28/03/2023

Singaporelang - What the Singlish?

Mai tu liao! Huat ah!

This new monthly series highlights the diverse range of stories these Singapore photographers have produced in recent years, from a quirky visualisation of Singlish, to an extensive documentary on life in Singapore’s Southern Islands. Often going beyond what mainstream news outlets produce or publish, these photo-essays add rich new layers to the visual record of changing life in Singapore.

We kick off the series with “Singaporelang — What the Singlish?”, photographer Zinkie Aw’s technicolour love letter to Singlish. So, mai tu liao, check out the photos below and see if you can suggest lagi better captions.

I think I am very Singaporean because I eat, think, breathe and speak like one, and I am self-confessed sibei kiasu with my photography.
While working on this project, I also realised that many people have the misconception that only ah bengs or ah lians or army boys use Singlish. But hey, wrong lor! The whole Singapore does!


7 Must-Know Singlish Words to get around Singapore

If you’re new to Singapore, the best way to get around the country is to learn and master our colloquial lingo, Singlish.

The unique slang of “Lah, Leh and Lor” rolls off the tongue of every Singaporean, and when you think about it. It’s almost like the universal “Do, Re, Mi”.

To get into the groove like the Singaporean version of the Von Trapp Family and learn how to use these 7 common Singlish Words in your daily conversations:
  • Kiasu - A Hokkien term that means “afraid of losing out”, and describing someone as trying to get ahead of others.
  • Shiok - Defined as a feeling of sheer pleasure.
  • Bo Jio - A way of expressing FOMO (fear of missing out). To call someone out when you’re not invited.
  • Can - A versatile term that means “okay” or a way of asking if something is possible.
  • Chope - An act of reserving a place.
  • Atas - A Malay term that is used to describe something as “upper class” or “posh”.
  • Paiseh - A Hokkien term that means embarrassing, or being shy.


A Confused Singaporean Society

*新加坡华人的身份在外国人的眼中是四不像*
*不信？看看一位新加坡华人和一位外国人的对话*

*S: I am a Singaporean*
F: But u look Chinese...

*S: I am a Chinese Singaporean / I am a Singaporean Chinese.*

F: So do u speak Chinese?
*S: Yes, but not fluent.*

F: But u r a Chinese.
*S: I am a Singaporean Chinese, not Chinese from China.*

F: So u r not a Chinese?
*S: I am not Chinese from China.*

F: But your great grand father is from China?
*S: Yes, but I was born in Singapore, so I am a Singaporean Chinese.*

F: So your great grand father speaks Chinese?
*S: He speaks dialect.*

F: Do u speak dialect?
*S: No, I don't.*

F: Why not?
*S: Because our country has a Speak Mandarin campaign that is so successful that the new generation practically do not speak dialect anymore.*

F: So u should speak very fluent Mandarin since it's so successful?
*S: No. That campaign was effective before, but not anymore.*

F: Why?
*S: Because most people speak English nowadays. We have a Speak Good English campaign.*

F: So English is your National Language?
*S: No!*

F: So what is the National Language of Singapore?
*S: Malay.*

F: What?
*S: Yes, Malay!*

F: Do u speak Malay?
*S: No.*

F: Why not?
*S: Because I am not Malay.*

F: Then why is your National Language Malay?
*S: That's another long history lesson.*

F: So your National Language is Malay & nobody speak it?
*S: The Malays speak Malay. That's their mother tongue. We have 4 races: Chinese, Malay, Indian & Eurasian. Each speaks their own mother tongue.*

F: So your mother tongue is Chinese?
*S: Yes.*

F: But u can't speak it fluently?
*S: Yes.*

F: Does the Malay or Indian speak fluent mother tongue?
*S: More fluent than the Chinese speaking Chinese I supposed.*

F: Why?
*S: Because that's their mother tongue.*

F: Then why can't the Chinese?
*S: Because we speak English mainly in school.*

F: I last heard that Singapore has a bilingual policy.
*S: Yes, we have, we do learn mother tongue in school.*

F: But u cannot speak Chinese fluently.
*S: Yes.*

F: Why?
*S: Because our country's working language is mainly English, there is not much places to use the language, perhaps only with our grandparents & when we buy things in the market.*

F: Then how is that bilingual?
*S: I don't know.*

F: So u r a Singaporean Chinese who can't speak your National Language, & cannot speak your mother tongue fluently & can only communicate in English with a strange accent.
*S: What's wrong with my accent?*

F: I don't know, it is just weird.
*S:Does it sound British or American?*

F: Neither, I thought u should sound British since u have been colonized before?
*S: No, that was long long time ago, dude.*

F: How come u try to sound American?
*S: Because I watch alot of Hollywood movies.*

F: Your English still sounds weird.
*S: Oh, we call it Singlish.*

F: So what r u really?
*S: I am a Singaporean!*
😌😌😌
Si Beh Luan ah!  [死伯乱]
🙄🙄🙄

read more

Singlish Reflects the Power of My People

Is the government’s war on Singlish finally over? Our wacky, singsong creole may seem like the poor cousin to the island’s four official languages, but years of state efforts to quash it have only made it flourish. Now even politicians and officials are using it.

Trending at the moment is “ownself check ownself,” which was popularized by Pritam Singh, a member of Parliament from the opposition Workers’ Party. He was mocking the ruling People’s Action Party (P.A.P.) for saying that the government was clean and honest enough to act as its own guardian.

Singlish is a patchwork patois of Singapore’s state languages — English, Malay, Mandarin and Tamil — as well as Hokkien, Cantonese, Bengali and a few other tongues. Its syntax is drawn partly from Chinese, partly from South Asian languages.



Singlish - Uniquely Singapore
Singapore's famous spouting Merlion statue - in Singlish "merlion" means to vomit profusely

Singapore's government has long insisted that everyone in the island nation should speak English - it's the language used in schools, at work, and in government. But in practice many people speak a hybrid language that can leave visitors completely baffled - Singlish.

Singapore is known for its efficiency and Singlish is no different - it's colourful and snappy. You don't have a coffee - you "lim kopi". And if someone asks you to join them for a meal but you've already had dinner, you simply say: "Eat already."

Singlish first emerged when Singapore gained independence 50 years ago, and decided that English should be the common language for all its different races. That was the plan. It worked out slightly differently though, as the various ethnic groups began infusing English with other words and grammar. English became the official language, but Singlish became the language of the street.


Politics and the Singlish Language

No official recognition is given to Singlish as a marker of Singaporean identity or an indigenous patois. This is despite political leaders using Singlish during election campaigning to better connect to a local audience.

The government recognises that Singlish cannot be eradicated but it will not take kindly to attempts to promote it.

The concern is that any mixed signals on Singlish will undermine efforts to raise English language proficiency. A similarly tough and consistent stance is taken against Chinese dialects, in order to promote Mandarin Chinese proficiency.


Singlish join Oxford English Dictionary
A plate of char kway teow from Alexandra Village Food Centre. FOTO: THE NEW PAPER

More "Singapore English" words used colloquially here have been added to the lexicon of the venerable Oxford English Dictionary (OED), following its latest quarterly update this month.

Top on the list of new words - "aiyah" & "aiyoh", which are often used to express impatience or dismay, & "ah beng", a stereotype applied to Chinese men.

"Atas", an oft-used term by Singaporeans to deride people for being too arrogant or high-class, was also included in the list.



Singlish: Singapore Colloquial English
How Singlish Went From 'Cannot Make It' To National Hero

The year is 1974. A song was banned by Radio Television Singapore – the state broadcaster at the time. The reason? Improper use of English. 

Over the next few years, educational reforms swept through our young nation to fix what then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew called “distortions in Singapore English”. But a spontaneous series of events would stir the imaginations of Singaporeans and push Singlish into once forbidden waters.

Musician and host Shabir Tabare Alam discovers how our common tongue came to be and traces its journey from nationhood to the cusp of the new millennium.


Singapore’s ‘Kiasu’ culture 惊 输
Singaporeans commonly use personal articles such as tissue packets to reserve tables in the city’s crowded food courts before purchasing a meal. The practice is considered quintessential “kiasu.” (David Pierson / Los Angeles Times)

Long before Americans discovered FOMO — the fear of missing out —Singaporeans were fixated with its more excessive forebear, kiasu.

Taken from the Chinese dialect Hokkien, kiasu translates to a fear of losing out, but encompasses any sort of competitive, stingy or selfish behavior commonly witnessed in this highflying city-state:
  • If you stand in line for hours just because there’s a gift at the end, then you’re kiasu.
  • If you claim a spot at a table at a busy food court with a packet of tissues while you wander off in search of grub, you’re kiasu.
  • If you’re a parent who volunteers hours of your free time at a school just so your offspring has a better chance of enrolling there one day, then you’re most definitely kiasu.
It’s a survival instinct born out of Singapore’s dominant Chinese culture and deep-rooted insecurity as a blip on the map, one that’s only slightly bigger than the San Fernando Valley. Letting opportunity pass is tantamount to failure, the thinking goes. And if you do, you have no one to blame but yourself.


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