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| Singapore English vs Standard English |
Groan. Even Singaporeans who speak excellent English often make this mistake - you use the word 'stay' instead of 'live'. You say, "I stay in Toa Payoh" when you really mean "I live in Toa Payoh". The difference is simple: you stay somewhere for a short period of time, it is a temporary agreement, it is not a permanent thing. For example, my American friend Mitch is staying with me during the Olympics. In fact as I am typing this, he is sleeping on my living room floor (and snoring quite loudly may I add). Mitch is only here for a week to watch the Olympics - he is flying back to Washington DC tomorrow. So he is staying with me for a week. But when you live somewhere at least on a semi-permanent basis, eg., "My parents have been living in Ang Mo Kio since 1979." There have been there for 33 years - that's an awfully long time. So it would be totally wrong to say, "my parents stay in Ang Mo Kio".
Now I don't know why this mistake is so prevalent in Singapore as there is no real reason why people don't know the difference between the words "live" and "stay" - but there you go my friends, it's really not a big deal but now you're aware of it, you can avoid that mistake.
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| My parents LIVE in Ang Mo Kio - they have been living there since 1979. |
2. The abuse of 'got'
Many Singaporeans misuse the word 'got' far too often - eg. "The sink got some dirty plates" instead of "There are some dirty plates in the sink". Or "the shop got sale this weekend" instead of "there will be a sale at the shop this weekend". Even something like "the coffee got add sugar or not?" can be expressed far more simply as, "have you added sugar to the coffee?" Resist the urge to misuse the word 'got' - "You got remind him or not?" should be, "have you reminded him yet?"
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| "Have you added sugar to the coffee?" |
It may be a handphone in Singapore but in the UK it is a mobile phone or just a mobile. Americans call it a cell phone as well but never a handphone. If you use the phrase "handphone", people might be able to figure out what you're trying to say but please just use the phrase mobile phone instead.
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| Not a handphone! |
Singaporeans tend to talk only in the present tense and use the term 'got' to indicate past tense when this is a very Singlish thing. For example, "I go to the shop and buy the eggs already," which really should be all in the past tense as the protagonist has clearly completely the task and is reporting on something he has done. "I've been to the shop and bought the eggs." Mind you, this is not that common, so if you are not guilty of this, good for you. I am thinking of the way my family speaks English and this may or may not reflect the way you speak English.
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| Eggs! |
Now this is a borderline case as I think some British people do use the word 'one' sometimes, but not as much as Singaporeans, eg. "I want that one." It is appropriate in some occasional, but sometimes Singaporeans think in Chinese when they really want to say "mine" or "yours" - this is a transliteration of 我的 and 你的 - uh oh.
So for example, avoid sentences like, (eg. when comparing hotel rooms) "My one got very nice view but I prefer your one because your one is bigger." In standard English, that should be, "Mine has a very nice view but I prefer yours as yours is bigger."
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| This was the view from my room when I worked in Greece. |
Now, I will share with your five British expressions which are uncommon to say the least in Singapore which you have to get used to.
1. Cheers
It's a rather British thing to use 'cheers' in place of the word 'thanks' - whereas in Singaporean English, 'cheers' is pretty much limited to the 'yum-seng' context. Feel free to use the word 'thanks' instead of 'cheers' - but please recognize that someone is expressing thanks when they use the word 'cheers', as in the following example.
Singaporean: Here's your tea John.
John. Great, cheers mate.
Singaporean: You're welcome.
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| Cheers for the tea mate! |
I struggled with this one a bit when I first came here as I didn't use the word 'mate' with my friends in Singapore - but again, it is considered a term of endearment, a term you would only use with your friends but without being too informal. It is used frequently amongst young people, even amongst those you barely know but it should never be used with someone more than ten years old than you. It is strictly for peers only. So yes, you will hear your peers use it, but never use it say, with a lecturer or a neighbour who is old enough to be your parent.
Now you may hear other terms of endearment, like 'darling', 'love', 'sweetie', 'honey' or even 'duck' (in Northern England) and in Wales you might hear 'cariad' ("ka-RI-ad", Welsh for darling). But I would avoid those terms unless the other party uses them on you first. I've heard Malaysians use 'darling' with just about anyone they meet and trust me, it does come across as awkward to say the least. Personally, I tend not to use such terms (including 'mate'), I just use my friends' names and it makes little difference really.
3. Chips and crisps
Okay, this usually stumps Singaporeans but just bear in mind the following when it comes to potato products. What you call French fries, we call chips. What you call potato chips, we call potato crisps. You'll get used to it soon enough.
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| We call these chips, not fries. |
That's one pint or 568 ml - an imperial unit of measurement still in use in British pubs. You will often hear the phrase, "fancy a pint?" That means, "would you like to go to the pub for a beer?" Feel free to order a half-pint if you think that 568 ml (that's over half a litre) of beer is too much.
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| Fancy a pint at the pub? |
Tricky one - to swear or not to swear, that is the question. Now I am not a prude and the UK is not a place where people are prudes. I attended the DVD and album launch of the Midnight Beast at HMV Oxford Street yesterday afternoon at 5:30 pm and I was thinking, gee - they swear a lot in their music, it's 5:30 pm and the store is full of teenagers on their school holidays, are they going to say 'fuck' in front of all these young people? Is that allowed? Oh yes it was. There were several hundred people yelling phrases like "FUCK THE FONZ" at the top of their voices at 5:30 pm on a Monday in a crowded HMV.
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| That's a lot of people saying FUCK all at the same time... |
Here are some of the lyrics for the song 'Quirky' which they performed.
FUCK vegetables, I don't eat none of that shit
FUCK education, I don't study one little bit
FUCK THE FONZ, HE THINKS HE'S FUCKING COOLER THAN ME
AND FUCK SINGING THIS SONG, CUZ I'M TOO QUIRKY TO SING
Now despite a very liberal attitude to sex and swearing, you should bear in mind that not everyone is okay with this kind of swearing and it should match the occasion. So if you are at a party with your peers on a Saturday night, then yeah by all means go ahead and swear and talk about sex. But good grief, when I was working as a translator for one of the Olympic sponsors, this PRC-Mandarin translator Nina swore a lot. Her English was quite good, but she was like, "This pizza is so fucking awesome, you must have some" or "Fucking hell, it is going to fucking rain again."
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| Fucking awesome pizza |
And I had to pull her aside and tell her to stop using the F-word when working as the guests were going to get so offended. She explained that she had learnt English as a foreign language and all her English mates swear so she thought it was just the way English people spoke: fucking-this, fucking-that, fuck-this, fuck-that etc. And I told her, maybe your friends do and they are as English as they come - but that is not appropriate for work, especially not when you're working at the Olympics!
If in doubt don't swear. Don't risk offending people. Mind you, I have taught my close friends here the Hokkien phrase "chao cheeby" - so when I say that, they know I am angry and swearing, but I am not offending anyone who doesn't speak Hokkien!
So there you go. Those are some quirky differences between British and Singaporean English - mind you, I don't think the challenge is so much for Brits to understand Singaporeans, I have a feeling it might be the other way around - for a Singaporean to try to understand someone from Birmingham, Glasgow or Manchester where they have a really strong accent. But hey, that comes with practice and you'll soon get used to it. Good luck! Any questions, you know the usual drill - please leave a comment, cheers! I'll leave you with another Midnight Beast music video - see if you can identify the honorary 4th 'beast' in this music video.
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