So you can see my minute long piece here on the YLE website - I did an English introduction to make it clear that I am in London and that I'm going to speak Welsh, before launching into a piece of Welsh whereby I talk about why I love the sound of the Finnish language, especially the Finnish double-R sound which would require the speaker to really roll their tongues. I have in fact done a video about this on my vlog about rolling one's Rs. I suppose I could have done that piece in Mandarin (or Spanish for that matter) but I thought, let's use a minority language and make this special. There isn't enough Welsh out there on TV outside Wales, let's make people sit up and take notice of the beautiful Welsh language. And besides, if I am going to talk about the sounds of the Finnish language, then Welsh felt like a far more suitable language to do that in as Welsh does share a lot of the more unusual sounds with Finnish. So in the Finnish evening news report tonight, like the main news channel watched by millions across Finland, I was featured along with Angela Merkel and Ed Sheeren - not bad company if you ask me but they labeled me as Singaporean. Yeah right, Singaporean!
You see, if you had watched the full one minute piece, then it would have made sense: I am originally from Singapore, I'm clearly in London and I announced that I am going to speak Welsh, one of the national languages of the UK. But the way the news programme was chopped up in the editing, it made it look as if I was wishing Finland happy birthday all the way from Singapore and I was speaking in my mother tongue/native tongue/first language - Welsh. Subtitles were given in Finnish but it wasn't made clear what language I was speaking, the viewers were just told which country these people were from and I had the word 'Singapore' with a big Singaporean flag on the screen when I appeared. Speaking in Welsh. Viewers who know anything about Singapore would have realized, "he's clearly not speaking an Asian language and that's clearly not English but we don't know what strange language he is speaking in - is this guy really from Singapore? Like don't they speak English, Malay or Mandarin in Singapore? What the hell is going on here? Where did you get this bizarre Asian guy speaking in this strange European language?" I think it suffices to say that most people involved in that programme did speak in their first language: so Angela Merkel spoke in German and Ed Sheeren spoke in English. I guess there's an element of making a point that I'm perfectly capable of expressing myself eloquently in my fourth language (Welsh) and that I could have done the piece easily in English, French, Mandarin or Spanish as well.
Look, I love being on TV and to get to show off my language skills on Finnish TV is right up my street. But I'm afraid I've just given the Finnish public the impression that we all speak Welsh in Singapore. Well, that is if they can even identify Welsh from just listening to it and I doubt they can. Seriously, I think I'm like the only person from Singapore who speaks Welsh fluently. Sorry for well and truly confusing the people of Finland today but I seriously thought the producers would have explained a lot in the editing. Life would be a lot more boring if we all just spoke in English. So go on, click through on the link and have a laugh, let me know what you think. Thanks for reading. Kiitoskia oiken paljon, diolch yn fawr iawn.
My Finnish friend assured me, "No worries. The whole idea with this is to get a Tower of Babel of languages and cultures. The most important thing is that you made a great piece of work with your greeting!"
It irks me that they used you to represent Singapore. If they wanted to, why not just say so? Why on earth would a Singaporean speak Finnish to represent Singapore?
Well I wasn't told that - the initial email to me read, "hi there, my name is (insert name) and you were recommended to me by (name of my friend). He said you're from Singapore originally and you live in London now. We are doing this programme about ..." Not once was I ask if I am a Singaporean citizen or if I was happy to represent Singapore in this and I am so glad I did mention the word LONDON and clarify what language I was speaking in my intro. BTW, I was speaking in Finnish and Welsh, 'cos well, that's the kinda thing I do. I was representing myself.
Hi LIFT- Yeah, one might expect a guy from S'pore to use 1 of the 4 official languages to send their well wishes. BUT: 1. Thank you for "representing" Singapore by letting the producers put our flag on the screen when they showed your footage (even if YOU didn't know they were going to do that &) even though you are currently a British citizen. You helped us gain some diplomatic points.
2. Anyway, many viewers in Finland might not notice or recognise the flag, so they would not conclude you are from S'pore. I Don't think they even look at the flags, they probably look at the faces of the people talking & concentrate on listening to identify the language & meaning of the words (cos that's what I did). Maybe the producers chose to use S'pore instead of UK's flag simply to inject more variety i.t.o. the number of different flags that were shown?
3. You speaking in Welsh is a unique way to convey the level of diversity the program captured & the breadth of your personal exposure. Gives a less run-of-the-mill & more cosmopolitan feel compared to if you had used EL/CL/ML/TL. In short, it's so your style to do something unpredictable & refreshing like that. If not for the flag appearing there (which is actually a plus for S'pore) I'm sure you'd be happy with the outcome of your segment, right?
Hi CLT! Well, I wasn't asked if I was going to represent Wales, the UK or Singapore in the clip - I thought I was merely representing myself! But somehow, because the person who introduced me to the producer said to her, "my friend from Singapore" they were like, great we have no one from Singapore involved, let's use him as our guy from Singapore despite the fact that I spoke in Welsh. Mixed, confusing messages? Well, I was speaking in Welsh and the subtitles were in Finnish - so you were probably well and truly lost. But yeah, they already had other submissions from the UK, so they probably decided to make it look more international by classifying me as Singaporean. Yes, I did have full control over the production - that was my living room I shot it in. I did do several takes until I was completely happy.
This put a smile on my face! A triumph for Internationalism 🤣 Never thought a (ex) Singaporean would learn to speak Welsh. Clearly fact is stranger, and far more wonderful than fiction!
My Finnish friend assured me, "No worries. The whole idea with this is to get a Tower of Babel of languages and cultures. The most important thing is that you made a great piece of work with your greeting!"
ReplyDeleteIt irks me that they used you to represent Singapore. If they wanted to, why not just say so? Why on earth would a Singaporean speak Finnish to represent Singapore?
DeleteWell I wasn't told that - the initial email to me read, "hi there, my name is (insert name) and you were recommended to me by (name of my friend). He said you're from Singapore originally and you live in London now. We are doing this programme about ..." Not once was I ask if I am a Singaporean citizen or if I was happy to represent Singapore in this and I am so glad I did mention the word LONDON and clarify what language I was speaking in my intro. BTW, I was speaking in Finnish and Welsh, 'cos well, that's the kinda thing I do. I was representing myself.
DeleteHi LIFT- Yeah, one might expect a guy from S'pore to use 1 of the 4 official languages to send their well wishes. BUT:
ReplyDelete1. Thank you for "representing" Singapore by letting the producers put our flag on the screen when they showed your footage (even if YOU didn't know they were going to do that &) even though you are currently a British citizen. You helped us gain some diplomatic points.
2. Anyway, many viewers in Finland might not notice or recognise the flag, so they would not conclude you are from S'pore. I Don't think they even look at the flags, they probably look at the faces of the people talking & concentrate on listening to identify the language & meaning of the words (cos that's what I did). Maybe the producers chose to use S'pore instead of UK's flag simply to inject more variety i.t.o. the number of different flags that were shown?
3. You speaking in Welsh is a unique way to convey the level of diversity the program captured & the breadth of your personal exposure. Gives a less run-of-the-mill & more cosmopolitan feel compared to if you had used EL/CL/ML/TL.
In short, it's so your style to do something unpredictable & refreshing like that. If not for the flag appearing there (which is actually a plus for S'pore) I'm sure you'd be happy with the outcome of your segment, right?
Hi CLT! Well, I wasn't asked if I was going to represent Wales, the UK or Singapore in the clip - I thought I was merely representing myself! But somehow, because the person who introduced me to the producer said to her, "my friend from Singapore" they were like, great we have no one from Singapore involved, let's use him as our guy from Singapore despite the fact that I spoke in Welsh. Mixed, confusing messages? Well, I was speaking in Welsh and the subtitles were in Finnish - so you were probably well and truly lost. But yeah, they already had other submissions from the UK, so they probably decided to make it look more international by classifying me as Singaporean. Yes, I did have full control over the production - that was my living room I shot it in. I did do several takes until I was completely happy.
DeleteThis put a smile on my face! A triumph for Internationalism 🤣
ReplyDeleteNever thought a (ex) Singaporean would learn to speak Welsh. Clearly fact is stranger, and far more wonderful than fiction!