No doubt about that.
Lah, leh, lor, mah, meh, hor - I love them all, and I wouldn't hesitate for a second to make use of as many of them to punctuate my sentences whenever possible, though not everyone feels the same way as I do.
While the majority of us are always quick to dismiss Singlish as English that's broken, bad, incorrect and... you get the drift, I can't help but feel we're giving it far too little credit for its role within our society for the past goodness-knows-how-long, and how it's made itself to become something so indispensable over the years.
I love Singlish for a couple of reasons.
Most importantly, using this great language blend daily gives me a greater sense of belongingness here; speaking/writing Singlish is what makes me a Singaporean through and through. It is the single most important aspect (that I can think of, please feel free to come up with others if you can) in our lives that embodies all the different cultures we originally had as a nation, a social glue that binds all of us together. Something that all of us take ownership of.
The best jokes are always in Singlish. It's true, for true-blue Singaporeans at least. Also, there are words in Singlish that simply cannot be replaced by English words; the emotive functions of ba chor mee, wah lau eh, paiseh, or kena sai (one of my personal favourites btw) will simply be lost in translation.
I wish that the people who speak ill of Singlish (especially leaders of the country who we are supposed to look up to) will realize that constantly putting down the language spoken by a group of people will (not might, but will) have detrimental effects on the sense of identities of these people, us. I believe the same goes for religions, but of course, we are not getting there today. I digressed. Other than making us start to question our very own self-worth, I can't think of any positive effects that may arise from being constantly told to speak like someone else.
In fact, I am so very sick of constantly being benchmarked against other countries' standards. It's almost like, telling us that we're never going to be as good as these countries - that we'll never be good enough to be the benchmark. And you know what they say about repeating something often enough, it gets to a point where it becomes something automatically assumed true. Do we really want that? Do we need that?
In the opinion of another someone unimportant like me, there is no practical need for us to completely do away with Singlish like how the language campaigns and the country's leaders have actively been advocating.Why should we learn to use Received Pronunciation (the Queen's English, that is) when just 3% of UK's population (I'm not even talking about the world's population here) is using it currently. Oops, silly me. I forgot that we've just begun looking towards American English.
But really, is the majority of the local population going to converse with these British or American English speakers on such an extensive basis that they need to adopt their speaking accents?
I really don't think so. What about speakers of other varieties of English - are we going to marginalize them just like that?
Instead of hopelessly calling for the abolishment of Singlish and looking towards particular varieties, it would definitely be much more helpful if we acknowledge the role that Singlish plays in our lives (instead of merely dismissing it as something bad for the country's economy) and then learn about the different varieties of English found globally. It would also help if we become slightly more discerning when choosing to use Singlish in different contexts - use Singlish as much as you like in private domains, but drop the lehs or lors that may confuse an international audience or when you are taking your oral exams. I am not suggesting that standard English for wider-purpose communication is not important, it is and I acknowledge that.
At the end of the day, sense of identity/belonging > maximizing competitive advantage. Continually putting Singlish in a negative light will inevitably result in Singaporeans having negative perceptions about the language and refusal to be associated with it; you get people who speak Singlish, but yet claim to speak English because they are not able to make a distinction between the two or they simply refuse to be associated with a language crass like Singlish. That's a lose-lose situation I hope we never have to get caught in.
Oh wait, it already has happened.
I love Singlish for a couple of reasons.
Most importantly, using this great language blend daily gives me a greater sense of belongingness here; speaking/writing Singlish is what makes me a Singaporean through and through. It is the single most important aspect (that I can think of, please feel free to come up with others if you can) in our lives that embodies all the different cultures we originally had as a nation, a social glue that binds all of us together. Something that all of us take ownership of.
The best jokes are always in Singlish. It's true, for true-blue Singaporeans at least. Also, there are words in Singlish that simply cannot be replaced by English words; the emotive functions of ba chor mee, wah lau eh, paiseh, or kena sai (one of my personal favourites btw) will simply be lost in translation.
I wish that the people who speak ill of Singlish (especially leaders of the country who we are supposed to look up to) will realize that constantly putting down the language spoken by a group of people will (not might, but will) have detrimental effects on the sense of identities of these people, us. I believe the same goes for religions, but of course, we are not getting there today. I digressed. Other than making us start to question our very own self-worth, I can't think of any positive effects that may arise from being constantly told to speak like someone else.
In fact, I am so very sick of constantly being benchmarked against other countries' standards. It's almost like, telling us that we're never going to be as good as these countries - that we'll never be good enough to be the benchmark. And you know what they say about repeating something often enough, it gets to a point where it becomes something automatically assumed true. Do we really want that? Do we need that?
In the opinion of another someone unimportant like me, there is no practical need for us to completely do away with Singlish like how the language campaigns and the country's leaders have actively been advocating.
But really, is the majority of the local population going to converse with these British or American English speakers on such an extensive basis that they need to adopt their speaking accents?
I really don't think so. What about speakers of other varieties of English - are we going to marginalize them just like that?
Instead of hopelessly calling for the abolishment of Singlish and looking towards particular varieties, it would definitely be much more helpful if we acknowledge the role that Singlish plays in our lives (instead of merely dismissing it as something bad for the country's economy) and then learn about the different varieties of English found globally. It would also help if we become slightly more discerning when choosing to use Singlish in different contexts - use Singlish as much as you like in private domains, but drop the lehs or lors that may confuse an international audience or when you are taking your oral exams. I am not suggesting that standard English for wider-purpose communication is not important, it is and I acknowledge that.
At the end of the day, sense of identity/belonging > maximizing competitive advantage. Continually putting Singlish in a negative light will inevitably result in Singaporeans having negative perceptions about the language and refusal to be associated with it; you get people who speak Singlish, but yet claim to speak English because they are not able to make a distinction between the two or they simply refuse to be associated with a language crass like Singlish. That's a lose-lose situation I hope we never have to get caught in.
Oh wait, it already has happened.
No comments:
Post a Comment