Singapore English refers to two main forms of English spoken in Singapore: Standard Singapore English and Singapore Colloquial English, also known as Singlish. Singaporeans, even those of the same ethnic group, have many different first languages and cultures. Within the Singaporean Chinese group almost a third speaks English as their home language while nearly half speak Mandarin as their home language. The rest of the Singaporean Chinese group speaks various mutually intelligible Chinese dialects as their home language. As you may have figured out by now, the English fluency level of residents in Singapore varies from person to person.
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| Languages most frequently spoken at home in Singapore |
Standard Singapore English is not that different from standard British English. The people of Singapore doesn’t have the British accent though, they only use it grammatically. Unlike Standard Singapore English, Singlish includes conversation particles and loan words from Malay, Mandarin and Hokkien, and isn't used in formal communication.
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| Example of what Singlish is like I think Singlish is fun to listen to. For me Singlish isn't so hard to understand since I have friends in Singapore that talk Singlish sometimes, but for some it can be quite difficult. When people talk Singlish, certain words are shortened and they end their sentences with "lah" or "meh" or some other strange word, which might make it difficult to understand what they are talking about. When you talk Singlish you have to speak like you don't know how to pronounce words. I recommend you to watch the video I posted, it's really cute. Try to see how well you understand Singlish, maybe you will surprise yourself! |
That was a very cute video about Singlish. Made me laugh! Certainly was a fun way to learn about how they speak English in Singapore. I thought it was difficult to understand but I got a hang of it eventually! Looks to me like English is increasing and other Chinese languages are decreasing. Interesting.
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting post. I didn't know about the two kinds of English spoken in Singapore. The photo of graffiti in Singlish was a perfect choice, as was the video. No wonder you're gaining an international following for your blog!
ReplyDeleteThis is a comment from John Norton who said: "She did an excellent job creating a post that many would enjoy reading."