I hope he won't mind me using him as an example - Choaniki is one of my regular readers and always posts loads of insightful, intelligent comments in immaculate, flawless English on my blog. But when we met up in London for a day of cycling, he clearly spoke Singaporean English rather than standard English per se. The difference is more subtle: clearly we have a man here with an excellent command of the English language (which is evident from the way he writes so well), but when he speaks, there are certain things which simply tell me within five seconds that he is from Singapore. That is what makes his English very Singaporean without it being 'Singlish' per se.
After watching my own video, I think I may have been a bit too critical to have labelled these 'signals' as 'common mistakes' - okay, some of them are mistakes: such as using the word 'stay' when you really mean to say 'live'. But otherwise, some of the variants are simply culture specific: such as using the term 'hand phone' instead of mobile phone or cell phone. I wish to clarify my stance on the issue though: I think there's absolutely nothing wrong with Singaporean English or even Singlish within the context of Singapore. I do think however, that Singaporeans should try to master standard English if it would be useful for their work and certainly, students should be taught standard English rather than Singaporean English by their teachers. (Oh don't get me started on some of the teachers there...)
I seriously think that some English teachers in Singapore cannot even distinguish between a "slang" and an "accent" much like the average untrained Singaporean. The common reaction that many Singaporeans show upon hearing a foreign accent from someone who looks 'Singaporean' is this "Why are you speaking in a slang?" when, in actuality, they should realize that Singlish is in itself a slang, because of its loan words and alien syntax and structure that are not common to standard English. Everyone speaks in an accent, wherever he or she is from, and there is no such thing called 'speaking without an accent', unlike what news broadcasters in Cincinnati, OH, are taught to believe in (the 'accent-less' accent).
ReplyDeleteNow that you mention a sliding scale, I was reminded of something a friend(formerly Singaporean, now Australian) had said to me. He encountered a Singaporean engineer in Sydney whom he could not get along with, and he classified our various accents on a scale. That engineer spoke Singlish, stuck around with Singaporeans mainly, and called Aussies racist. By default of that accent of his, he classified it as 'basilectal', while ours (his and mine, by default of our having lived abroad in western countries, he in the Netherlands and Australia, and me in the USA and Canada for extensive periods of time) are classifiable as 'dialectical' (in the sense of being hybrid with strong European and/or North American elements), and then, the category which he identified for someone who was born and raised in a country such as the USA regardless of race or heritage, was the category of a 'standard accent'. I think that with globalization and with people moving around more freely around the globe, most people--even allegedly 'native speakers' of English--would fall into the second category instead of the 'standard accent'.
What can I say man, my mother worked all her life as an English teacher in a primary school in AMK and her English is very, very Singaporean - it is anything but standard. But back in those days, it was acceptable. And even towards the end of her career (she is now retired), I doubt they were going to sack her for having a strong accent - they were just shrugging their shoulders and looking the other way. And guess what? My mother is pretty typical of any English teacher of her generation.
DeleteBut you raise a very good point: just because a Singaporean avoids words like waliau, lah, alamak, aiyoh, gila and jialat doesn't mean it automatically becomes standard English. Far from it. The very Singaporean misuse of certain words like slang and live/stay enables me to identify the speaker by his mistakes. Sure words like slang, live and stay are English words, but Singaporeans are misusing them in a way that is unique to their part of the word, in a way that a good English teacher would and should never permit.
DeleteHaving said that, by all means, be as colloquial as you want amongst your friends - just don't pretend for a moment that Singaporean English is standard English.
Alex/Limpeh, actually to be fair to your mother, since I have never heard her accent before, I cannot comment. But I do detect some rather disturbing things when I encounter any Singaporean briefly, even if overseas, especially with regards to this whole thing about the sliding scale. Singaporeans who refuse to stick around foreigners and choose to stick around exclusively with Singaporeans and Malaysians abroad tend to use a lot of the same slang and words (in the disordered syntax and grammar) that they are used to, regardless of the situation and setting. Just like what you have said, by all means, people are free to be colloquial among their friends, but as for speaking like that to others including non-Singaporeans, perhaps I think that needs to be subject to scrutiny. Then again, we have been away for a very long time, and I do not think that most Singaporeans are as aware of such nuances as those who chose conscientiously to be abroad and assimilated themselves to the west.
DeleteYour talk about your mother's English suddenly reminds me of a teacher who taught me during my first year of junior college. She had a rather strong accent which was definitely NOT even standard English, owing to her use of certain words. I was probably among the few students who did not make an issue out of her accent, although I was aware of it, but she left promptly during the 2nd year. Thereafter, my General Paper teacher changed to someone else (my Literature teacher) who actually spoke standard English.....I wonder if my class--the only Arts class she taught--actually played a role in driving her out of the JC setting back to secondary school where she used to teach....(oops.....a sudden wicked grin on my lips as I type this.....).
DeleteIt is disgraceful that many teachers in Singapore today still speak Singapore English. Just because they may try their best not to use Singlish words with their students, they still speak Singapore English, nonetheless. I can excuse people like Choaniki who have been around Japanese and Chinese for work purposes, but teachers should speak better! And yes, I hate that when people like us speak the way we do in Singapore, they think we are trying to slang. We are not. We are just speaking standard English. Sure, my standard English may be a curious mix of British, American, and Canadian "accent" (Kevin, you are right, we ALL have an accent!), but I do not slang. I remember my uncle-in-law (I HATE MY STUPID IN-LAWS!) making fun of my husband in 1995. We were there for hubby's brother's wedding, and my husband was speaking. His stupid mother who was English-educated but chose to be TAMIL in every way she could, could not understand her son speaking, and the stupid uncle repeated what my husband said but in a poorly exaggerated imitation of a North American accent. He was basically making fun of my husband's accent. Thereby, he was suggesting that my husband was putting on an accent just to show off. At that time, my husband had already lived in Canada for 10 years without a single visit to Singapore. Of course, he spoke differently than before. I was thinking he was very rude because we could have made fun of his Singlish, but we did not. Another reason why I have not bothered to plan many visits back to Singapore.
DeleteWell Di, the teachers in S'pore get away with it because they speak just like the parents of the kids (and the kids themselves) so everyone involved: students, teachers, parents, all speak the SAME way, so nobody even feels like there is anything wrong if they all sound the same. That's my point:it's okay if you're some auntie running a small shop in Ang Mo Kio serving a very local audience, then okay lah you can be as colloquial as you like. But teachers on the other hand, need to give their students the key skills they need in order to be prepared for the working world, so they need to teach their students standard English.
DeleteAn English teacher thus has great responsibility and in this day and age, they should not get away the mistakes of the past!
As for your in-laws, ooh Di I feel your pain darling.
DeleteThanks, hon. Makes my day.
DeleteDi, I totally feel you about your in-laws. Granted that my two brothers-in-law are on my side when it came to leaving Singapore, they simply speak with a Singlish slang, which they are oblivious to. Sometimes, I actually have to strain my senses to figure out what they are writing on Facebook, because what they write in 'English' is pretty much what they speak in Singlish. As the English PhD degree holder from a Canadian university inside my family, I still cannot figure out most of what they are actually saying at times....which is not good. I cannot imagine my nephew and niece picking up their fathers' bad habits linguistically....Even my two sisters admit that their husbands speak and write terrible English! My dad, who's the diplomat here despite his absolute lack of knowledge in English, said this (in Mandarin), "My son, you speak Canadian English, but the two of them(your sisters' husbands) speak in Singaporean English," only to have my eyes glazing over in disbelief....
DeleteI think that all the Singaporean slang aside, there is probably something else that makes the Singaporean accent uniquely 'Singaporean': intonation. A Canadian friend of mine from B.C province(Victoria) was traveling in Langkawi once, and she encountered a number of Singaporeans there other than the regular Malaysian trying to escape from the city. What she had observed at that point in time was that the Singaporeans' accent(s) totally sounded different from mine, because of the intonation of those Singaporeans. I asked her, "Do you realize that the Singaporeans you have encountered speak with a much flatter intonation compared to mine?" To this question of mine, she said, "YES." The one thing about 'Singaporean' intonation is that it is rather flat, and lacks a rhythmic cadence that you can find in English, American, Canadian, or even other European speakers of English, let alone people like us who immigrated to the west or have lived there extensively for more than just a year or two. Adding in any extra 'Singlish slang words' does not even make that accent any better at all.
I feel honored to be mentioned by LIFT in a blog post. Of course I would be the first to admit that my English is not perfect and has steadily declined from lack of use. During working hours I mostly speak broken Mandarin with my colleagues mostly who are Malaysians or former Malaysians. I speak abit of Japanese when I need to communicate with the Japanese directors since their English is atrocious and they can express themselves better in Japanese than English. So I have hardly any opportunity to practise any standard English while in Singapore.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand due to lots of time working in China and conversing with my PRC colleagues and new manager in Shanghai my Mandarin standard has improved in leaps and bounds. Now I can basically converse in fluent Mandarin with no loan words and I can even do PRC impressions if I want. In fact some of the Mandarin i use even the locals do not understand but that could be a localisation issue even simple things like 公交（巴士）or市场（巴刹）all native speakers can understand me but quite alot of Singaporeans even the older generation could not so I have to switch to loan words. And I'm surprised that LIFT your spoken Mandarin is not much better. From your written Mandarin I assumed your Mandarin was quite decent but i think you struggled that few times you had to speak Mandarin.
So in my defense I could say I didn't have proper teachers who taught Queen's English but also many Singaporeans couldn't understand even if I pronounced the words properly and I'm made to look like a fool when they had to repeat it the wrong way (i've lost count of the number of time I heard salmon pronounced sellmen and not samen with silent L).
Aiyoh, please lah, let me be the first to say that my Mandarin is rusty to say the least. I totally lack the opportunity to speak any Mandarin here and most of the time, the only person I speak Mandarin with is my dad when I skype my family and when we speak, often I would get stuck thinking... what's the word for __________ in Mandarin. The fact is living in London means that I speak far more French, Italian, Welsh, German and Spanish than Mandarin and that is simply a function of the people I encounter - hence my very rusty Mandarin.
DeleteWhen I write, I have the time to sit down, think and come up with the words - no rush, no pressure. But in a conversation, I probably will drop some English words when I simply cannot come up with the equivalent in Mandarin fast enough. Like, "我们必须在那里做个U-turn..."
Like seriously, how does one say U-turn in Mandarin?
PS. If you think my Mandarin is rusty, my Hokkien is even rustier, sigh. Such a shame.
DeleteU-turn isn't it 绕回头? When you're thrown into the deep sea like I was a few years back, I couldn't depend on loan words or localised words to help me out so I had to start thinking fast in Mandarin otherwise people would think I'm retarded （脑残）. If i told you and anyone else I scored an A for my English during O'levels and just a barely passed with a C in Mandarin I don't think you would believe me since standard have reversed so much.
DeleteChoaniki, the Canadians actually pronounce 'salmon' as 'sell-men', at least as far as I heard it.
DeleteIf I am not wrong, "U-turn" is 转弯.
Delete绕回头 = turn around?
Delete转弯.= turn around also ....
I was after something a bit more specific to travel/traffic... maybe such a term doesn't exist in Mandarin? Even my dad uses the word U-turn as a loanword when he needs to make a U-turn whilst driving.
No, Kevin, salmon is not sell-men. The l is silent. My teacher colleagues all say , "samon". I used to say "sellmon" when I was in Manitoba for a while, until I moved to BC, and salmon became part of my diet, and I had to use the word more. I began to realise that everyone was saying "samon".
DeleteI suspect that a lot of Chinese words do not have an exact transliteration in English. After all, Alex/Lift, you have been in China before, and so, I guess that you probably remember all those linguistic blunders the PRCs make for themselves when they try translating Chinese words into English. One of the funniest ones was this: 干白菜 becomes translated as 'Fuck Vegetables' inside the grocery store!!!!!! LOL...
DeleteThe even funnier one was this: the slogan used by KFC, "In KFC we do chicken the right way", becomes translated as "在肯德基， 我们做鸡是对的！” LOL, that was actually posted by a Hong Kong friend of mine on his Facebook as a joke.....
DeleteGreetings from Taiwan, I'm a Singaporean who's currently studying there. Been following your blog for about a year, keep up the great work!
DeleteBy the way, here in Taiwan, u-turn is 迴轉(回转)/迴車(回车).
Hi and thanks for the translation THT. You see, I was looking for something like 回车 which does sound transport/driving specific rather than just "turn around". I would turn around when I was walking or jogging but I would make a U-turn if I was driving a car.
DeleteAs for Kevin Jang's KFC story - that is priceless :)
Di, that could be a case of me hearing differently, or otherwise, it is the Ontario accent at play here. I always hear the 'l' in most of my Ontarian friends' accent when they say the word, 'salmon'. That aside, the thing about intonation is still very much what distinguishes Canadians from Singaporeans, and the way Singaporeans pronounce their letters is somehow...well, wrong in some parts. A lot of them still cannot distinguish between the 's' and 'sh' sounds, and the 't' and 'th' sounds, which makes it distinctively Asian, and also, the 'r' and 'l' are often messed up, just like how the Japanese and Koreans would normally do too. Add in the Canadian rhotic, and Singaporean English sounds really like someone trying to do William Shakespeare but with a tone-deaf quality to his speech, because he or she fails to catch onto the beats and the stresses.
DeleteCould be. When we were driving up the Mackenzie Mountain in Nova Scotia, we came across little towns on the mountain. When we stopped for meals, we noticed the people spoke very distinctly different from the city. Nova Scotians in the city in turn, spoke very distinclty different from British Columbians. It's all English, but with charmingly different accents.
DeleteI think the usage of words is location specific and certain words they use in China aren't used in other places. Like 左/右拐 only PRCs would understand since it's a Northern slang.
DeleteDi, I think that you are probably aware of the stereotypical notion US Americans have of Canadians pronouncing 'house' with a stress on the 'ou' (as in 'woo') and 'about' as 'aboot', when it is pretty far from it on the west coast. In Toronto, ON, there is a tendency to string the 't' and 'r' together when they pronounce the word, "Toronto"(thus skipping the first 'o', and making the word sound more like "tro-ron-do" more than "To-ron-to" the way west coasters pronounce it). I have been out of Toronto for quite a while, but still have this tendency myself in my speaking with the rhotic, and that is the one bit which Americans and Canadians detect as that of someone who lived in eastern Canada before. But yes, it is all so charmingly different with regards to the accents in Canada, and there is actually cadence to them all unlike in Singaporean English which is staccato.
DeleteYes, some Americans hold stereotypes of Canadians which does not hold true, especially in the west coast. Also, we are so flooded with American media that we tend to speak like them. There is more difference on the east coast. This is very true of Nova Scotia, as mentioned before, and places like Fredericton, PEI, Newfoundland. Of course, Quebec is almost a different country!
DeleteIn the context of living in Australia, speaking in singaporean english is definitely a no-no. The locals over here do not understand the staccato nature of singaporean english because they are more likely to "go long and flat" on their pronunciation.
ReplyDeleteMy Singaporean friends have commented several times that I speak way too slowly for their liking and suggested I should just speak up to their speed.
Allow me to relate an experience I had recently. I was with a PRC Chinese person and we were chatting to an English person and he began talking so slowly and clearly just so the PRC guy could understand and follow the conversation. I got fed up and walked away when he said, "I used to work in this place called Devon, I don't know if you've heard of Devon before..." and I was like, for crying out aloud, that's just being condescending when you question the knowledge of my geography of England - like I have been to Devon, I have worked in Devon - was it necessary to let me know that you think that I may not have even heard of Devon?!
DeleteMaybe I was taking it too personally, maybe that thing about Devon was directed at the PRC guy not me. But I hate it when white people assume you're stupid or ignorant just because you can't speak English properly - their assumption is simply, "well if you were well educated and intelligent - you'll speak English properly..."
Actually, Alex/Limpeh, the trouble is that, not only white people have certain assumptions about Asians and their ability in English. Even Asians, namely Japanese and South Koreans,have this assumption that ONLY white people--blond-haired, blue-eyed etc.--are cut out to teach English, and this serious 'racist' assumption is carried out as far as employment for ESL teachers, in which qualified instructors have been passed over in favor of less qualified ones just because the latter looks 'white' enough to teach English. I guess that I was lucky to be employed by a public Japanese university, and I had job offers, or invitations to go for interviews, from Chinese and Taiwanese universities. South Korean universities and schools are a different matter though, and the education officer was as proudly and honestly racist to tell me directly that because I am Asian, my English PhD does not count as much as my race and nationality years back. Well, whatever, not my loss, but his......
DeleteMy spoken English has become Americanized to the point that Americans assume that I'm one of them, and I'm asked if I'm a foreigner whenever I'm back home in Singapore.
ReplyDeleteAnd I kind of prefer it that way. I made it a point to speak Standard English when I grew up in Singapore and I was constantly accused of being an elitist for it. Why should I be made to feel bad for being right?
When in Rome do as the Romans. Asians are very anti non-conformists so I usually do everything to avoid standing out.
Delete