Since January 2023, my family (my career-oriented wife and our 3-year-old daughter) and I have relocated to Singapore. I've been studying English diligently, but I still struggle to understand Singlish, even though I've improved since I arrived.
I began wondering, what exactly is Singlish? So, I decided to ask my buddy (GPT) for an explanation.
Here's what I found out:
Singlish is a distinctive style of English spoken in Singapore. Despite English being the native language, it has been influenced by Malay, Chinese, Tamil, and other languages, giving rise to its unique expression. For instance, words like "Can't" become "Can't lah," and "Go and eat" becomes "Go makan." Singlish often involves abbreviating words or incorporating terms from other languages. Its grammar is also distinct, with sentence structure and the use of particles being notable features. Sentences like "Why you never come?" or "I go there already lah" exemplify this.
Singlish is an integral part of Singaporean culture, widely used in everyday conversations and casual settings. It facilitates smooth communication among people and serves as a means to express the local identity.
I see now that Singlish can have different sentence structures. The use of "lah" is quite common, and I initially thought it had a similar meaning to the Japanese expression "dabe" (~だべー). However, with this explanation, I'm starting to understand it better.
Well, I guess I'll continue studying Singlish little by little (laughs).
From January 2023, my family (my bilingual wife and our 3-year-old daughter) relocated to Singapore. I am Law
Whenever we go to my daughter's preschool, I always bring a toothbrush set. However, we ran out of toothpaste, so I prepared a new one. I wrote "M" and the initial of my daughter's name on the cap, so she would know it's hers. This is what happened when I told her about it:
Me: "I wrote 'M' on the toothpaste for you."
Daughter: "No, no. It's 'en-mu'."
Me (smiling awkwardly): My 3-year and 3-month-old daughter just corrected my English pronunciation. It seems I said "M" differently.
It's been 5 and a half months living in Singapore. A mom friend in an international marriage told me that this day would come sooner than I expected. When I mentioned my friend's son, Carl, my daughter corrected me, saying, "No, mam. Carl."
It seems correcting the pronunciation of both "L" and "R," which Japanese people struggle with the most, is my fate as a parent of a bilingual child. I wonder how many more times my daughter will correct my English pronunciation.
I have regained quite a bit of confidence from attending English conversation school five times a week, but being surpassed by my daughter is not far away. It seems my regained confidence will be shattered once again (laughs). I'll do my best not to be ridiculed by my daughter.