Wednesday, July 07, 2004

how wide-spread is singlish in s'pore uni...

i'm currently doing transcriptions on vcds of students fr ntu during a negotiation task. they were told tt they'll b videotaped & specifically told to use prope english during the negotiation task. U can hardly imagine how many imaginary words were created by them & how many lah loh lehs were used!!! i've a stack o transcription which was done b4 but i'm proofreading them so had to go thro' them.....1 whole stack...every single 1 contains lah, loh, lehs.....i dun know whether it's cos it was juz an expt or cos both parties in e negotiation were s'poreans (so were not but they still used singlish).....i dun know how you can go out n talk 2 pple in formal settings....i guess we always tend 2 use a lang which is familiar 2 e party tt we r speaking 2 so tt we can stand on equal grds....i tend 2 speak a bit o a baby lang when i speak 2 my litle neice & nephew...change 2 singlish/chinese when i'm speaking 2 my close friends....more standard english when i speak 2 pple whose main lang isn't singlish....

but over all it was kind o fun listen 2 how pple communicate using singlish...it really is a unique singapore style! when i was in europe 4 holiday i cld almost immediate pick up a s'porean fr e way they speak! i tink i must also speak like a s'porean cos when i checked in 2 my hostel in berlin, the attendant immediately asked if i was s'porean....r we tt distinct?? we r i tink & it may not sound e most correct, but i guess singlish has bec 2 much o our lives.....again i'm gg 2 b late 4 my tkd class again if i dun hurry up....result o e tkd grading will only b know in 2 wks time....quite anxious 2 know how i fared.....sign lang exam also until next class then will know.....haizzzz.....anyway....getting stiff fr sitting & typing e transcriptions & also writing tis blog....got 2 get off & do some exercising!!!

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