Posts tagged as:

Singlish

Culture: An Ang Moh’s Year in Singapore

October 10, 2009

This Ang Moh has been living in Singapore for almost a year, and I think it is time for a review. I will keep it fairly short since I still have another year…
There are a lot of “you know you are in Singapore when…” type lists, so I decided I would use a different format. [...]

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Language: Understanding Singlish

April 7, 2009

This immersion program is a great opportunity to continue to study Singlish. I have been fascinated by this ‘language’ since I have moved to Singapore, and now that I spend so much time with my students everyday, I can make observations and start to see patterns.
As a communication teacher, I hope that my understanding of [...]

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Language: Mandarin and Dialects in Singapore

March 25, 2009

The more time I spend in Singapore, the more interested I am in the language situation here. If you have read a little bit about this topic, you will know that there are four official languages – English, Malay, Mandarin Chinese, and Tamil – but that is only part of the picture. In each ethnic [...]

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Link: Taiwanese Talk Show Making Fun of Singaporean English

March 5, 2009

This is actually pretty funny…

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Link: In Defense of Singlish

January 2, 2009

I found this article by Colin Goh and I thought I would post it here.

Colin defends the use of Singlish (Singaporean vernacular English) and naturalistic dialogue in Singapore films and TV programmes in this essay, which was originally published in the August 2002 edition of Elle.

SINGLISH CANNOT MEH?
by Colin Goh

Singlish made me a patriot. [...]

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Language: Is that British English, or is it a Mistake? English in Singapore…

December 4, 2008

The other week I found myself writing “wrong word”, or “use a different phrase”, over and over. After about an hour of marking, I began to wonder – were they actually wrong, or is it just different from what I am use to?
I was uncertain because Singapore uses British English, and sometimes I am not [...]

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Language: Singlish Post # 3

December 1, 2008

One of the funniest (sorry if that is offensive) things about Singlish is the crazy intonation. This is especially pronounced when the speaker is angry, excited, or correcting someone. Let me share a sample dialogue to illustrate the last one:
Student: When is the assignment due?
Teacher: Wednesday?
Student: Tuesday!
Student’s friends/classmates:  Wednesdaaaaaaaaaay ahhhhh!
The best is when they don’t [...]

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Language: Singlish Post #2

November 30, 2008

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 [...]

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Language: Singlish Videos

November 19, 2008

I have written about Singlish a bit, but it is hard to understand without hearing it. Below you will find two videos with some quality Singlish. If you want to hear more, just search around on YouTube.

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Language: English and Singlish, Part I

October 10, 2008

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, [...]

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