singlish keyboard layout and Singlish spelling checker software.
get real. we can never be powerful like the USA. Singlish will remain as pidgin.
 
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