Language Improvisation

Someone once told me.... Singapore dun really have the capability to invent. Japanese are the best at that. The greatest thing about Singapore is that, we are always able to take something old or traditional, improvise it, then we call it new and as our own. Lolx! This is wat we are best at.

I think that's the same for our "Singlish". English has been a long time around language. After being the 1st language used in Singapore, throughout the years, under the influence of various languages and dialects, it has been improvised and been turn to "our language", commonly known as Singlish.

There has been criticsm about this before. People go like, "Why can't Singaporeans speak proper English?" My thought are, "Does it really really matters?"

There are some people, whom I.... won't say dislike but just feel, they have lost a certain character of themselves in doing such.... They try to slang and speak with an accent in English, thinking it makes them more professional and cool and high class. To me, it's all just fake lor... I ever had this colleague who speaks with an accent. Someone asked her how come she speaks with the accent and she replied that she studied abroad for quite a while hence the accent. However, it's not true lor. From what I know, she studied in S'pore all the way leh.... haiz.....

I am proud to be a frequent user of Singlish and seriously I love it, man. I feel it is part of us, and it is really a blend of our various cultures here in Singapore. So when we are talking to foreigners, do we have to skip Singlish altogether? Nah... I dun think so. Of course that doesn't mean ending all sentences with "lah", "leh", "lor". Too much of it also makes it sound really bad lah...

In business writing, certain professionalism has to be maintained, so effective writing in English is still necessary and that really means good English. The challenge of using Singlish beautifully lies in the balance of it all I guess....

So there, I declare myself, a fan of Singlish lor, for I am a true blue Singaporean leh. Hehe!