cannot lahsinglish has been around for longer that many of you think. its roots date back to 1819, when raffles founded singapore and opened up a tax-free port that attracted hundreds of traders from all over asia. people flocked from india, southern china, malaya, java, britain in hopes of flourishing here on our little island. some of the people that came here, namely the europeans, the eurasians, indians and straits chinese, sent their kids to english schools while the rest was satisfied conversing in the local venacular,
pasar melayu. but these traders had to communicate at some point and as a result, the non-english educated picked up smatters of english and over time, with influence from baba malay, indian english and southern chinese dialects, a stable form of english resulted. this english-creole matured over time (like mediocre wine) and became the singlish that many of us speak today.
fast-forward almost 200 years or so: the government's reaction towards the language has turned sour and branded it a 'substandard version of english' that 'renders the speaker incomprehensible to everyone, except another local'. and so a campaign (surprise, surprise) was launched to propagate the use of good english. the media was slammed for using singlish on its programmes. but all this was to no avail. 'lahs' and 'hors' rolled out of people's tongues to slap our government on the cheek. the task was and still is an uphill climb for the government, but unfortunately for them, i believe that singlish cannot be eradicated from our society, and i'm not even sure if i want it to go away.
every singaporean speaks at least two languages. this is a result of our education system and primarily because of our multi-racial make-up. like our ancestors in the 1800s, it is therefore no surprise when our second language starts to affect the way we converse in english. this is especially so growing up when the children of post-independent singapore had to converse with their parents in their mother tongue. conversation between people of different ethnic groups were also carried out in singlish, which eventually became the norm. because of this, the second generation of post-independent singapore will be well versed in singlish first before they even step foot in a classroom and they'll have their parents to thank.
another example where singlish goes unchecked is in the ns. when the ns first started in 1967, the main languages that were spoken were hokkien and malay. however, the saf has come a long way and singlish has become the main venacular, regardless of race and education status, standardising the bar for everyone. not a day goes by without one hearing a sentence being expressed in singlish. in fact proper english is rarely heard at all.
singlish is strongly frowned upon in schools. unfortunately there is no stopping its usage even there. the only time when a teacher actually points out the use of this language is during english lessons itself. many are most comfortable when speaking singlish and many students use it to ask questions on things that they dont understand. in fact, some teachers do the same, relapsing to familiar territory when explaining tough concepts to most students that can grasp ideas more easily when it is explained using the more familiar venacular.
even the workplace is not spared. minus the interview stage and other formal events, singlish is used frequently amongst friends and the language is even used as punchlines when making jokes with other locals. it is used without restriction especially in informal settings simply because it is easy to slip into and many singaporeans are comfortable with the language.
the media, despite being slammed for the increased usage of singlish, has not made any dramatical changes. new singaporean sitcoms still contain dialogue in singlish. and dont you think that it is a little ironic that the government would tell the people to listen to 'uncle phua' as he raps, in singlish mind you, about fighting sars? yes, that very rap (featuring famous singlish discourse particles
lah and
leh) that was broadcasted on air countless of times during the sars period.
singlish also is the only semblence of identity that all of us as singaporeans are ever going to get. as stated, we come from different backgrounds possessing different histories, beliefs and languages. singlish is a product of all of our languages kinda meshed together to form this new language that transcends race in a multi racial society. sure english performs the same function but singlish is our very own, just like australian english and the dialect in new york, with our own nuances and idiosyncrasies. can we just eradicate it like the government suggests?
singlish, unlike what the government predicts, will also not hadicap us when its comes to talk about staying afloat in an ever shrinking world and globalisation. unfortunately i have become too tired to continue typing and making my case for singlish (talk about anti-climatic eh?).
in short, the campaigns can go on and the govenment can throw their little speeches but they have to accept that singlish is here to stay and cannot be extracted from society. like a limb, it is a part of us and that's not going to be easy to take away.
