Quick Facts:
Official Languages: English, Tamil, Mandarin, and Malay
National Language: Malay (for traditional reasons, as it use to be part of Malaysia)
Working Language: English
The working and administrative language in Singapore is English. Students learn in English, road signs are written in English, menus/shops signs/etc all have English translations if they are written in a different language, and pretty much everyone knows how to speak “English”. Former Prime Minister Lee Kwan Yew (LKY) had a hard time deciding which language to use after Singapore became independent in 1965. In the end, he chose to make English the working language for a couple of key reasons.
First, he wanted to give Singaporeans an advantage in the global market. Of course, now the concern is the decline of Chinese level/number of Chinese speakers, but I’ll save that discussion for another day. Secondly, LKY did not want to force one ethnic group to learn the language of another. So, although the country is largely Chinese, he thought it would cause a great deal of chaos and resentment from the Malays and Indians if he made Chinese the working language.
For the most part, written and spoken English in Singapore is closer to what you would see in Britain. They use the same spellings, and the better speakers (usually educated over there), will have a slight British accent (the MRT announcer, for example). However, with the prevalence of American movies and TV shows, younger kids like to try and use American expressions and phrases. For me, the fact that they watch so many shows from America is a good thing because they will have an easier time understanding my ‘accent’.
So that is the situation…on paper. In reality, most people in Singapore do not speak English, they speak Singlish. The term “Singlish”, in my opinion, can mean a few things (I have not looked at other definitions, this is my own personal understanding, so if there is an official definition, do correct me). The first component is the use of foreign words. For example, instead of using the English word “eat”, they will use the Malay word “makan”. I have also seen “akan dating”, which means “coming soon” used in a power point presentation (written by a non-Malay, and the rest of the show was in English). I love it when other words are used, but of course it is a little different since I have had some knowledge of Chinese and Malay/Indonesia.
In addition to foreign words, Singlish also involves shortening words, and/or sentences. I had a funny experience with this the other day. During training, we were given a scenario and asked to respond to it. One of the questions on the work sheet asked why the person was “lidat” (I am sure my Singaporean readers are laughing right now). When I first saw the word, I had no idea what it meant. I was going to ask my roommate (we were at the same table), but I didn’t want to look stupid in front of the Comp Lit Princeton grad (I assumed he knew what it meant). I soon realized that no one knew what it meant, so I asked the trainer. It was Singlish. Here is the translation:
Why is this student behaving like that?
Why he lidat? (like+that)…with an accent, of course.
The third component: new words, same meaning. Singlish uses different words than Americans to describe certain things (I wrote about this a bit in my post about the Poly). Some examples: we say “confusing”, they say “blur”. We say “yes” in response to yes-no questions, they say “can”.
The fourth component: extra words. Singaporeans throw in a lot of extra words to make their sentences flow in a way that is similar to Chinese (all dialects). The most common is “lah”. The use of “lah” varies. It is almost always used when asking a question. For those familiar with Chinese, it is the English version of the question word “ma”. The use of “lah” varies from person to person. Some people rarely use it, but others seem to use it after every other word. While “lah” is definitely the most common ‘extra word’, there are others, but most of them are sounds rather than words (e.g. ‘ah’, ‘oh’, etc). Again, this comes from the Chinese influence.
Finally, the accent! You just have to hear it (youtube?). For the most part, I have no problems understanding Singaporeans. This is especially the case in my department, since many of the lecturers have spent time in the UK, Australia, or the US for schooling. However, sometimes the heavy accent and use of shortened sentences is too difficult to understand. A couple of times I have switched to Mandarin, which is usually better for both parties – if I cannot understand them, it is likely the case that they cannot understand me. I am all too familiar with the blank, I-have-no-idea-what-you-are-saying stare, and I usually get it from the people that I can’t seem to understand.
I am working on a Singlish dictionary for interested parties. I will post when it has more content.
In closing, here is a report from my RO (reporting officer): “the papers you have to read are usually terrible, and you will have to re-write sentences. I’m telling you, your English is going to go down hill when you are in Singapore.”
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
there is an online dictionary that is somewhat complied already.
http://www.talkingcock.com/html/lexec.php?op=LexPKL&lexicon=lexicon
also loved how your R.O managed to mix up “you’re” and “your”.
Hi,
I spot a mistake in your article. Its ‘akan datang”. Not “akan dating”.
Haha. Peace.
Haha, yeah – didn’t notice that spell check changed it, thanks!