When I came to Singapore, I thought everyone would talk in the typical North American-Asian accent that Russel Peters always parodies. Since most people are chinese, I thought their way of speaking english is universal in all countries. This is not true at all.. Singaporeans speak in this really cool accent that it great to hear. I would describe it as English with a combination Chinese-Malay-Indian dialects. The accent at first sounded Jamaican, but now it seems like the Singaporeans have their own unique way of speaking. It is called Singlish and it is very interesting.
There is this particular tone in which the people speak, which is hard to describe but its very lyrical. Singaporean government, among other things, wants to get rid of this accent so the media is completely censored with typical American English. However, if you hear the locals talk, it is nothing like it. The vocabulary is also really good. The choice of words is very sophisticated and diverse. I think they use better words than the Americans, but there are several grammatical errors. It seems like they stick to the crux of the argument and don't really care about the grammatical correctness. Things like "Me, not going", "You, not there?" etc.. just enough words to get the point across. They speak very fast, so it is hard to understand if you are a tourist. It has been a month now, and I still have trouble understanding their accent. There are also several Malay, Chinese, Hokkien, etc.. mixed into their speech.
The most common you would hear is "lah". It is a superfluous word that they insert at the end of sentences like "It's ok, lah" or "No lah". It is equivalent to the Canadian "Eh" in some respects, but used in many more contexts. It may also mean like "Dude", but only inserted at the end of the sentence. It can also replace the word "right" sometimes, as in "There are no taxis anymore lah?" etc. This is probably the first word you would notice because it is used so often. It sounds good when someone says that to you though, like "Don't worry lah". It gives you a sense of closeness or shows that the other person has empathy.
They use the phrase "is it?" a lot. When I ask for direction, they would say something like "You wanna go to Sentosa is it?", its not that different from North America, but the way they say it is different and you get a different feeling.
Another word that my professor uses all the time, which I still don't understand is "Corena". When he is explaining something, after the end of it, he says it. For example "When you do the Fourier transform you get this.. (pauses) Corena". I think it means "correct or not?", but I am still not sure. It is a funny word though.
A word I heard once was the word cheem.. like "Ahhh lah, thats so cheem".. It means, its heard to understand or complicated. I think it comes from Malay or Hokkien.
Finally, a word that describes the Singaporeans is Kiasu, which means "Afraid to lose" in Hokkien. The Singaporeans, like most Asians are extremely competitive, hard-working and ambitious. They are deathly afraid of failure, so they give it their all to succeed. A guy next to my room is taking 8 courses (usually people take 4 or 5 and that is deemed to be the max). But this guy is taking courses from outside of the university and I see him studying all the time. I know I simply cannot do that. I think Kiasu deserves a separate blog entry of its own.
Also, some similarities to Indian are words like "Eii" (when they yell, or call somebody), and "Ahh?" when they want you to repeat what you said, and I've even heard the patented Tamilian "Aiyoo" exclaimed by local Singaporeans. Another exclamation is "Aiyah", but I've heard that before while playing badminton with the Chinese in Canada.
A word that my hall badminton taught me was "Huat", which is Hokkien thatmeans "Win!". Ever since, I said that word before I played badminton, haha..
Singlish is a great dialect that describes the population, the ethnicities and the nature of Singaporeans. The way they talk makes it seem like they are in a hurry to finish getting their point across because they have better things to do. The various mixture of words from different languages shows how the population is an intertwined mix of cultures that are living harmoniously in this Capitalist country.
There is this particular tone in which the people speak, which is hard to describe but its very lyrical. Singaporean government, among other things, wants to get rid of this accent so the media is completely censored with typical American English. However, if you hear the locals talk, it is nothing like it. The vocabulary is also really good. The choice of words is very sophisticated and diverse. I think they use better words than the Americans, but there are several grammatical errors. It seems like they stick to the crux of the argument and don't really care about the grammatical correctness. Things like "Me, not going", "You, not there?" etc.. just enough words to get the point across. They speak very fast, so it is hard to understand if you are a tourist. It has been a month now, and I still have trouble understanding their accent. There are also several Malay, Chinese, Hokkien, etc.. mixed into their speech.
The most common you would hear is "lah". It is a superfluous word that they insert at the end of sentences like "It's ok, lah" or "No lah". It is equivalent to the Canadian "Eh" in some respects, but used in many more contexts. It may also mean like "Dude", but only inserted at the end of the sentence. It can also replace the word "right" sometimes, as in "There are no taxis anymore lah?" etc. This is probably the first word you would notice because it is used so often. It sounds good when someone says that to you though, like "Don't worry lah". It gives you a sense of closeness or shows that the other person has empathy.
They use the phrase "is it?" a lot. When I ask for direction, they would say something like "You wanna go to Sentosa is it?", its not that different from North America, but the way they say it is different and you get a different feeling.
Another word that my professor uses all the time, which I still don't understand is "Corena". When he is explaining something, after the end of it, he says it. For example "When you do the Fourier transform you get this.. (pauses) Corena". I think it means "correct or not?", but I am still not sure. It is a funny word though.
A word I heard once was the word cheem.. like "Ahhh lah, thats so cheem".. It means, its heard to understand or complicated. I think it comes from Malay or Hokkien.
Finally, a word that describes the Singaporeans is Kiasu, which means "Afraid to lose" in Hokkien. The Singaporeans, like most Asians are extremely competitive, hard-working and ambitious. They are deathly afraid of failure, so they give it their all to succeed. A guy next to my room is taking 8 courses (usually people take 4 or 5 and that is deemed to be the max). But this guy is taking courses from outside of the university and I see him studying all the time. I know I simply cannot do that. I think Kiasu deserves a separate blog entry of its own.
Also, some similarities to Indian are words like "Eii" (when they yell, or call somebody), and "Ahh?" when they want you to repeat what you said, and I've even heard the patented Tamilian "Aiyoo" exclaimed by local Singaporeans. Another exclamation is "Aiyah", but I've heard that before while playing badminton with the Chinese in Canada.
A word that my hall badminton taught me was "Huat", which is Hokkien thatmeans "Win!". Ever since, I said that word before I played badminton, haha..
Singlish is a great dialect that describes the population, the ethnicities and the nature of Singaporeans. The way they talk makes it seem like they are in a hurry to finish getting their point across because they have better things to do. The various mixture of words from different languages shows how the population is an intertwined mix of cultures that are living harmoniously in this Capitalist country.
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