The other day I was talking to one of my students about where he studied English. I was curious because he did not sound Singaporean at all.
It turns out that he went to an international school in Beijing (it was kinda of funny, “have you studied English outside of Singapore?” Student: “Yeah, Beijing”). He usually speaks English at home, but sometimes they speak Chinese or Singlish.
Anyway, my favorite part of the conversation (quoting the student) “we speak Singlish sometimes. People say it is a dialect, but I think it is a different language”. My reply: “me too”.
The more I hear Singlish in its true form, the more differences I notice. It has a lot to do with the accent, but there are other things – such as syntax, grammar, incorporation of foreign words and intonation – that make it sound different.
