Singlish - A personal take.
Disclaimer - Just a personal opinion on Singlish, and it is not by any means a serious or professional write-up. Just when I was trying to fall asleep, my monkey brain decided that it is a great time to talk about Singlish, an adaptation of English in Singapore. As I tried to trace back to my time as a kid growing up in Singapore, I could not pinpoint when did I learn “Singlish”, or from whom did I learn from. It just came naturally.
It may therefore be thought that English would be a natural in Singapore, a city-state comprising of a highly-diversified population of different races and culture. Why then was proper English so difficult to be taught in Singapore? (To the extent that there was national-level initiatives from the national government to promote proper English over the “villianfied” Singlish).
One of the reasons I thought of is the adaptability and freedom of it. Living in a mandarin-speaking family, proper Queen’s English was highly challenging for me as a kid, with all the inconsistencies, rules, and naunces. Singlish on the other hand, being unexaminable and without a formal body governing the structure, seems to offer a greater freedom of expression. By picking certain words from the different languages as replacement, the impact of a sentence can be enhanced without laws. For example: “Sibei that’s it” Nonetheless, I value the cross-border nature of English language, and appreciate the benefit of speaking it especially when I am overseas.
It is a language which enhances the sense of unity or familarity when used during conversation with fellow Singaporeans.