Listening Activity: Singlish - A Variety of English

Interviewer: In a bag shop in Edinburgh, I just met a man from Singapore. What's your name?

Tony: Tony. Tony Tan.

Interviewer: What is a man from Singapore doing in Edinburgh?

Tony: Well, life is a very strange path, so it's a very, very long story.

Interviewer: So you've been here for many years?

Tony: Yes, I've been here for more than 10 years. More than 10 years.

Interviewer: I'm very interested in learning more about Singapore. Could you tell me a little bit about that community.

Tony: How would I describe Singapore? Singapore is a very westernized city, city, island, state. You know, majority of the people can say 90% of the population can speak English very well as well.

Interviewer: Is that because you learn English?

Tony: Yeah, we learn English from very young in school. I mean, now they have more other subjects, Chinese and other languages as well. My time was all in English. Even from preschool all the way to A-levels, it's all in English.

Interviewer: So you had all your education in English?

Tony: Yes, I did.

Interviewer: How would you say English in Singapore is compared to English in Scotland?

Tony: Oh, it's totally different. English in Singapore, we call it Singlish because the local population is a mixed community, so there are certain words that's mixed into the Singapore, the English language, so it's called Singlish, which is totally unique.

Interviewer: What is unique about it?

Tony: There's always mixed other words like when you say okay, you know in Singapore we say okay la. La is a Malay word, you know, and things like that, and normally we speak, we will mix some Chinese words in as well, which only the locals will understand. But when we speak to someone from a foreign country, we try to speak perfect English without the local slangs going in.

Interviewer: What about English in Hong Kong, for instance, compared to Singapore? Is that very different?

Tony: Yeah, there's a lot of difference because Singapore is a very westernized country and most of the people in Singapore, we do travel all over the world and things like that. And the difference between Hong Kong is they are more... Hong Kong maybe is due to the mother tongue. The mother tongue is Guangzhou, which is Cantonese. And it's a little bit harder for them to pronounce certain words properly in English.

Interviewer: What are your experiences so far from Scotland? What do you like about Scotland?

Tony: Well, Scotland is a lovely country. The people are actually very liberal. They're very nice. And well, it's a very nice country to live in.

Interviewer: But what would you say are the most important cultural differences from Singapore to Scotland?

Tony: For me, there's not much of a difference because I've been around a lot of places and I think I can adapt easily to the local culture and things like that. Basically, I think it depends on the individual, to go to another country or another city, to adapt yourself, and do what the locals do. That's it.

Interviewer: So how do you recommend that we learn about new people? What's the best way to learn about new people?

Tony: Well, be open-minded, liberal. Keep an open mind on everything. Don't be shy. You can walk up to anyone and speak to them. It's not a big problem. Nowadays we're living in the 21st century. People all over the world has travelled all over the world. So it shouldn't be any problem.

Interviewer: Is it more... is it easier for Asian people to be open-minded, do you think?

Tony: Not really. Asian people are actually very conservative. Well, maybe I'm slightly different. It's just that I travel quite a bit. And normally Asians are very conservative. They stick to their own community. It could be due to the fact they don't speak very well English. That's their main obstacle. I mean, if you can speak English, I think you can travel all over the world. It's not a problem at all. Even to countries where they don't speak English in France or even in Latin America, if you can speak a little bit of English, they still will understand what you're trying to say.

Interviewer: One of the things we always hear about Singapore is that it's very clean. Why is that?

Tony: The government is like your dad. You have everything and anything you want in Singapore. But certain things which is against the society or against the government is a no-no. There's no drugs, no guns, and no chewing gum. And no littering.

Interviewer: People obey that?

Tony: Yeah. I mean, the bins are everywhere. You take a few steps and dump it in a bin. It's been taught since you're young in school, to be clean, hygiene, love your country, love your streets, and things like that. And Singaporeans are very proud. We want to project our island state to be very advanced, very clean. very low crime, which is a fact, it's a very low crime. No doubt some people would say that Singapore is a big brother state with CCTV all over the island. But for us, I think it's good in a way that the crime levels are very, very low. You can walk home in the middle of the night, nobody will ever come and disturb you or try to rob you or anything like that.

Interviewer: How is it to be a young person in Singapore today?

Tony: It's probably much tougher you have to have the right qualifications and you have to work very hard in order to climb up the social ladder, but most Singaporeans, this new generation, are also quite lucky in the sense that the parents already have laid a foundation for them. You know, you can send them to proper schooling, universities, even though they're not good in schooling, there's also other traits to go into, you know. And the society always believe in education, regardless of academic wise or maybe as a tradesman or anything. It's always very important in the society. They further yourself.

Interviewer: So would you say most people in Singapore or most young people go for a higher education?

Tony: Yeah, wherever they can.

Interviewer: Do many go abroad to study?

Tony: If they can afford to, yes. Because there's limited space in our national university, NUS, National University of Singapore. which only accepts the top students, the cream of the cream, because it's all paid by the government. So they pick and choose the top students. So the lesser ones who can't qualify, most of them will travel abroad, mainly to Australia, which is nearer to Singapore. It's like 4 hours flight, and it's much cheaper in terms of fees and tuition fees and stuff like that.

Interviewer: So a lot of this, expected back from the students, I suppose. It's quite a hard life being a student in Singapore.

Tony: Yeah, the pressure is quite tough as well because everyone wants to succeed, everyone wants to climb up the social ladder, and nobody wants to be a staff, everyone wants to be a big boss. So education is one way to help them to realize their dreams. Singaporeans travel all over the world, for a job or even for business and things like that. It's a very normal thing.

Interviewer: What about work and unemployment?

Tony: That's very, very low in Singapore. Singapore government, we do give what we call benefits, you call in Europe, benefits to certain disabled people or if you're really down and out. You can apply to the government, but Singaporeans are very proud, we try not to. And I mean, there's always a job if you really want to look for a job.

Interviewer: What about the people of Singapore? Are they from different backgrounds?

Tony: Yes, Singaporeans is a multicultural country. Chinese is the majority, then you have the Malays, you have the Indians, you have the Sikhs, and of course you have the expats, which comes from all over the world and settled down in Singapore. Singapore currently total population is about 6.3 million and I would say maybe half is expats. People from other countries living in Singapore right now. The locals is only maybe 3.5, 3.4 million.

Interviewer: Is that a challenge, would you say, for the community that people have different backgrounds and are there any cultural differences that...

Tony: Not really. I mean, Singapore is kind of unique. It's like a trading post in Southeast Asia and all these years, even I was very young, we have all these expats coming into Singapore as a base and we were ruled by the British and things, so it's quite common for us and it's very easy for us to blend in. It's not a problem.

Interviewer: What are the languages apart from English?

Tony: There's a lot in Singapore. There's a very huge Japanese community. You've got Americans from the States, which is also a very big community down there. And of course, other countries as well. There's a lot of German as well. Because Siemens have a petrochemical plant in Singapore as well, and they have a lot of expats there. So there's different sort of communities Singapore, but English is the main language to communicate.

Interviewer: The people who travel to Singapore, do they mostly come there in order to work, or do you have a lot of tourists coming as well?

Tony: Yeah, we have a lot of tourists. A lot of tourists will take it as a stopping point, mainly from Europe when they want to go down and visit Australia or New Zealand. They will stop a day or two in Singapore before going forward.

Interviewer: What is there to see?

Tony: Well, right now we've got the new... Well, it's a shopping mecca in Southeast Asia. It's actually a shopping mecca. We have wonderful beaches, wonderful islands. And well, basically, you name it, in any big city, whatever kind of fun you want to have, you can have it in Singapore.

Interviewer: Thank you so much.

Tony: You're most welcome.