Hi everyone,
Welcome to my blog! I will try to give you guys updates at least once a week and keep everyone in the know of my more exciting experiences while in Singapore.
As you can see the title of this post contains four different languages which all mean "welcome" in English, Bahasa Melayu (the Malay language), Chinese and Tamil. These are the four official languages spoken in Singapore. The unofficial language of Singapore though is called "Singlish" and the "language" is a mix of all four of these languages as well as Hokkien (a Chinese dialect) and even some Cantonese. I will need to brush up on my Singlish as I only want to have the completely authentic Singapore experience! My favorite Singlish expression is "why you so blur like sotong?" I don't know what sotong has to do with anything (it means squid in Malay), but it lossely translates into "why are you being so unaware?!" Very useful expression to use in everyday language, I feel.
So that was your first introduction to Singaporean culture! There will be more to come of course in a week's time. Until then let me know how your break is going! I miss everyone already!
Your friend,
Kavanaugh
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Wikipedia provides a pretty definitive summary of the origin and development of Singlish, if anyone's interested:
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singlish
if we're posting links...wild rice theater company has songs from their singlish musical "cinderel-lah!" online. they're actually pretty ridiculous but super funny.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.wildrice.com.sg/media/cindymusic01.html
My siblings are experts in Singlish thanks to the MMOG Gunbound. Lots of Singaporeans play that game apparently.
ReplyDeletethat is the most amazing expression ever...and quite Shi Kai Wen - like...are you already in Singapore??? Or are you just prepping yourself and all of your pengyous???
ReplyDeleteWord to Bai Bi Ya, excuse me while I use that expression every day in your honor ;-).
ReplyDeleteGLAD YOU'RE KEEPING A BLOG, it's what all the cool kids do ^_^. Here's hoping you have the best semester of your life!!!!
Kav, I'm so glad you're keeping a blog! I love it! Keep up the good work, my friend :)
ReplyDelete