Singapore is famous (or notorious) for our unique mix of Singapore style English. To some, it is an acquired taste like cigar- if you like it initially you may begin to fall in love with this comical language or hate vehemently and get real annoyed when you don’t understand it. If you still don’t get it, here are some examples:
Example 1:
English:Don’t mess around!
Singlish: Don’t pray pray ah!
Examples 2:
English: This is interesting/ Oh, is that true?
Singlish: Oh, izzit?
To some, it is an acquired taste like cigar- if you like it initially you may bin to fall in love with this comical language or hate vehemently and get real annoyed when you don’t understand it. While the government and schools promote ‘Speak Good English’, our fun loving society laugh together with our local comedians- Irene Ang and Kumar – for their funny interpretation of the language itself.
So to put our English to test, I led a mini challenge among my coworkers to determine whose command of this language is the most decent- the winner gets to meet our clients without our English teacher (just joking).
Join us in this challenge if you are brave enought! Or take the test online by clicking on this link! So scroll down for the answers after you have completed the test.
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There are many debates about Singlish and some blame the enviroment for our ‘bad english’ but I truly believe that it starts from ourselves. I also believe the power of good english lies in us and we have the choice to speak good english if we are more aware of our speech, we can also switch to Singlish (if we want to) just to make jokes out of it. After completing the quiz, I tabulated my score- it is 23/30- it is a sign for me to be more aware of my speech and to set a good example for Bubba and to teach him to speak good English (instead of Singlish).
Don’t forget to share if you like this and do let us know your score too 😉
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