6/05/2007

infidelity in language

Ang Mo professor says Singlish good leh Is this another form of infidelity? Should we take the Ang Mo professor's comment as a compliment, an encouragement to go on and develop our version of Singlish? Quite nice actually. Then lin peh can speak Singlish to the Filipinos and they can reply in Tagalog English and our Malaysian and Indonesian English all together. Shiok, Singapore will be so colourful. Si peh ho. This is another sign of progress.

12 comments:

The Oriental Express said...

Friend, don't murder the British English lah. If not Professor Higgins will turn in his grave.

British English is beautiful. Singlish is cute and suitable for us to use in our country. I like to relax and speak Singlish too sometimes.

Hence it is not a matter of whether English is good or Singlish is good. It is a matter of application lah.

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

solly lah, i don't want to speak like dat lah.

ok, my apologies. i was trying to be a bit cynical. when people suggest that we should be happy at the lower rung of the ladder, we must be wary of the intent.

we should try to level up to the best of our ability. if we are unable, ok, that's our own limitation. but if we are able to do so, we must level up instead of going down into the gutters.

Anonymous said...

But I hope we do not equate Singlish with good English, which I fear is happening. When that happens, who will suffer the consequences. Not the Ang Mo Professor definitely.Already alarm bells are ringing about our standard of written English.

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

i fully agree with you guys. just because an angmo professor said so, and reported in the msm, many people will think, hey, it is alright since angmo said so and the official newspaper said so.

different people will read the meaning differently. the unthinking and the soulless will be most happy to go along.

Anonymous said...

Ah Bean, cannot like that say la. :)
Ang Moh say is what he say. We own self must know better rite? How can Singerish be good? Better than oligeenal Engerlish? Don't play play ok.
Come on la, U know I know is good start aredi. Why always must think which is good which is ok like that? Our Chinese is our Chinese gets us our way here in Sengkapoh. But we go Taiwan or China then we really know what Chinese really is.. Our Mandarain some people say is only for business and practical and get things done only.. Cannot be really standard one la. That doesn't mean our Chinese cannot siu (swim) rite? Can kia jui (treading water) good aredi.. Singlish also like that mah.
Sengkapolians Not Stupid. With Singlish Also. ;)

Anonymous said...

Don't get wrongly ar:
Chinese = Mandarin. 華語.
Not the race or pp la. ;P

Anonymous said...

Wow! Very Tokong!

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

we should speak as best as we can. sometimes a little wildness is nice to break the monotony.

Anonymous said...

Sorry hor, I is Sengkapolian. I neber speak wild wild one k. I only speak singerlish.
U want laugh laugh lor. ;)

Sengkapolian Not Stupid. Even with Singlish. :)

*Though anon, I sign off as SNStupid to leave my 2-cent's worth of singerish-gibberish here. Can't talk $. Can't talk cheem sense. Can't talk sex. Can't talk s$#@!. So I talk in Singlish k.
We all can laugh laugh here mah, hor ah bean?? ;P

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

not ah bean lah. it's ang tau: )

let's just confine our little indiscretion and weird talking to this thread ok?

Anonymous said...

Can lor.
Sengkapolian Not Stupid. Singlish or not. :)

Anonymous said...

Li Ao said sillyporean are tupid lad.