Class 95 news news news - Singlish

[csc]

I have more tolerance for singlish than fake 'angmoh' accents. The latter literally give me the goose bumps.

[turquoise]

I am for good, grammatically sound and properly-pronounced English. The accent doesn’t matter. But the English has to be proper. You can sound Singaporean and still speak proper English.


What gets my goat is when they get these Australians to voice over on tv and they mangle our Singapore words. For eg., the trailer on football: "Bucket Gum-back!" instead of Bukit Gombak. For goodness sakes. pronounce Malay words as they should be pronounced. The producers ought to be shot for allowing our local names to be mispronounced so badly.

[joconde]

To me, it’s fine to use singapore style vocab occasionally, eg tao pao (take away), jia luck (severe), etc. What I feel needs to be improved is the way we construct our sentences. The way some singaporeans speak is really terrible. Eg : Everytime always like tat one. Bus want to come already, you faster lah. Like tat can or not ? She got give you the ticket ?


In fact not only English, the way we speak Chinese is also very bad. I have a friend who grew up from China/HK comments that she had a hard time getting used to the way we speak chinese when she first came here. She is surprised at how limited our vocab is, and our lack of ability to express ourselves clearly. We tend to simply our sentences and use only basic , general terms to describe everything. Eg, when it comes to using 量词, we use 一个 for everything. When we dun know the proper name for an object, we simply say 哪个黑黑的, 那个扁扁的. Just look at the way we speak when Ch8 TV news interview people on the street. Then compare how those commoners from China, HK or Taiwan speak on their TV news interviews. Not only they use proper language, they are also far more eloquent than us. Even China low-educated peasant can express their views much better than us.

On the whole, I conclude that we singporeans just dun appreciate the beauty of language. We are simply too lazy when it comes to speech and don’t bother to expressing ourselves clearly.

[Andaiz]

joconde:

Just look at the way we speak when Ch8 TV news interview people on the street. Then compare how those commoners from China, HK or Taiwan speak on their TV news interviews. Not just they use proper language, they are also far more eloquent than us. Even China low-educated peasant can express their views much better than us.

Well, there's less confusion in China/HK coz their first language is Chinese (not necessary Mandarin or pu tong hua)/Cantonese. Just think back to our childhood - we probably spoke our Mother's dialect, a smattering of Malay to our friends next door, and English at School. That's the beauty of growing up in a Cultural melting pot! :celebrate:

Yes, we could do a better job in enunciating our words and speaking a good language (grammar, sentence construction and all) - whether in English or Mandarin

[buds]

joconde:

On the whole, I conclude that we singporeans just dun appreciate the beauty of language. We are simply too lazy when it comes to speech and don't bother to expressing ourselves clearly.

Ermmm... i'm not included in the whole, okie!
I'm never too lazy when it comes to expressing
myself... sometimes too clearly...

[en107rn.01056yahoo.01056com.01056sg]

I would rather opt for inter-changeability. It is highly dependent on who I am talking or writing to. Proper English with good pronounciation and enunciation when I am doing serious business meeting.


Among friends, depending again which group of friends. If they speak proper English, I use proper English. If the friends speak Singlish, I join the fun Singlish with Singapore accent. The lah, the lor, jia luck, wah lao, bo pian, auntie ahh, 1 kopi etc.

Often in unknown environment (can’t gauge my audience), I’ll be myself which usually prompted people to ask are you not local or which country are you from. So, that kind of question will make me just change my tune to suit the person I am talking to.

Make the person I talk to feel at ease talking to me mah…

[en107rn.01056yahoo.01056com.01056sg]

[quote]I have more tolerance for singlish than fake 'angmoh' accents. The latter literally give me the goose bumps. [/quote]
I am able to change my style of talking and writing easily to suit the audience. BUT I draw a line in trying to assimilate the fake angmoh accents society. They give CSC goose bumps and make me want to puke instead. :lol:

[MLR]

EN:

Make the person I talk to feel at ease talking to me mah...

Yep, thats the way to go.
Since I move in very different circle of friends, I m pretty good in inter-changeability.

Accent is not a bad thing at all, cos it does gives you identity. In DH's dragon boat team, theres members from different backgrounds, although they are American/Candian, but they still may hv their Irish/West Indies/South American, etc accents. They are proud of their birth, so should we. Of course they tease each other about the quirky or oddities, but its all in good humour.

It happened once to me in San Francisco. We were down in Fishermen Wharf and while waiting for a ticket, I heard this couple speaking in Singlish. I had such a funny feeling and I went over to chat them up. It felt so good and that really made my day.

Often DH teased me about my use of Singlish with my friends. My blend of Singlish is more of a mix of English, Mandarin, Malay and some words that only we understand. Whenever I heard DH on the phone, I would be able to guess whom he was speaking to. When he talking to his siblings or friends back home he would don his West Indies accent.

:celebrate:

[JHJC]

i do not think our children should speak Singlish. In fact i do not like the man in yellow boots. I saw the national day parade and wonder why they get Mark Lee?

Buds i am with you … !!!

[tankee]

I agree with MLR & EN.


Not that my english is good, but I do change the way I speak (and write) depending on the audience. In KSP, I type normally, in other forums or online gaming, it would be like … wat eh? u duno meh? dat one lor =.="

but for my 6yrs old son, I forbid him to speak singlish for now. Our education system is already stressful enough, no reason to pick up another sub-language and confused him.