Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Attack of the Cheena people

Was on the train to work this morning and being extremely late (i took the 9.15am train from woodlands lor!), the train was relatively vacant.

I sat down opposite 2 very articulate Uni girls on their way to school.
As you all know, Singaporeans have this very irritating tendency to group people. You are either Cheena or Ang Mo Pai. Ah Beng/Ah Lian or Nerd/Shu Dai Zi.

As if we all so clearly fall into those predefined categories.

Anyway, these 2 girls were obviously "Ah Mo Pai"...and one of them was complaining about how Cheena some of her coursemates were and how they would use Singlish to ask the lecturer questions.

What's wrong with Singlish? I happen to really like Singlish. Why can't a person ask questions in Singlish? Does it mean that someone who speaks Singlish is necessarily more stupid than someone who speaks perfect English?

True, certain phrases like the "hor" and the "har" do sound like the braying noises a donkey would make, but overall, i think Singlish is very cool! It's something truly Singaporean...and only someone who has been living in Singapore for many many years can speak Singlish properly.

Have you ever heard a foreigner attempt to speak Singlish? They can't manage it, no matter how hard they try! Because unlike establish languages such as English, Chinese and whatnot, there are no proper rules for Singlish. You can't learn Singlish. You can only get "infected" by it after you have lived in Singapore for many, many years.

For example, "lah", "loh" and "leh" have no particular meaning on their own except to add emphasis to the sentence, but yet, they cannot exactly be used interchangeably.

See the subtle differences between the 2 sentences below?

1. Don't like that leh!
2. Don't like that lah!

The 2nd sentence conveys a greater feeling of irritation than the 1st.

And definitely, you cannot go "Don't like that loh!"


So, why the labeling? Is a Cheena person of less value than an Ang Mo Pai person? Is a person's value directly related to his/her level of education or his atas-ness?

And why is being Chinese, (or cheena, if you must) something to be embarassed about?

People like those 2 Uni girls annoy me. And despite all their years of education, and for all their articulacy, i am inclined to think that they are very, very stupid.
Stupid in the same way that the barbaric white men condemned the Red Indians for being uncivilized while enslaving them.

Those stupid elitist bananas. Bah.

XxX,

audrey at 11:54

16 lamb droppings