Singdarin

Singlish has been much discussed but somehow Singapore Mandarin has not quite gotten the same attention. Even with the "acknowledgment" by our beloved MM on the failure of the bilingual education policy, and the already-implemented practice of teaching Chinese using English, there seem to be a lack of attention given to the language that will supposedly help us enter the rising Chinese market.

And even though I am not as adept in the Chinese language (due to the lack of use after the Os), I must say that there are indeed cases of (the use of) Singapore Mandarin that I can easily identify when I tune in to the local Chinese channels or read the local Chinese papers. Even as I type this post, 周崇庆　is on the TV describing the food as “没有什莫好看”　rather than saying “卖相不好”.

Another case of Singdarin that I have identified over the past few years is the use of direct English translations, especially for numbers above the thousand. We tend to say “一百千” rather than “十万”.

Other more nuanced cases include the (mis)use of “给予” (jǐ yǔ) vis-à-vis “给与” (gěi yǔ) commonly heard during thank-you speeches by our local artistes at the annual Star Awards. I guess the lack of attention can be attributed to the higher social value we have placed on the English language.

Now I am not asking that we start policing the use of Chinese, but rather we start recognizing these cultural instances that make us neither English nor Chinese, but Singaporeans.

Other interesting links:
http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/ ~ Observations on British and American English by an American linguist in the UK
http://www.marksimpson.com/ ~ Brit author and journalist Mark Simpson [who] is credited/blamed for ‘fathering’ the metrosexual in the UK’s Independent newspaper in 1994.