Some of you may remember the Bangles hit Walk Like an Egyptian. I never quite understood the appeal of that song but I'd say the Bangles had a number of better songs. Anyway, this song has nothing to do with what I'm writing about today. It's just that 'Talk like a Singaporean' reminded me of 'Walk Like an Egyptian'.
We were happily enjoying some pasta yesterday and this man walked past and said to his children, 'Wah, they are eating spare-kati (as in katis and tahils)'. Ok lah, maybe we can't blame people for mispronouncing the word because spaghetti isn't even a real English word anyway. I've also heard it called 'spatter-gi'.
Then there was this announcement for some staff member to 'proceed to la-verr tree (level three). You know how some Singaporeans pronounce 'th' as 't', the word-ending 'l' as 'r' and also the short vowel 'e' (as in 'level') as the long vowel 'a' (as in the word 'as'). Try saying 'la-verr tree'. Yup, sounds like lavatory (when pronounced correctly).
I also remember how the use of 'proceed' in this way used to really irritate a former expat colleague of mine. Every time he heard it, he would wring his hands and exclaim 'Why can't they just say go?'
Definitely, Singaporeans have some of the weirdest ways of speaking. However, although I sometimes find our language usage rather grating and cringe-y (such as when your plane touches down at Changi Airport and someone announces that if you get caught for drug trafficking, you will face the death penulty -- yuck, yuck), I think it's part of Singaporean culture.
Now, on to very bad Singaporean behaviour. I was flipping through an assessment book (one of a very small collection of such things in this house) that my son has done some parts of and realised to my horror that further down in the book, there were exercises that were already done and marked!! And you know what, there was more than one child's handwriting, different coloured pen ink and different markers' handwriting. Which means that there's more than one pair of perpatrators. How could parents (most likely, I think) or older siblings or whoever marked those exercises allow this to happen? Either they did and marked the exercises at the shop or brought the book in for exchange after using it and deciding that they didn't want it. That's really disgusting.
Never knew one had to check assessment books before buying them.
We were happily enjoying some pasta yesterday and this man walked past and said to his children, 'Wah, they are eating spare-kati (as in katis and tahils)'. Ok lah, maybe we can't blame people for mispronouncing the word because spaghetti isn't even a real English word anyway. I've also heard it called 'spatter-gi'.
Then there was this announcement for some staff member to 'proceed to la-verr tree (level three). You know how some Singaporeans pronounce 'th' as 't', the word-ending 'l' as 'r' and also the short vowel 'e' (as in 'level') as the long vowel 'a' (as in the word 'as'). Try saying 'la-verr tree'. Yup, sounds like lavatory (when pronounced correctly).
I also remember how the use of 'proceed' in this way used to really irritate a former expat colleague of mine. Every time he heard it, he would wring his hands and exclaim 'Why can't they just say go?'
Definitely, Singaporeans have some of the weirdest ways of speaking. However, although I sometimes find our language usage rather grating and cringe-y (such as when your plane touches down at Changi Airport and someone announces that if you get caught for drug trafficking, you will face the death penulty -- yuck, yuck), I think it's part of Singaporean culture.
Now, on to very bad Singaporean behaviour. I was flipping through an assessment book (one of a very small collection of such things in this house) that my son has done some parts of and realised to my horror that further down in the book, there were exercises that were already done and marked!! And you know what, there was more than one child's handwriting, different coloured pen ink and different markers' handwriting. Which means that there's more than one pair of perpatrators. How could parents (most likely, I think) or older siblings or whoever marked those exercises allow this to happen? Either they did and marked the exercises at the shop or brought the book in for exchange after using it and deciding that they didn't want it. That's really disgusting.
Never knew one had to check assessment books before buying them.
Comments
I stumbled upon your blog from Good Morning Singapore. Like your posts.
Welcome to my blog! Wow, you are thinking about the PSLE already? I've just read some of your posts. You know, my son had problems with that 'more than/ less than' thing too and it was only after some weeks of different 'teaching strategies' by me and his father that he finally saw the light. All of a sudden.
Hi Mr Lam,
That's funny. And what about those places where there's a reception counter but the people actually sit some distance away from it. When you get there, no one really bothers and when you say 'Excuse me', someone looks up and says, 'Ya?'