On Singlish and my semester so far...

Things have been pretty chaotic and tiring this whole semester so far. I go home exhausted, bruised, with a huge ulcer in my mouth. But things have also incredibly fruitful... and I think that is with all things.. once you get through it and look back.. the journey looks less torturous than what it felt...

I'm past the mid-term and heading towards the finals.. several projects to complete but love all my team-mates, especially excited about choreographing and performing my own dance piece for my dance composition class.. it's gonna be an uphill battle BUT i think that in the end it'll be great memories that I'll treasure... the grades right now are irrelevant to me...

*whew* I need to just let things out and take a moment for a breather...

I was having a discussion with my mum yesterday about how Singapore wants people to stop speaking in Singlish. I don't know if they are still doing that right now but I remember the speak Proper English Campaign several years back. But I've come to realize now that I am here that Singlish is a wonderful language. Singaporean Elitist might say that it's not sophisticated or doesn't sound pleasant. I remember some of the people in JC and so many people on the streets speaking with a warped American/British accent. I honestly don't understand what THAT was all about. To me at least, Singlish is one of the most expressive languages I've encountered.

Sara was saying when she came over to SF that I speak 4 languages. I was telling her "er... No... where got four?" And she said as a matter of factly: "Ya, you speak english, american english, cantonese and mandarin." hahaha.. and I laughed happily at her comment. I was telling her singlish and english should be counted as one language cos singlish is just a variation of english...

But come to think of it now, I think that singlish is completely unique as a language- it mixes english, mandarin, hokkien, malay, tamil... sometimes they can be found all in the same sentence....

I was telling my mum that I was at Macy's and one of my colleague was asking me how I was doing- I wanted to say I feel very sian and tried to translate "sian" but I realized that I couldn't really find a word in the English language that could express the state of being that i am in- "sian lor"...

All the "lah, leh, lor" are also really useful in implicitly expressing how you feel... there's a difference between Sorry la... sorry leh... and Sorry lor... and depending on the tone of your voice and the situation the "sorry" can mean so many things... And that is the power of Singlish...

That's why when you guys comment on or are surprised as to why I have not "Americanize" and speak only American accent English, you should know that I speak Singlish by choice and am loving it...


Rachel~