人散庙门灯火尽,却寻残梦独多时

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

beng is cool, singlish a signal

I'm cutting and pasting, food for thought... :)

Terence Chong writes in Today ...

Singlish becomes a potent symbol of who we are, how we think, and how we speak. This is especially so for many overseas Singaporeans who are able to instantly recognise fellow citizens with Singlish. It is thus no surprise that many want to celebrate it as an icon of local culture.

....

Singlish is, however, also a means of class differentiation. Although many argue that Singlish should be celebrated as part of national identity, in reality, this argument comes only from the English-proficient middle class.

We revel in its down-to-earth factor and wear it like a badge of honour to show how unashamedly Singaporean we are. Meanwhile, we overlook the many Singaporeans out there who cannot speak anything else but Singlish. In doing so, we erase the harsh realities of these Singlish-speakers such as economic marginalisation in our search for symbols of national identity.

....

Singlish, more than any other language, has created pathways across the borders of class and ethnicity. However, the ease with which we cross borders depends on our class, cultural capital and the specific nature of power distribution in society.

Full article here.

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

How horrendous. It is very much like trying to celebrate East-enders cockney as a language or Beijinger's "rolling R's" mandarin as a national standard. Shocking :-o ;-)

8:43 pm

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

You can determine the income of a Singaporean by counting "lahs" spoken per minute. Each "lah" means lower income. Each "lor" lowers it extra. This is true except for the really rich who start to intentionally insert Singlish words back into their speech to sound more like a heartlander, like the wealthy American president Bush trying to sound like a Texan cowboy even though he's not.

9:49 pm

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

What is interesting is the point about 'national identity' as if the way you use words, identifies your nationality! If you judge a person on their accent or use of words, you may well imagine Bush is a Texas cowboy, and not the international idiot he is! Singlish is, at it's best, an amusing addition to the english language, and at it's worse a devisive class indicator.

10:10 pm

 

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