Chapter 5
lnterlinguistic influence
BEFIRE Julia Sherstyuk is a Russian living in Singapore. In her blog, she frequently
comments on her experiences in a society that appears very different to her
own and to other places in the world where she has lived.
Yll -+ Before you read her blog, imagine you were living in another country
and make a list of the aspects of society you might comment on. In what
order of importance might you put the different topics? Why would you
give certain aspects more importance than others?
READ -+ The writer talks about the differences between Standard English and
Singlish, the local dialect. Make a list of the different aspects of language
the writer might talk about in her blog.
-+ There are mal)y different varieties of English throughout the world.
Who decides what is good English or bad English? Are there differences
between good and bad spoken and written English?
-+ What is the difference between an accent and a dialect?
-+ Think about your own culture and society. Are there many different
accents and dialects? Which ones have high status or prestige and which
do not? Why?
-+ Do you use the same accent and dialect at all times or does your
language change depending on the social context you find yourself in?
Why is this?
Definition
Singlish vocabulary
makan - to eat
chope - to reserve something
cheem - difficult, complicated
ang mo - a white person
rojak - mixed, a mix of
liao - finished, the end
kiasu - afraid to lose face
Speakers of Singlish will usually end
their sentences with a distinctive
exclamation. The four most common
are 'ah', 'lah', 'ley' and 'what'. For
example:
"OK lah, bye bye:'
"Don't like that lah:'
"You are going there ah?"
"No parking lots here, what:'
''The price is too high for me lah:'
'And then how many rooms ah?"
"It is very troublesome ley:'
•
"Don't be like that ley!"
"I'm not at home lah. That's why ah:'
Cultural diversity
~ Q
SINGLISH: Broken English or Badge of
Identity?
An intelligent way of experiencing a new indications of plurality, tenses and voices are
country and its people's mentality is learning the optional. Have a look at an eye surgery ad which
local language. In the case of Singapore, nothing I personally have come across more than once in
could be truer. local media: "Advantage of Epi-LASII<: preserve
50 more cornea tissue; suitable for those involve in
5 l Two things struck me as incomprehensible
contact or aggressive sports." I assure you, those
when I first came to Singapore: its incessant
are not typos- this is Singlish at work.
humid heat and the local English, quirky enough
to instil an inferiority complex in a linguist 5 Nearly all Singaporeans are bilingual. learning
like me who had been painstakingly mastering an Asian language or dialect with the family
10 English as a second language. With Professor 55 and English at school. Many speak three or four
Higgins as a role model, I could differentiate a languages. The influence of their mother tongue
Manchester accent from that of a Dubliner's, and is evident in the way Singaporeans pronounce
would never confuse the dynamic verbalisation English words and the intonation they employ.
of New Yorkers with the sluggish Dixie drawl. If you are exposed to Singlish long enough,
15 But the language spoken in the Lion City 60 you will be able to tell to which ethnic group a
remained a mystery to me for months. person who telephones you belongs. Chinese
Singaporeans have the strongest accent. This was
2 Singlish is rooted in Singapore's short but
the reason why a Russian friend of mine, while
tumultuous history. Immigrants of three major
taking driving classes in Singapore, asked for an
ethnicities- Malay, Chinese and Indian- came
65 instructor of Malay origin.
20 to the island in the early 19th century to
establish trade here. They all spoke different 6 The government admonishes its citizens for
languages and dialects, turning Singapore into speaking Singlish and advises them to learn
a Babylon of sorts. Over time, these tongues proper English to boost the city-state's image
affected each other and, in a much stronger way, as a commercial and financial hub. Since 1980,
25 the English language of the British colonisers. 70 all school education has been taught in the
This resulted in Singlish, a colourful and unique English language which serves as the official
Singaporean English that lives by the rules of language for business and administration among
Chinese grammar and is generously sprinkled Singapore's four state languages.
with words from Hokkien, Malay and Indian
7 Today, most of overseas-educated or simply
30 dialects. On top of that. the intonation has a
75 language-conscious Singaporeans are able to
sing-song quality to it drawn from indigenous
switch smoothly from Singlish to standard
Asian cultures.
English, while less educated citizens stick to the
3 As if it is not mind-boggling enough, Singlish grammatically and phonetically unconventional
is spoken at machine-gun speed with words Singlish, which is a recipe for disaster for tourists
35 pronounced so abruptly that the most common 80 visiting Singapore, especially those whose
and simplest of them become a challenge to mother tongue is not English.
Western ears. For instance, 'act'. 'cast', 'stopped'
8 While purists may bemoan the loss of Queen's
or 'file' are chopped in Singlish to 'ac', 'cas',
English, those who see a broader picture admit
'stop', and 'fi'. The dental fricative 'th' is more
that Singlish is the first building block of a
40 often than not substituted with 't' or 'd', turning
85 Singaporean cultural identity and a distinct
'thighs' into 'ties', 'three' into 'tree' and 'that'
legacy of the country's unique story. Fun,
into 'dat'.
energetic, and extremely laconic, Singlish is
4 In written form, Singlish is no less puzzling: spoken by all classes of Singaporean society.
complex phrases are avoided, verbs may be left
45 out, definite articles are generally ignored and Julia Sherstyuk
•
Chapter 5
1 From the list below, choose an appropriate heading for
paragraphs l - 8. There are more headings than you will need.
A In print
B The future of Singlish
C A national badge
D First impressions
E Grammatical features
F Local culture
G Origins
H Singapore accents
I Singlish in the local media
J Pronunciation
K Language flexibility
L The official view
2 Read the text carefully and answer the following questions.
a From the perspective of a language expert, what was unusual
about Singlish?
b According to the writer why did Singlish develop?
c How did Singlish develop?
d What were the two features of spoken Singlish that the
writer noticed?
e In what ways is the grammar of written Singlish different to
standard English?
f What was unusual about the language of the local
advertisement for eye surgery?
g Why is there no single variety of Singlish?
h Why does the Singapore government criticize the use of
Singlish?
i How do educated Singaporeans use Singlish?
j What is the writer's overall view of Singlish?
3 Find synonyms for the following words and phrases that appear
in the text.
a incessant (line 6)
b painstakingly (line 9)
c verbalisation (line 13)
d tumultuous (line 18)
e indigenous (line 31)
'OH .. YEH OH ... YEH
4
f bemoan (line 82)
g laconic (line 87)
Paragraphs 1 and 2 contain the
hYU SO LIKE THAT I
following cultural references. Look
them up and explain their origins and
significance in the text.
~itf BuY A LA ... THANks.
a Professor Higgins
b The Lion City
• c Dixie
d Babylon Whatever happened to the English language?
Cultura l diversity
Individual oral activity: Analysing a photograph
When analysing the photograph, go from the general to the specific.
• The photograph will always exemplify or emphasize a point
related to the options. Think about why the photograph was
chosen and how it relates to an English B option, for example,
cultural diversity. Ask yourself: "Why did the photographer take
the picture?"
• Photos rarely have an existence of their own. They usually have
a context. Think about where, when, and why the photograph
was taken. Is the photograph part of a larger narrative? What had
happened before the photograph? What might happen next?
• Describe the general details of the photograph such as people,
animals, or objects and their position in relation to one another.
• It is also useful to think abdut the target audience. Who was the
photograph taken for? What was the audience supposed to see, to
think, and to feel? What evidence in the picture gives you these
ideas?
• Next look at the picture and
identify what it shows.
Describe the general details.
If appropriate, you can go
into further details (colours,
proportions, and their effect).
• After examining the picture for
what it shows, look at it again
and decide what message it
conveys. Is it supposed to speak
for or against an issue?
Singapore in the 21st century
· sevone~ ~ ...
~ You could research the spread of English i$,.
Pidgins and Creoles Pidgins and Creoles throughout the world. "'
Pidgins are grammatically simplified forms of a language
which include elements from local languages. Creoles
~ How would you react if you were told that Modern
English is a Creole developed from French, Norse, ;f
•~
are new languages which (may) have pidgin beginnings. German, and other languages? Would you believe it?
That is, they start as pidgins but develop into full Can you prove that the statement is true?
••
languages. A Creole has first language speakers and is a
~ Take any text written in English and find out with the
language in its own right. It can communicate complex
use of dictionaries the etymology of individual words.
ideas in a full range of social situations. Creoles have the
same linguistic and intellectual range as other languages.
•
Chapter 5
BEFIRE In the following text, Singapore writer Minfong Ho talks about her
experiences as a multilingual language learner. She grew up in a Chinese-
speaking household in Bangkok, Thailand. Only after starting school did she
YIU begin to learn English.
~
~
What advantages do you think multilinguals have over monolinguals?
What difficulties do multilinguals have? Do you think it likely that they
READ
confuse languages?
~ Do you ever confuse languages? When does this happen? Is it something
that happens naturally or just when you are nervous or excited? Can
you adjust easily from one language to another?
~ In the text, the writer associates her different languages with different
cultures. Do you think this is a realistic way of looking at the world?
Multilingual identity
The voices of my earliest childhood speak to me in ian uage which connected me to the wide world
Chinese. My father, in his deep quiet monotone, 30 outside my family. Growing up on the outskirts of
would tell me wonderful bedtime stories in BaJ1gi(OkTr)Thailand, I absorbed the simple Thai
Cantonese that he made up, about giants and spoken by peddlers of fried bananas or pickled
5 turtles and emperors. My grandmother, my mangoes as they walked down our street with
aunts, my amah 1 spoke in Cantonese, teasing or their baskets of fruit on their shoulder poles. It
scolding me, or laughing and whispering among 35 was in Thai that I would ask for a ripe guava
themselves, in an easy conspiracy. My mother's or rose-apple, mixed with sugar or salt or chili
voice was cooler, more aloof, as she taught us sauce. At the Sunday market at Sanam Luang, it
10 T'ang Dynasty poems in Mandarin, evoking was Thai that I bargained in, picking out a potted
through them images of an exquisite but remote orchid or a caged rabbit. And within the gleaming
China. With her own friends and relatives she 40 Emerald Buddha Temple, it was Thai that the
would speak in rapid-fire Hunanese or sibilant saffron-robed monks chanted, their faces hidden
Shanghaiese, as I eavesdropped to pick up the behind the staff each held.
15 latest gossip. As naturally and unquestioningly Our house was an airy wooden building on
as I absorbed the basic feelings of love and stilts over a "klong", or small pond. I could lie on
anger, praise and blame that my family poured 45 my stomach in our dining room, and push rice
over me, so I also absorbed these four Chinese through the crack of the floorboards down to the
dialects. As my Jirst lang~e, Chinese is the fish below. We seeded the pond with tiny fish, and
20 language with ~emotional resonance once a year the water from the "klong" would be
for me. Throughout my child oo , it was the drained, and we would be thigh-deep in mud next
only language that mattered. I heard it, spoke 50 to fisherman to net the fish wallowing in the mud.
it, whispered it, screamed it, dreamed in it and This busy beautiful world, of fruits and fish, of
cried in it. Even now, when I cry, I cry in Chinese. monks and marketwomen, swirled with the light,
25 Perhaps that's why I think of Chinese as the nuanced sounds of Thai, and I had only to reach
language of my heart. out to touch it, connect with it. I taste and touch
- If Cfimese IS the language of my heart, then 55 in Thai, so that I think of Thai as the language of
Thai is the language of my hands, a functional my hands.
"bllgrrsh came only much later, when I started
learning it in school, in about the third or fourth
Nurse or housekeeper (Malay) .
•
Cultural diversity
grade. For a long time it remained a school 110 in English, the original experience becomes
60 language, separate from the Chinese or Thai of distorted.
my immedtate world. Learning English was a Yes, it was frustrating for me to write in English.
form of intellectual exercise, crammed with rules How do t for instance, write convincing dialogue
and regulations which were rigidly enforced by when my characters don't even speak English?
strict teachers. Thus I might know the difference 115 How do I translate local idioms without making
65 between the present and past participle, yet be them sound quaint? How can I portray complex
unable to jump-rope or play hopsc<gch in English. traditions? lt w~t easy. It doesn't help, either,
English was confined to the staealien world of that sometimes I am made to feel like a kind of
textbooks and examinations, 'C!evoid of feelings cultural Frankenstein, when those who speak
or sense of taste and touch. No wonder then that 120 only English look upon my fluency in 'their'
~
70 English is for me a language of the head. language as freakish, an interesting but somewhat
What happens when you have a different grotesque ruimi.cr.¥ of their own language which
language for your heart, y.our hands, your head? t~d somehow bequeathed me. ....J
When your head cannot express what your heart It was in the depth of my first winter in America
feels, or what your hands touch? Fragmentation. 125 that I really started to write. As a freshman at
75 I felt a strange split, a kind of linguistic Cornell University, when it was snowing and bleak
schizophrenia. In school, I was made to recite outside, I used to go to the campus conservatory
Wordsworth's poem on the daffodils, without and just stand next to a potted banana tree
ever having laid eyes on that flower. Yet I did not growing inside. I missed the tropical sun, and the
know the English names of the common flowers 130 green leaves and naked brown babies splashing
80 growing all around me. (Years later, I discovered in the ponds. By standing near that banana tree
that the little purple blossom that grew wild I felt a little more connected with home. But one
everywhere in Thailand was called, "Madagascar day some biology class must have chopped up
periwinkle," which made it sound impossibly my banana tree for an experiment, because only
exotic.) Or, conversely, Thai words for everyday 135 its ~y trunk was left. That afternoon, I went
85 things, once I translated them into English - like back to my dorm room and started writing what
my favorite foods "pomelo" or "minced fish patty" would become my first book, about a village girl
-sounded odd and unfamiliar. in Thailand.
Growing up is hard enough to do, without -=rtld way, I still write for the same reason: to
having to feel that one's head can't communicate 140 bring back what is gone, to relive what is lost, to
90 with one's heart or hands. In an effort to piece make a mosaic out of fragments. And to feel -
together the bits and pieces of my life, I tried head, hands, and heart - whole again .
to write - strictly for myself, and at first in an
Minfong Ho
awkward jumble of Chinese, Thai, English.
Gradually, because English - through all those
95 years of formal education - has become the
language that I am most adept in, I wrote more
and more in English. Despite the frustrations
involved, I kept on writing, because writing
was becoming a way to integrate the different
100 experiences and languages of my head, my hands
and my heart.
It is ironic that the language that I've become
most pt~t in, is the one which means
the least to me, evoking very little feeling or
105 memories. I have no easy English words for them,
these Chinese voices lodged in my heart, or the
Thai things I touched with my hands. And when,
through some tedious processing of translation
in my head, the Chinese and Thai come out
•
Chapter 5
1 Scan the text to understand its general ideas. To help, look at the
following table and find the appropriate answers in the text.
Some of the answers need to be inferred.
English
In which social domains of the author's life was each
language used?
Who did Minfong Ho learn each language from?
How did she learn this language?
To which part of the body does the writer relate each
language?
What problems did she have with each language?
What expressions might she use to describe her
relationship with each language?
What does the writer wish to convey by the,se
expressions?
2 Read the text carefully and answer the following questions.
a What happy memories does the writer have of her Chinese childhood?
b Why do you think she was able to understand four different varieties of
Chinese?
c List the activities Minfong Ho remembers from her Thai childhood.
d Under what circumstances did she learn English?
e How did she feel towards the English language while she was at school?
f What does she mean by 'linguistic schizophrenia' (lines 75-76)?
g Describe Minfong Ho's first attempts to write imaginative prose .
h What does she mean by the phrase, 'sometimes I am made to feel like a
kind of cultural Frankenstein' (lines 118-119)?
i Minfong Ho writes in English about characters from Thailand, Singapore
and Cambodia. What special challenges does that represent?
j Why did the banana tree inspire her to write her first novel?
3 Find synonyms for the following words and phrases that appear in the text.
a in an easy conspiracy (line 8) e unquestioningly (line 15)
b aloof (line 9) f resonance (line 20)
c evoking (line 10) g wallowing (line 50)
d sibilant (line 13) h nuanced (line 53)
• Developing writing skills
Another kind of feature article is the profile, in which you interview a
celebrity and find out about their personality, their life, their motives, and
ambitions.
• Research the life and work of the writer Minfong Ho, or another
multilingual personality, such as a sportsman or sportswoman, a film or TV
star, or someone who has been in the news recently. Write about their past,
their reasons for learning English, their problems, and their successes.
• Alternatively take the idea of 'languages of the heart, hands and head' and
write a profile of yourself for your school magazine, or a publication like
IE World.
• In groups, discuss the topic of living with different cultures. How does
• this affect people in your class? Make notes about the different ideas and
opinions. Use the discussion to write a feature article for a teen magazine.
Cu ltural diversity
sevond__ ~
Fluency versus accuracy activity. As a result some English B students can '-$
find it difficult to develop a totally positive self-concept. t\
When learning a language, we want to be able to This can be because they cannot express themselves as ~
communicate our ideas quickly and effectively without
having to worry about every single word. In other words,
fluently or unselfconsciously as they can in their mother fD
tongue. This can be frustrating for them and can lead ~
we want to be fluent. At the same time we need to be to a loss of self-esteem. Before a test at school or an ~
accurate in our use of the language. Read this statement
by an English B teacher in an international school.
oral examination, some students may develop a mental !'
block. This can prevent them from remembering and :
"Some of my English B students can find language communicating:'
learning a very stressful activity, especially if they are ~ Do you think this is an accurate description of your
very self-conscious about speaking English and 'getting it situation? To what extent can you identify with the
right'. Although they are keen to speak English with their teacher's students? What advice would you give the
peers outside class they become shy and inhibited when students?
it comes to speaking in class - which· is a very public
Meta-learning: learning about learning
What differences were there between the ways Minfong Ho learned
Chinese and Thai as first languages and the way she learned English? Think
about the ways in which you learned your various languages. We can learn
grammar intuitively, without conscious thought, or formally, by stating rules.
What are the strengths and weaknesses of each approach?
Do you think the statement above is true for your first language
(I B Language A) and English?
In cooperation with your teacher and CAS coordinator, design a survey to
find out the number of languages spoken by students in your school. With
permission, you could carry out the survey and publish the results in a
report. Analyse your findings and make recommendations as to whether
minority languages could be better catered for by the school community.
