Tuesday, March 25, 2008
English as it is broken
In Singapore English, we tend to construct questions the same way we make statements. In standard English, questions always begin with either a question word such as who and what or a verb such as did or will.
Singaporeans love "got" meh? So a sentence can be translated into "His son got study overseas meh?"
In making a statement, we might say, "His son studied overseas". But since we are asking a question it should be, "Did his son study overseas?"
"Meh" appears to be operating as a marker to flag the sentence as a question, Singapore style of course! But it is unnecessary since it should be the word order and structure that indicate whether a sentence is a question or a statement.
"Got" is unnecessary as well, in fact it is often overused and misused in Singaporean speech. To think that Singaporeans nowadays often wanna follow the western way of speaking English but often we end up making a fool of ourselves. Of course we don't know it because 2 people speaking broken English can't possibly see each other's fault but try speaking our English to the Americans or British and we could well be in for a rude shock.
In Singapore English, we tend to construct questions the same way we make statements. In standard English, questions always begin with either a question word such as who and what or a verb such as did or will.
Singaporeans love "got" meh? So a sentence can be translated into "His son got study overseas meh?"
In making a statement, we might say, "His son studied overseas". But since we are asking a question it should be, "Did his son study overseas?"
"Meh" appears to be operating as a marker to flag the sentence as a question, Singapore style of course! But it is unnecessary since it should be the word order and structure that indicate whether a sentence is a question or a statement.
"Got" is unnecessary as well, in fact it is often overused and misused in Singaporean speech. To think that Singaporeans nowadays often wanna follow the western way of speaking English but often we end up making a fool of ourselves. Of course we don't know it because 2 people speaking broken English can't possibly see each other's fault but try speaking our English to the Americans or British and we could well be in for a rude shock.
"I'm going to tell him to do something."
"I'm going to ask him to do something."
Is there a difference between the 2 sentences?
Definitely so in Standard English but the typical Singaporean will tell u "aiya same la where got different" It is a distinction that Singaporeans apparently do not make.
In Standard English, the use of "tell" in the above sentence would imply that the speaker has authority over the listener. The former is instructing the latter to do something and the listener would have no option but to do as ordered.
On the other hand, "ask" in Standard English is akin to "request". Hence, if u were to ask someone to do something, you are making a request to the person who has the rights to turn u down. The difference thus lies in the power relationship suggested between the speaker and the listener.
You might just want to bear in mind this difference next time before u tell your boss to do something!
English aside, I must really say I'm thankful to Dino for helping me to fax all those dreadful loads of purchase orders. I would have been screwed if not for him because I left office earlier and then my boss suddenly ask me to do this shit while i was on the way home! You have to love and hate dino. U love him for being helpful like today and u also hate him for being an irritating kid that comes into people's office and turn their desk upside down especially dismantling my newspaper!
Anyway I'm going to buy him breakfast tomorrow, he deserved it now that's what a friend is for! And to end this post with some incredibly broken Singapore style English (the latest version which i have been hearing quite often nowadays!)......... "Me is love u dip dips!!!!"
*dip dips of course translates into deep deep!
posted by mango at 7:16 PM
[ back home ]
Comments for english as it is broken
dips dips is some sort of imitation of thai english.
Deep deep.
Cheap cheap.
Same same.
Lub lub u..
Lub=love
Deep deep.
Cheap cheap.
Same same.
Lub lub u..
Lub=love
- Posted at 25/3/08 8:25 PM | By
(T) (H) (B)
