Search results for 'tag:Singlish' matching tag 'Singlish'

Re: Guess the accent

Rotten English — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 16:56:44 GMT

Haha, at least you know a bit about singapore. But yea, English is our first language. Singlish is Singapore's unofficial first language and it is heavily peppered with local slang. In fact, some of the sentence structures of certain singlish phrases are taken from mandarin or malay, so they may not make much sense from an English perspective. For the older generations especially, some people ONLY know singlish and not proper english because english was not the language of instruction in all schools in the past. They either attended an English medium school, or a mandarin/malay school, or not go to school at all. But for the last few decades, English has been the only language of instruction in all schools (Im not too sure about those people in islamic schools though) but Singlish is as alive as ever due to it being so rampantly used amongst parents and grandparents.

Today, if you visit singapore. You might get quite confused as there has been a recent flood of Chinese immigrants from China. A lot of them hardly speak any English, and they are mostly hired as service staff at shops and eateries, so knowing mandarin would come in real handy. Glad I learnt mandarin as a second language! (tho i struggle when i try to converse with people from china)

Re: Guess the accent

Kooyeen — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 20:54:42 GMT

I didn't know it was the first language there. I thought it was a second language... And I thought it was called Singlish, which is English and some other language (Chinese?) together.

Re: Countries speak English as Native Language

Charlotte_T — Thu, 24 May 2007 14:21:15 GMT

I don't think English is a native language in Singapore. In fact, not all Singaporeans can speak proper English. They prefer to use the kind of English which is mixed with Mandarin and Malay - - called 'Singlish' in South East Asia. Of course, some people of higher education or higher rank in the government and companies do speak proper English, whereas (as far as I know) many do not.

Re: usage of comma

Yoong Liat — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 16:51:55 GMT

Such books were sold in the past, but they are no longer available.

However, there is one dictionary which points out common mistakes made by Singaporeans, ie Singlish.

The title is 'Essential English Dictionary'. It can be bought at the Popular bookshop. If one branch does have the dictionary, try another branch. Happy Hunting.

All the best

Re: How would you define "native speaker of english"

Rose In Oz — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 07:05:11 GMT

English is fast becoming a lingua franca. When a Malaysian, a Japanese and an Indian all want to converse together they will most likely use English. Communication is the main thing. As others have pointed out we have lots of differnt Englishes - Singlish, Ebonics, American English, British English and lots of other versions splattered with local slang and idioms. In fact you could say that Britain no longer 'owns' English. All over the world it is morphing into distinct variations particular to that location. The concept of 'native speaker' really only becomes relevant when you want to pass an exam (ie - the dreaded IELTS). Here it would be a good idea to check the 'nativeness' of the examiner in order to produce the particular version favoured. Apart from that, it is my subjective opinion that the concept of 'native speaker' will become a nonsense.

It is worthwhile to reflect on what happened to the last Lingua Franca - Latin

Ps - the web site wwwtalkingcock.com is fun and worth a look.

Re: a large number of

Yoong Liat — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 11:45:45 GMT

In one of my English usage books, it is stated that 'handphone' is Singlish (Singapore English). The writer, a professor, says that it should not be used. If the word is mainly used in S.E. Asia, it should be avoided. If it is used in England or America, then it may be accepted one day.

I've referred to all the dictionaries, including those available on the website, and 'warded' does not have the meaning 'hospitalised'. In fact, if you ask English experts, the chances are that they will say it does not mean 'hospitalised'.

However, The New Oxford Dictionary of English defines 'warded' as 'hospitalised'. So 'warded' will one day be accepted as having the same meaning as 'hospitalised'.

Re: How can you tell whether someone is a non-native speaker?

julielai — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 03:20:49 GMT

Simplyblessedwithlove wrote:
I think Indians, Filipinos, Singaporeans, or people from other bilingual English-and-mother-tongue-language speaking countries can be able to do that, and there would be no way for you to tell where they are from.

Actually, Singlish is fairly distinct. That said, I can't tell whether a Singlish speaker is a L1 speaker. (Can't speak for the others -- waiting to hear from them)

Re: Countries speak English as Native Language

Bystander — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 12:00:02 GMT

H1ph0pb0y wrote:
Anonymous wrote:

In Singapore, everything in school is taught in English. Constitution, Newspapers, road signs, restaurant menus, and even little instruction guides for almost all products are written in English. Most people are billingual with English as their primary language. But the population is predominately Chinese, with Malays and Indians making up the rest.(You'll see a random Caucassian from time to time) Should English be considered a native language in Singapore then?

yes, but english in sing is influenced by chinese a lot, i have so many friends now studying in sing and they said english there is Singlish and if u(not a native english) wanna improve ur english u shouldn't go to sing

yes, you are right,I am studying in Singapore now,their English pronunciation is quite strange.Their English is affected by the other three languages(Malay,Chinese &Tamil),recently,the ministry of education here appeal to Singaporeans to speak proper English.

hello guys ^^

Problematicme — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 10:21:42 GMT

hi im problematicme .. tats my alias hehe ~

My real name is Zara and i'm from Singapore ~ i have a problem with my conversational english because im used to speak singlish, or in another term local english .... kinda polluted unpure english ...

hmmm ... im still having some problems with my grammer when speaking the language ... mostly im having a problem with TENSES !!! such as positive past tense , negative past tense , continuous past tense ... etc etc ... T_T

i have a feeling tat the reason my tongue began to numb out when trying to speak english is because im not confident about my grammer and ended up stuttering ...

help ..

sincerely problematicme

phrasal verbs: get down, drop off; warded

Selvakumar — Mon, 15 May 2006 05:40:24 GMT

I came across the following sentences in one of Harold Robbins' novels:

1. He told the driver to drop him at the corner.

2. You may drop me at the hospital later.

3. The driver got down from the truck.

They are not part of conversations. I have learnt that when it comes to setting someone down (from a vehicle), we do not say "drop someone", rather, "drop someone off". Similarly, I have been told that someone "gets off (from)" the bus, truck and lorry but never "get down from". Hence, could someone tell why Harold Robbins had used "drop" and "get down" in the aforesaid manner?

I came across the following sentence in one of P.D.James' novels:

4. "...But she shouldn't have left the ward. It was stupid. She had a temperature at 103.8 whe she was warded."

The author had used "warded" synonymously with "hospitalised". Is this right?

I do not know whether it is a coincidence, but interestingly, all the above usages ("drop someone", "get down from" and "warded") are Singlish