Singlish kills English language
Language has become our basic medium of communication among us. Living in a multi-racial Singapore society, we are being exposed to different languages daily which are English, Malay, Mandarine and Tamil. These are the official languages that are recognised by the Singapore government.
However,
What about Singlish?
Does these words like "Lah", "Loh", "Meh", "Hah", "Siah" seem familar to you?
Should Singlish be made an offical language as well?
Here's a recent short video of a radio teleconversation between our local 98.7fm DJs and a catering auntie.
Personally when i was watching this video, I couldn't stop laughing at their hilarious conversation. Some of the typical Singlish terminology were expressed in this video. If you notice, she loves to use the word "ah" at the end of her sentence. Also, fried rice was pronounced as "Fly Rice" and the coke we drink everyday was pronounced as "Cock".
Yes, Singlish can be at times funny and comical as it adds spice and laughter in our everyday lives. Some even say that Singlish has evolved into a form of identity among Singaporeans.
Nonetheless,
I regard Singlish as a form of Noise in the transactional communication model.
Noise = environment (physical,psychological and social factors that surround and influence communication)
Environment may exert negative and positive influence.
In our case, Singlish has probably become a social stigma in our environment. Most did not consider the detrimental effects it carries and continue to use Singlish excessively in our speech. It not only manipulates our proper usage of English but also degrade our English proficiency.
The Singaporean government currently discourages the use of Singlish in favour of Singapore Standard English as it believes in the need for Singaporeans to be able to effectively communicate with the other English users in the world. The government runs the Speak Good English Movement to emphasise the point.
Are you doing your part?
posted by Matthew at
8:30 PM
8 Comments:
The auntie got poor pronunciation lar brudder
Cant be helped..
Horrible, Horrible to make fun of such things, the Auntie is probably not a frequent English speaker, so she definitely would have some difficulties pronouncing english words. I believe, despite the "humor" of this, this clip is a little sadistic and distasteful.
if you're singaporean, you should understand our diverse racial background, so of course you shouldn't expect perfect English from everyone..
as prove of my continuous support towards singlish, i shall continue my post using it. no leh, i think that hor, singlish should be encouraged in singapore leh. cos this is what makes this tiny red dot on the map so unique what. agree anot. ya la, we should use proper english when at work or at any formal events. but when talking to your own friends why must use proper english leh? so ma fan for what. ya lor. thats why i think the govt should just allow us to speak singlish la.
Well, let's call Singlish a part of the culture now.
I don't exactly know if I am for or against Singlish but what I am absolutely sure about is that Singlish is an identity for all Singaporeans. Ask any foreigner what is the meaning of "I have oready chope the seat orh." and the reaction they kinda give you is a "huh". It is definitely a common way of speech that Singaporeans use.
It either irks you or it makes you feel like bOn, a common identity.
O..k.. To be honest I don't see the humour behind that video. In fact, I find it degrading and childish. People are trying to make some business and local radio stations are actually making fun of her Singlish for entertainment!! Elitists!
To me Singlish is like some sort of an.. accent. Like how British speak with a British accent or how Australians may speak with another type of accent. Nothing wrong with it in my opinion. Not everyone's educated in English and therefore we cannot expect all Singaporeans to be able to converse in proper English. Perhaps we should even applaud the effort put in by the auntie to try to converse in English =D
And yea, Singlish is some sort of a form of identity for us Singaporeans too. I play online games and "meet" many players from around the globe whenever I'm online. And whenever I see someone using lah, lor, leh, or even abbreviations for dialect vulgarities, I kind of drawn towards them and want to interact with them more. It just have this.. homely feeling. Also, it's interesting to note how some foreigners even attempt to type in Singlish in-game so that they could mix in with us >=)
So Singlish is bad? I beg to differ. And sorry for the wall of text =D
I guess language is subjective. If the auntie communicates in singlish and is prefectly umderstood by her fellow friends/aunties, then using singlish in this case, though not a formal language, can be considered as effective communication right? To communicate with someone effectively is not about using the prefect language but rather the correct use of words/jargons that can be understood by the receiving end.
More importantly, we have to practise code switching, ie. to switch our way of communication accordingly.
I personally think that some of us are talking about two different things. Singlish is formed from singapore-english and is in a sense, a 'language' of its own. Something peculiar to Singaporeans that only they can understand.
Refering to the post by JasPer on the British and Australian accents, I believe that is a different thing altogether. Singlish and a Singaporean accent are two completely different entities. Singlish includes slangs that are used like for example, 'la, leh, horh' etc; whereas in accents, slangs are not used. Its just a different in a sense 'way' of pronouncing words.
Is Singlish bad? Though it is true that it is an identity and is what makes Singaporeans and Singapore unique, I believe that it is bad for one reason; Singaporeans tend to make Singlish become English. This is what I mean.
I know of many individuals within University and my circle of friends outside of the classroom that speak Singlish and end up compromising their own standard of proper English to the extent that they cannot complete a single sentence properly.
Many people in Singapore who have met me for the first time would compliment on my good grasp of the language as well as good command of the language. When asked, "Why is your engrish so good ah?", my answer is simple;"Because I do not speak Singlish and speak English to proper way it ought to be spoken."
Having said that, here's something else I should add. If a person can speak Singlish and still have the capability to speak and write English properly as it should be spoken/written, I think that Singlish is not a problem at all.
But here's a question; Can everyone do that?
In Singapore? No, I believe not everyone can do it.. To me, singlish is not just about bad grammer, it is also about bad pronunciation or bad execution of words. Basically, it's in my opinion, a mix or english with other dialects.. Some sort of "rojak", and I think Singlish by itself is a language. It is Singaporeans' identity, and something we can be proud of!
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