SINGAPORE and its Languages

[@anicetusurban8516]

It is fascintaing how what was once a fishing village is now a global trade centre where languages from all over the world are being spoken.

[@nicosmind3]

From what I'm told they were basically a swamp land in the 70s but decided to embrace free market capitalism so that allowed them a very fast improvement. China had many free market reforms starting in the 80s, with Dow Xing Ping (something like that), India has tried to a limited sense to try the same as well hence their improvements too. And I think many in the West want to go the opposite way and I can only see that making the west worse if it happens. Yet the countries which have gone the furthest towards free markets have had the best improvements. A lesson I wish more people acknowledge as it's big corporations which write regulations and many are there to punish the market not improve it.

[@makouras]

How about the examples of the free market economy failing? This is a super simplistic way to view economics. The West has born free market and has embraced it for centuries. There is no 'going the other way'. Unless you think health benefits, pensions, not letting people die on the streets helpless etc are bad things. Don't worry, your beloved capitalism is not going anywhere anytime soon. It will continue to exploit humanity for centuries to come, while people are cheering for it.

[@g00nther]

It's more than just embracing free market capitalism that accounts for their success. It has more to do with the standard of governance and the policies enacted to govern such a diverse population. I'm reading the auto-biography of their first PM, Lee Kwan Yew, currently, and it's fascinating.

[@andy.5332]

makouras singapore is so sad free market exploited them, bu hu, from a fishing island to world trade center and a bright future ahead. UK also increased 10x the population after industrial revolution, they were so sad they had to work for those pigs capitalists 12 hours a day instead of 15h/day for the great farmers. USA was an awful place too, b4 godbama gave us our *free* healthcare system (that increased all health plans 200%), we had no hope, we used to die on the streets, it was so bad that the entire world would drop thei countries to immigrate to America buhu capitalism

[@biocapsule7311]

+little cripple +le Campos Actually no, people keep saying "free market" but it's all ideologically simplified rubbish. Every success in history always belong to a controlled market. The major difference is the control of where, what and why. The market is never out of control in a successful nation, and Singapore has some of the most extensive government oversight there is in the region, which is why it is trusted. Singapore is undoubtedly very capitalistic and it's government likes to posture itself as center-right (not the US crazy kind) but it's just that, "posturing". When it comes down to actually having things run, the government is all over it. There is one thing a country with no natural resources to depend on learned very early, you can never survive letting the market run amok, period. And oddly enough it likely the closest thing to a proto-corporatocracy or State Capitalism. The line blurred in terms of political spectrum because Singapore's traits as a nation is very uncommon, so what works for Singapore is unlikely to work anywhere else.

[@leonlee4639]

Singaporean here! (with a very long comment) At home, I speak either Singlish or 'Singdarin' - we don't use the word 'Singdarin' here and you'll definitely draw some confused looks if you ask Singaporeans about it. Even so, I'm fully able to write essays in standard English. It is true that Singaporean English is based off British English - notice that I spell words like 'colour' and 'programme' rather than 'color' and 'program'. As for Mandarin, people usually refer to it simply as 'Chinese'. Many students nowadays seem to dislike Mandarin for one reason or another, and so that means the Mandarin standard varies widely from person to person. My Mandarin is above average, so I'll definitely be able to understand Mandarin TV, radio, news etc. However, when it comes to other Chinese varieties, I only understand bits and pieces of Hokkien and Cantonese, and I'm unable to speak it. This is really common amongst youth because we simply don't have many chances to use non-Mandarin varieties. I also learn Malay as a third language in school - the third language scheme is not for all students, rather it's a programme offered to selective students based on their performance in a national exam. The Malay I'm taught is Standard Malay; the use of Melayu Pasar is discouraged but it is definitely understandable for a speaker of Standard Malay. Somewhat interestingly, I'm also a Peranakan - my first ancestor to leave China married a Malay woman in Melaka (in Malaysia), and further down the line my great-great-grandfather moved to Singapore. Baba Malay is, unfortunately, a dwindling language - as mentioned in the video, only the older generation use it. My grandmother and my father speak to each other in Baba Malay, but otherwise they won't use it. Baba Malay is really quite similar to Standard Malay, but has some vocabulary from Hokkien. A speaker of Standard Malay would hence largely be able to understand Baba Malay. Today, most young Singaporeans only speak 1.5 languages, as mentioned by somebody else below - English is no problem, but their mother tongue may leave much to be desired. Some hardcore fans of anime or K-Pop attempt to pick up Japanese or Korean, while others interested in foreign languages may also try to learn French, Spanish etc. I do hope that my sharing is interesting, so do feel free to reply with any questions you may have :)

[@eavennesyerie1954]

Hello, fellow Singaporean! (My username is a fake name) I agree with everything you said XD I remember how my friends and I celebrated when we all did well enough in O Level Chinese to drop the subject. Though, I think this attitude can go a little too far - some of my friends think of China itself with some disdain, and don't want to speak the language or go near the country. I personally feel that the ability to speak another language is valuable, and regret not paying attention in 3rd language Indonesian classes (I ultimately didn't take O Levels for it, and got an F in Sec 4 - I wasn't mature enough at 13 to fully grasp the opportunity I was offered, and it didn't help that I wanted to take Japanese instead, but was forced to go for Indonesian).

[@zeroeffortmemes]

What's the draw to use singlish rather than standard English at home/informal situations? Is it any less descriptive than regular English?

[@diablo2v2]

MOELC Bishan bro?

[@Li.Siyuan]

As somebody planning to move to Singapore very soon, my girlfriend speaks fluent Mandarin and seems to speak passably moderate English when we talk directly (when she feels like speaking English) but when we talk on LINE, it's generally in Mandarin, except for very short phrases. Her written English is poor and when she uses English using Google Translate, which I prefer her not to do, it always come out in American. Shame.

[@thepriceofsalt9003]

@@zeroeffortmemes the draw to use singlish: we all grew up speaking it, with varying levels of intensity. it just allows us to be more expressive with a local touch whereas regular english is more for professional situations, and people are frowned upon by some singaporeans when they choose to lose their accent or code switch. even whilst speaking standard english, the accent bleeds through.

[@Langfocus]

Hi everyone. Please don't post topic requests. Requests aren't feasible for a channel like this with videos that take so much time and effort to make. I try to filter out requests, so you don't see most of them. If I left them unfiltered, they would flood the entire comment section. I get thousands of them every month, with a big spike whenever I upload a new video. So, it may seem like yours is the only one, but there are LOTS. I'm afraid I just can't be responsive to requests. But I hope you enjoy this video and all my others. Thanks!

[@mortenaarup1213]

Hi Paul! I love your videos, and watched almost everything since I discovered your channel a few weeks ago. I just have one question. Can you recommend any books on the history of languages? Preferably books that focus on specific language branches and why we believe that they came to be there way that they are today. You videos are both very accessible and informative and they have made me want to learn more - thanks!

[@jeffreysetapak]

What the heck is Sarawalk??? It's Sarawak.

[@gastonmartinez6316]

Langfocus We think you're awesome, Paul. You sparked my interest for asian and african languages so thank you for that. Thanking you for bringing culture in a simpler way for us.

[@zackcallisto8333]

Im a singaporean but ive never used Sibei Tok Kong xD but there are other words i used that are hokkien xD

[@Fledermausmann]

Hey Paul, well done on the video. It's quite accurate and one can see that you've done a lot of research into the subject. Thanks for not falling into common tropes and the like. Keep up the good work, my man!

[@OVXX666]

watching him break down singlish so academically was just hilarious lol. ive never seen it treated like a legitimate language before and im malaysian.

[@V-for-Vendetta01]

exactly lmao, i found it quite funny. i didn't expect him to treat it like a different language all together, but singapore doesn't have any native language nor do they have a native ethnic group, which is kind of sad if you think about it.

[@israellai]

That's what linguists do. They're pretty egalitarian

[@coyotelong4349]

@@V-for-Vendetta01 Actually they DO have a native ethnic group- the Malays

[@eduardomarques91]

Especially because you are Malaysian you're not used to seeing it treated "legitimately", because the expressions are a basic assumption to you. The rest of the world, however, needs some context to understand it.

[@jaiseverson9024]

I love that it can be enjoyable hehe. I appreciate him for doing it the way he did because I think Any respectable and respectful and socially responsible linguist would treat it as a legitimate linguistic variety. Especially given the importance of other creoles/pidgins or code-switching that people use, including the sophisticated varieties of taglish phrases and jokes that people let me in on to better learn how to think in more pure tagalog

[@adishadzo9896]

"Their food die die must try." LMAO

[@elizabeths50]

it is a very catchy phrase. As soon as he read it, I got what he was saying, before he translated it. some things are pretty obvious. LOL

[@Odinsday]

Singlish is fun

[@alusias3183]

James Teeradon Mahayotaruk First time hearing that

[@jamesteeradonmahayotaruk1592]

MinecraftGaming04 We always use that at Changi Airport lah. Especially when flights get delayed, we say that :D

[@hengkor8653]

omg, what have we done to english LOL. Singlish is best sum up, we knows it is imperfect, but it is cringe worthy fun.

[@davestrasburg408]

Singapore! When l was there, everybody, but everybody, spoke good English, with one exception: ln a store owned by Chinese-Singaporeans, the lady didn't understand English; she called out to her seven-year-old daughter, who came running, and helped me, in fluent English!

[@poichingsch]

I'm singaporean and i speak English as my first language. Tho i am fluent in Mandarin and partially fluent in Malay (bazaar malay mostly). Your description of the language varieties and usage is actually extremely accurate! Kudos!

[@mil.o]

poichingsch Impressive because English and Mandarin are 100% different and mandarin is very hard.

[@shehzadchowdhury8327]

No u speak singlish as first language

[@wingracer1614]

I don't know how he speaks but his written English is better than yours. If it wasn't for the "tho" instead of "though", it would be perfect.

[@poichingsch]

wingracer 16 thank you for the affirmation. I was using tho as shorthand for though. Don't worry, I think I'm pretty good at spelling :)

[@poichingsch]

Shehzad Chowdhury this is actually quite true. I would easily code switch to Singlish when I feel comfortable with whom I am speaking with. Unfortunately our government doesn't recognise Singlish as a legitimate language/creole so I doubt I can consider it to be officially my first language :(

[@1337hacks]

Singaporean here: Singlish with my family and most friends Singdarin with Mandarin-oriented friends Standard English in schools, at work, or to foreigners Excellent video 10/10. I liked how you were cognizant of the fact that mother tongue may not correspond to language actually spoken at home. Also great job on getting a Singaporean to do the voiceover!

[@gymnastalexliang]

A well researched piece Paul, just a bit of feedback from a guy who spent 21 years growing up in Singapore. 1. Hokkien is pronounced as Hock-kien, you said it more like Hoe-kien. The first syllable Hok should rhyme with block, flock and mock. 2. Singlish has evolved a lot in the last 20 years or so, losing a lot of its more colourful features sadly! This is because I grew up in a Singapore where not everyone spoke English, I grew up speaking 6 languages (English, Hokkien, Malay, Mandarin, Cantonese, Teochew and that was NORMAL back then) - that meant that I was able to draw upon vocabulary from 5 languages to make my Singlish even more Singaporean. But good grief, the younger generation are hopeless when it comes to languages these days. Most speak 1.5 languages, we're talking typically a decent grasp of English + a half baked effort in Mandarin or Malay and virtually no knowledge of any other local languages. Thus if I used a loanword from Cantonese or Hokkien, I'd get a blank stare at the best of times. Their version of Singlish retains the accent and the awkward grammar (which is essentially Chinese grammar) but it has lost a lot of the rich vocabulary sadly. You can essentially get away with just English these days, which wasn't the case when I was a child. 3. You missed an important point about Singdarin - the pronunciation is extremely non-standard and most people from Beijing are appalled at how wrong and bad our pronunciation is! This is because of the adoption of a non-standard accent when people who spoke Hokkien, Cantonese, Teochew, Hakka etc started learning Mandarin and mispronounced a LOT of words - like a LOT of words, like I am not exaggerating how freaking wrong and bad our accent is. Like where do I even begin - you've heard the way we speak English, yeah we mess up Mandarin in pretty much the same way. However! A recent change has emerged thanks to the popularity of TV programmes from China in the last 10 years or so and it has made many Singaporeans adopt a far more standard Beijing accent when they speak Mandarin. In my father's time, nobody was there to tell him just how awful his mistakes were when it came to his pronunciation and if everyone made the same mistakes, then it comes a regional accent. Modern technology and media is changing that though. 4. A bizarre situation has arisen: there are a large number of Filipino migrant workers in Singapore and you often see signs in Tagalog in Singapore rather than in Tamil because there are far more Tagalog speakers in Singapore than real Tamil speakers (given that not all Singaporeans of Indian origin speak Tamil at all and many resent being forced to learn Tamil which is essentially a foreign language for them). But all in all, a well researched piece. Well done!!!

[@andrei2734]

Wow, detailed observation and constructive criticism.

[@EdwardRock1]

Wow, talk about arrogance.

[@johnheng1040]

Wow. I thought singaporeans spoke mandarin at least close to standard taiwanese accent.

[@djmuscovy7525]

Jaylow C. Maybe they watched Taiwanese TV programs? As the comment says, they start to watch mainland China TV programs now and are picking up Beijing accent.

[@frechjo]

Evi1M4chine "Typical latino" -> "talk about projecting your inferiority complex onto others" Yes, you shouldn't be doing that. "Evi1M4chine"

[@BryanCheong]

One of the titbits I like sharing is the signs that are written in all four official languages of Singapore. Since Malay was written in Jawi (Arabic script) in the past, some older signs still bear it. Then we have four languages from four language families (Indo-European, Sinitic, Austronesian, Dravidian) in four different scripts (Latin, Chinese, Arabic, Tamil) that are four different types of writing (alphabet, logograph, abjad, abugida) together. It's a beautifully rich mosaic of variety to behold.

[@papercamm]

Woah, video I helped write! Incredibly proud to have contributed to this channel and very excited to continue to do so in the future!

[@pansepot1490]

papercamm, good job! 👍👍👍

[@Langfocus]

Thank you very much for being a part of it, Campbell!

[@anjachan]

Im very late ... but cool!

[@BellePepprs]

I'm a Singaporean, born and raised (hey!) I regularly switch inbetween English, Mandarin, and Cantonese at home, sometimes within the same sentence. Singlish is discouraged because of little children who will pick it all up and whom my parents have an interest in properly educating. At work, I have mainly Filipino bosses and coworkers, so I use mostly standard English with them. However, since the cafe in which I work is located within an expat-dominated residential district, I increasingly get the chance to hone my German and Japanese skills with my customers, although more German since they make up like a large third of the European customer pool. Another third is taken up by British and Americans, and a quarter is taken up by French. The rest are diverse, but mostly Japanese. With my friends, we mostly speak Singlish, because generally Singaporean Chinese of higher education levels have very bad Chinese standards. In fact, once upon a time about 3 years ago everyone around me considered my German better than my Chinese, and so I was called a banana - yellow on the outside, white on the inside.

[@fat1fared]

If your parents want the Children to be properly educated (I assume you mean receive a high-level of education), they should encourage linguistic diversity, not oppress it. Children who learn more languages early on in their life will find studying both languages and other academic subjects much easier later on in life.

[@BellePepprs]

Alexander Matthews Linguistic diversity is encouraged, just within the framework provided by our government - and with good reason, Singlish is quite hard to use in any real business context outside of Singapore. One of the main problems with the government's advocacy of learning one's mother tongue, as is especially the case with Chinese students, is that the influence of American culture holds infinitely more sway than Chinese culture does (for obvious reasons). As such, there is simply no desire in many Chinese students to learn Chinese, at least until they're out of the school system and are free to explore it as an interest and not as a mandatory subject.

[@moladiver6817]

Ian Chua I think there is absolutely nothing wrong with learning local dialects. It's nice to carry that with you as an adult because it's a great addition to your identity, or what makes you feel you. I'm Dutch so I know what it's like to be from a small country, although not as small as Singapore obviously. The Netherlands and Belgium have a huge spectrum of Dutch dialects, and also creole languages because of hisoric reasons. It's awesome to have such a lingual diversity and I hope that Singaporeans choose to use theirs mostly as a personal and social identity and not so much because the government pushed people in a certain direction. All languages are equal as are people and no minority language should be pushed out of existence for whatever political reasons. In The Netherlands in the past dialects seemed to be fading away until a huge comeback about 10 years ago. Now people are proud again to speak their regional tongue and I hope Singaporeans will feel the same in the years and decades to come.

[@fat1fared]

Mola Diver: I totally agree. People in the UK, out of a sense of foolish pride, 'purged' our home of its other languages, and it was only when it was too late did we finally realise what had been lost. I hope Singapore does not make the same mistake with its languages and dialects. Ian Chua: the framework set down by the Government is expressly designed to reduce linguistic diversity. If one really does wish to help improve a child's propensity for learning, then the approach should be based on research, such as the research done on the links between language and learning. Also, if success in business is all one cares about, then remember, it is an ability to communicate with a wide range of people that leads to success, and being able to easily switch between styles of speaking is a key part of that. No one wishes to converse with someone who sounds like a robot.

[@thinkpositive3667]

*"Speaking Chinese is a disgrace!" -- Banana man*

[@augustineapdrai]

I speak English. Malay and Tamil. Understand Mandarin but not conversant. Yes i am very comfortable with Singlish but you are right, most of us switch to proper English when the need arises. Singaporeans serve National Service (mostly police/Army) Thats where Singlish really comes in. Very well researched, thanks.

[@TheKalihiMan]

As someone from Hawaiʻi (which went through a similar phase of systematic suppression of both the Hawaiian language and our own creole "Pidgin" in the 20th century in favor of a standardized form of English), I must warn Singaporeans not to abandon Singlish. Language is integral to identity, and suppressing it is one of the most effective means of dismantling that identity.

[@timothylaiwg]

Don't worry! Because of how hard the government is trying to push against the use of Singlish, many linguists started studying the language. We now know how complex the language is, and it's a sibeh tokong way of uniting quite a large part of the population here.

[@daeseongkim93]

Having grown up in Hawaii from childhood to my 20s, I can see the reasons why English should be standardized in terms of education and in the professional working environment. But I agree supression is unnecessary, it's good to have the local dialect to use in informal situations among friends and family. It truly represents the unique people that form the diversity of our island-states. Bumbai we lose em foreva and guarranz no can get em back, yah? I stey from da kine Kalihi too.

[@fat1fared]

As someone from Britain, I wholly agree. My ancestors made the mistake of oppressing all the languages spoken in our Islands, other than English, and the results are now felt both culturally and economically.

[@sanudgames137]

As an amateur polyglot, I also agree. Die die must push back against the gahmen, this creole damn rebel leh! As it is, a lot of people also forgot that there was a widely spoken creole before English & Singlish took it's place - Kristang. Revitalisation efforts are underway thru Kodrah Kristang and it takes inspiration from how Hawaiian was restored!

[@xLeidenFrost]

Sanud Games wah your singlish sibei thick. But if I want I can also speak very strong singlish la. My singlish still very zai one. Sadly, I prefer to speak the variant of singlish that's closer to the proper english due to convenience sake.

[@AMathMonkey]

Great timing - I'm a Canadian university student currently doing an exchange in Singapore, and I could most definitely use 15 minutes of linguistic education regarding the country I'm currently living in. But it's 3 AM and I should get to sleep, so I'll check this out tomorrow.

[@darkshinigami9438]

you still had time to write this post^^

[@askhowiknow5527]

AMathMonkey Good afternoon :)

[@AMathMonkey]

Two minutes, versus fifteen, so yeah. I let the video play in the background as I was typing and I didn't get far at all. Thanks everyone, I didn't expect this comment to get so much attention. Good afternoon. Edit, after watching: Some points that were most interesting to me were the fact that Singapore was originally known as Temasek (which is a word you hear a lot around Singapore, but I never knew the origin - it sounds like a Native American tribe to me) the existence of Singdarin and Bazaar Malay (which I had never encountered or heard of on campus), and the fact that Tamil is on such a decline (supported by the fact that I meet Hindi speakers more often than Tamil speakers on campus). Answering the question of the day, I am able to get by very well on campus only knowing Canadian English. Professors rarely speak what I would consider to be Singaporean English, since a lot of them are foreign and speak something more like American English with a Chinese accent. However when I encounter Singaporean English, I don't have too much of a problem understanding it either. Students definitely speak more SG English and Singlish, but when speaking to me, they know how to change how they speak to allow me to understand them. Off-campus, I do better in malls than I do in markets and hawker centres. I need more practice with Singlish.

[@kageyamareijikun]

AMathMonkey Hi, native Singaporean here. I can explain some of your experiences: 1. You hear mostly Hindi on campus because those students are foreign Indians mass imported from India as foreign Indian scholars on government sponsorship or are here to study and eventually work in research or IT. Local Indians are darker-skinned Tamils and you won’t see many of them on campus compared to the new arrivals which have increased dramatically in recent years due to a trade pact with India. 2. Many lecturers and professors are foreigners on Employment Passes, and those from China (many of them) will speak American English with a mainland Chinese accent. (Educated in America but raised in mainland China) If you want to hear Standard Singaporean English, watch a broadcast by the Singaporean elite (the political or business elite like ministers, politicians, doctors, lawyers) That should give you an idea of what it sounds like. 3. Singlish is extremely hard for non-Singaporeans to comprehend and decipher. As such, young Singaporeans you meet will code-switch to a more neutral and internationally-comprehensible version of English that Westerners or foreigners can understand. The examples of Singlish in this video are very spot-on in terms of accent but in real life it is spoken 10x faster among native speakers.

[@kageyamareijikun]

AMathMonkey 4. Temasek is the ancient name of Singapore, like maybe how Japan was known as Yamato? (And Thailand was known as Siam??) Anyway, the state sovereign fund, Temasek Holdings, was named after that. 5. Singdarin is basically China/Taiwan Standard Mandarin dumbed down to an infantile and barely-functional level. Native speakers from Taiwan or mainland China cringe everytime they hear it. It is like hearing your native language being butchered. Well, afterall you can’t expect Singaporeans to be good at it when they study ‘true Mandarin’ as an afterthought.

[@silviab.850]

All your videos are flawless, informative, entertaining; in short, they're perfect, and this one makes no exception. Grazie (thank you) from Italy. :)

[@martymitch8375]

Silvia B. That's good to see another Italian watching Paul's vids. Saluti a te! :-)

[@bebasvisuals]

Question of the day, I am an Indonesian citizen who lived in Singapore in the past for a couple of months. The language I speak the most there is Mandarin, mainly due to meeting mostly ethnic Chinese people, and second most is English. I do try to speak standard English, but Singlish is just so attractive that my accent got "transformed" magically, and all of a sudden, I'm sounding just like a Singaporean. Most likely due to my Hokkien family background that I'm very used to the accentuations of Singlish, since it sounds very similar to Hokkien. Speaking Indonesian natively, which is very close to Malay, might also contribute to this magical transformation.

[@esoesminombre7056]

Interesting. My wife is Vietnamese and she finds the grammar and pronunciation of Singlish much more "natural" than that of standard English (even though the vocab is another story). It could be a regional thing, maybe?

[@bebasvisuals]

EsoEsMiNombre Most probably, since before I got addicted to KZbin, I found Singlish to be more natural compared to the more widely heard American accent (the ones you hear in Hollywood movies) since it's easier to pronounce. Even now when my accent shifted into a pseudo British-American assimilation one, I still find Singlish "homey".

[@frdrickrein]

ProjectMPoem yooooo same!! indonesian living in singapore for a few years now. i can't seem to get rid of singlish 😂

[@RonLarhz]

Yes!!!!! Finally a legit video trying to explain singlish!!!!! Many locals(esp younger generation) thinks hokkien=singlish when its not. As u have shown,there is a kind of sentence structure etc.

[@xLeidenFrost]

RonLarhz and singlish is not an excuse for poor proper English. I can switch between the 2 at will. But most preferably near the formal English range.

[@RonLarhz]

Interitous Dood. Simi sai is "poor proper english". It's just "poor english". And the last sentence is too far gone to take it apart.... But imma gonna try.... "However, i would prefer standard english when i could." 1) no standard/proper eng start with but. 2) formal and casual. Do u even know what it means when u describe language with it? Based on ur prev sentence of "proper english", im just gonna assume you mean standard/proper english. "Formal" doesnt make sense in that context. 3) simi "range"? Chinese 范围isit? Lol....

[@jpedrovianna]

I'm a Brazilian living in Singapore, since last year. I only use english here, but even the traditional english is different for me (it's more the british english, but with a very heavy accent). I was used to listen to the American english, so, when I got here it was a big challenge to understand their english.. And Singlish I cannot understand at all.. I'm sorry my fellow Singaporeans, but Singlish is very hard for me Lah!! Hahaha

[@bobafrett2450]

one suggestion... get a Singaporean gf... no matter malay/chinese/indian as long as Pure born bred Singaporean girl....slowly... you'll understand our speech.....

[@kimjongun9311]

Pedro Dude, I’m wOrSe. I’m born in Singapore, raised in Singapore and is currently living in Singapore. I still can’t understand Singlish.

[@abacaxi.maldoso]

After this video Singapore is not an option for me! Kkkkkk

[@diablo2v2]

alamak bro you ang moh then la, where got Singaporean cannot speak singlish one? You so Atas ah? @@kimjongun9311

[@kimjongun9311]

RegularGamerz 1. i can barely understand your reply 2. nope, i’m very asian. it’s just that i was raised such that i don’t speak singlish.

[@NikhileshSurve]

It's amazing how Tamil is official at the national level in Singapore despite being spoken by 3+% of the population while in its birthplace India it's spoken by 7+% but isn't official at the national level. The same goes for all major Indian languages except hindi which has bipartisan political support from ruling elites.

[@NikhileshSurve]

@@AvinaashInspires I'd love for it to be true but the 22 languages are only the 8th schedule languages & don't have the status of official language of the union. According to article 343(1) the official language of the union is hindi in devanagari. English which isn't even in the 8th schedule is still an additional official language of the union. Also article 351 is worse, it makes it the duty of the union to promote & spread hindi. The importance of being in the 8th schedule isn't much for established languages, it's importance is mostly to those languages that aren't recognised as languages (like Maithili before being included in 8th schedule was considered a hindi dialect, while Bhojpuri & Rajasthani which aren't in 8th schedule are still considered hindi dialects in the census) & minority languages like Tulu. From what I know yrs ago a DMK MP had introduced a bill which I think was to make all 8th schedule languages official languages of the union but sadly it didn't succeed.

[@gokul7753]

After force be removed Singapore Island from Malaysia country. The time Singapore island look like big dustbin and 🎣 fishing harbour. The time that Singaporean peoples malai, Chinese, Indian Tamil, make Singapore number 1 developed country in Asia and also leading developing country in the world. Singapore government give respect to all ethnic groups. 🙏❤️ So that Tamil is of the national language in Singapore. Even India 65% tax paid by central government is known Hindi States. But centre government only promoting Hindi language.

[@komala455]

get out pani poori , tamils are no 1

[@NikhileshSurve]

@@gokul7753 Yes I find it odd that Singapore respects its communities even when it's so much smaller whereas govt of India doesn't show the same respect to its various Indian communities & have so much bias for hindi.

[@NikhileshSurve]

@@komala455 I'm neither some hindi person nor anti Tamil nor do I live in your state you genius. So why are you directing your hatred towards me when my comment is pro linguistic diversity? May be you pani puri should stay out of my State since you seem to hate us for no reason.

[@HokkaidoHiguma-j3j]

Decided to extend a trip in may to incude Singapore and the more I learn about it, the more unique I realize it is. Im super excited to go!

[@bonzaihb3432]

Recommended! :) Been there on a biz trip a few years ago, very interesting city! If it's too hot, go visit the gardens by the bay, it's nice and cool there (and feels a bit like Morrowind lol). It's also next to that impressive hotel with the "boat" on top, also worth a visit... oh, and in Chinatown and Little India there's plenty of good food, go check it out!

[@mriz7258]

TBH just a tip from a local, the foods in CBD zones are super ripoffs. Wanna get good foods? Research deeply in google(Read Local Singaporean Food Blogs etc) and you'll end up in the local neighbourhood hawker centres/food centres. These places have better and cheaper foods. Plus most of them are reachable by bus/train. Usually pretty stressful for us locals to think of eating good and cheap in the CBD. Hahaha!!

[@mokumoki]

For question of the day, I am Singapore PR (Malaysian), normally I talk with my cousin using English. However, I found myself speaks Chinese most of the time outside. (here comes the Singlish/Manglish part) Singlish is like Manglish lah, very easy only. You stay long time here then know already. Got one namewee video teach you how to use ‘mah’, ‘leh’ and ‘hah’, but a little offensive lah [Rough translation for the Singlish/Manglish] Singlish is similarly easy to learn like Manglish. If you live here for a while you will learn it gradually. There is a video by Namewee (A popular music creator from Malaysia) that teaches you how to use the word ‘mah’, ‘leh’ and ‘hah’ in your everyday speech. Although the video is quite offensive to some people.

[@thunderlight2004]

Why is the video offensive to some people?

[@ОлегОленев-я3о]

That's a lot of anime. . .

[@mokumoki]

Thunderlight Creations The video is about politics, and it is not really serve as an educational video. (The namewee video I mentioned: kzbin.info/www/bejne/kHWVgJdtiLmVpZo ) Also, the word ‘har’ can also be used singularly, meaning your whole sentence is just the word ‘har’. For example, you say ‘har?’ when you don’t understand somebody’s question or statement, or you didn’t hear clearly what they said.

[@cerealbloodx]

Would you mind if I ask you the link to the video of Namewee? I couldn't find anywhere

[@mokumoki]

Klimek Granville I’ve provided it in previous comment

[@sjappiyah4071]

Lol I absolutely love Singlish it sounds so fun! It’s also not that hard to understand as long as it’s spoken a bit slower lol - Greetings from Toronto, Canada

[@Boeing773B]

Hmmmmmm interesting. I'm a Singaporean but I find it cringey.

[@1337hacks]

Hahaha unfortunately Singaporeans like to speak at a machine gun pace but it’s just a matter of getting used to!

[@MrOldMajor]

I lived with 6 Singaporean flatmates in college and to me they know bits and pieces of 5+ languages/dialects, but cannot speak a single one of them properly... like a Jack of all trades but a master of none (I'm from Hong Kong).

[@seatperson]

@Klinsen Soh haha yess get used to word spam try spending 2 seconds listening to something like 'hello today my friend got hit by some truck then some idiot went and drag him across the road until the police came and beat him'

[@xLeidenFrost]

Updah Bhuthol Ayyy same

[@sabarieesan4006]

தமிழ் | Thamizh is one of the official language 💕💕💕

[@profilepicture828]

Sabareesan V t̪ʌmiɻ

[@figureofspeech4581]

@Clampro's Flag Gallery It's pronounced as Thamizh

[@figureofspeech4581]

@Clampro's Flag Gallery Do you even speak Tamil? It's pronounced as Thamizh... தமிழ்... The ழ் at the back is pronounced as zh Tami*ZH*

[@figureofspeech4581]

@Clampro's Flag Gallery It's தமிழ்(Tamizh) not தமில்(Tamil)

[@figureofspeech4581]

@Anonymous zz Talking about the pronunciation da moodevi

[@pingu4238]

"Singdarin" So... Singaporean elvish?

[@jamesm.9220]

Lmao reminded me of Sindarin too, but at the same time it's very different due to languages Welsh grammar and the influences from other languages like Old English and Old Norse

[@orlandolopezmartinez5282]

Maybe Singapore is Valinor

[@flawless90]

naaa....its just a woe of being bilingual sometimes we do not know/forget what something is called in English (for example), so we just replace the object in question in the language/lingo that we know...

[@imagomonkei]

Jon Sei Lim the Elvish quote you have here is Quenya, not Sindarin. 😉 I was working on fluency in Sindarin for a few years, but eventually life got in the way. Now I'm more interested in learning real-world languages. That said, I have a few major translation projects in my résumé. It was a lot of fun. Also, there's an Elvish language convention that meets in Europe each year (or at least did when I was studying). On Sunday, they hold a church service in Quenya.

[@thisankrishnakumar6877]

Orlando López Martínez more like the Grey Havens

[@psoon04286]

As a Singaporean it’s both fascinating and amusing to see you dissect our Singlish, and it’s spot on👍😄

[@aqimjulayhi8798]

Your Malay is really good, Paul. A noticeable foreign accent, but still very understandable. This video just makes me want to go to Singapore.

[@devil925]

Aqim Julayhi you are always welcome! Come!

[@aqimjulayhi8798]

Ash Ray thank you! I went back to this comment just to tell you that I'm currently in Singapore for the first time. You guys are so friendly and welcoming. Love this place!

[@YuzenKhan]

Aqim Julayhi kakak asal dari mana, btw i come from indonesia but im chinese

[@zhaohan8581]

I would recommend you go to Malaysia if you want to learn Malay.

[@rizaradri316]

Paul learn Indonesian. Well Indonesian is very similar to Malay

[@MultiSciGeek]

Was not expecting this! This is awesome!

[@ruths.5544]

The language situation in Singapore is truly complex and you've made a commendable effort in covering this topic. I learned a fair few things myself. I think that's the reason why its so hard to explain to foreigners what exactly we speak here. When I'm with my fellow Singaporean friends, we converse in Singlish or even in Proper English, but at a pace and accent that foreigners may mistake as another language altogether. So it becomes imperative to slow down and enunciate when speaking to them. Proficiency of any language (English, Mandarin, Malay etc.) also differs greatly amongst the population. For example, it is quite possible for someone to struggle in English classes in Singapore, and also struggle in their 'Mother Tongue' classes despite speaking a mix of both languages at home. Aiya, basically its very hard to answer the question 'What do you speak in Singapore' comprehensively.

[@TheGiantSoda]

The language profiles of countries have been some of my favorite videos. Keep up the good work!

[@elvyn8709]

3:50 - Singlish is an English dialect with Southbanvetian 閩南語 aka Hokkien, Cantonese, Teoswanese 潮汕語 aka Teochew, Mandarin, Malay, Tamil influenced (in vocabularies, grammar and accent).

[@glowish1993]

Thanks for the video! Singaporean here and love all your videos

[@chuckgu3763]

Our drawing so simple, how to pass? 我们的画这么简单，怎么过啊？ 我们的--our 画--drawing 这么--so 简单--simple 怎么--how 过--pass This looks like a perfect Chinglish sentence which is word-to-word translated from Chinese, lol.

[@rubicon24]

Chuck Gu with the exception that you’ll never see that construction in Chinglish, only in Singlish. Similarly, Chinglish sentences (as far as the examples on wiki are concerned) are hardly grammatical in Singlish.

[@yanmuruo]

There is no certain Chinglish exists, it's because there is no common use of English in China, so that different Chinese makes various mistakes in English. Some will have very strange pronunciations, some cannot write an acceptable English sentence.

[@PixelBytesPixelArtist]

I couldn't understand what "Chinglish" was for so long and you just made me realize that I'm speaking Chinglish and I should probably work harder on my grammar.

[@vtim]

well, some of them are similar to Chinglish but not all, eg...Singlish still got "buay tahan", "sibeh", "kan cheong spider", "how lian siah", "act blur", "blur like Sotong", "boh boh king" ...and lagi some more... ;>)

[@Rock722]

的确😂

[@TheMapleMerchant]

I will start saying die die, must try

[@RonLarhz]

Justin O'Reilly You dont have to connect it to "must try". It just means absolutely(intensely). Eg: -->diedie also cannot give discount. -->diedie have to go westlife concert.

[@GregPerham]

RonLarhz Is "diedie" related to the English word "die", or is it from another language meaning "can" or "must"? It made me think of Thai "(f)dai" meaning "able to".

[@RonLarhz]

Greg Perham Yes. kinda like "(it's so good) it's worth dying for". So instead of such a long sentence we made it short into diedie. Double word for emphasis.

[@hasyffseferagic7453]

I think the phrase die -die is just a direct translation from a Malay word 'mati-mati', where mati means die/dead in English. Mati-mati or die- die could simply mean as definitely or desparately.

[@alusias3183]

Ahmad Hasif I think it comes from chinese, where “你死也要试”, is direct translated to “you die also must try”, mixed in with what you said where “mati” in malay is repeated to form “mati mati”, which translaes to die die, forming “you die die also must try”. The pronoun (and whatever else is deemed useless/already known) is then removed to ‘save time’, resulting in the final outcome, “die die must try”

[@zzz-vd5rp]

Wah ang moh finally make sg video wah so pro

[@CNicholasHK]

Rough translation: Wow Westerner finally makes a video about Singapore, wow so pro

[@ylw]

This ang moh sibei tok kong every language also know.

[@voscra]

Standard English Translation: The white man has finally made a video about Singapore. Really good.

[@1337hacks]

Take my like!!!

[@jingchaoye]

哈哈哈哈哈哈哈哈哈哈 from China

[@lzh4950]

Recently saw a newspaper article where someone observed how Chinese vocabulary education in Singapore is evolving to become more like that in mainland China, which has caused some debate of whether local culture could be undermined. For instance, using 市场 to mean 'market' in Chinese, instead of 巴刹 (which is transliterated from _pasar_ , the Malay word for 'market'). I think this might be an area to watch too in the near future.

[@iceomistar4302]

Singdarin and Maladarin have so many interesting sayings and idioms that I as a Mainlander find amusing and oftentimes quite puzzling, like for example a common food in Singapore is the Teochew noodle dish known as Bak Chor Mee 肉挫麵, in Mandarin this makes no sense, but in Teochew Bak Chor mean minced meat, there's plenty of instances where something from a certain Chinese dialect is translated word for word into Mandarin and it come out sounding quite awkward.

[@Admiral_Ducky]

This channel is amazing! As a language lover I learnt a lot from you Paul!

[@lizaanual9166]

Singaporean here. Speaks Malay at home and English and a mix of Tamil/Mandarin at work. Singlish, depending on certain group of people.

[@leroyl1588]

The changing language environment and government policies has made inter-generational communication quite difficult, interestingly. My grandparents grew up in colonial period Singapore, where Hokkien is the lingua franca, and they learnt and speak Hokkien, Teochew fluently and some Mandarin. My parents grew up in the prospering 70s Singapore, where they spoke Mandarin in schools and the Chinese dialects at home. They mostly picked up English at work as the working environment changed to a more Western style with many foreign companies opening up offices here. I grew up in 2000s Singapore, speaking English in school, and 50/50 Mandarin and English at home (often heavy code switching). In fact, now it's more of 90/10 English to Mandarin, as my Mandarin skills are rather lacking and I never picked up Teochew, which was my ethnic Chinese dialect. It's a bit sad in family reunions when I can't really communicate well with my grandparents. They are far more comfortable speaking the language of their forefathers, the chinese dialects, while I'm more comfortable with English, and both of us have to speak Mandarin as the middle ground. In fact, often, the older generation become excited when a younger person speaks to them in dialect, as it's the language they are instantly familiar with. Unfortunately, I think the chinese dialects may die out with my generation, with its only remnants left as random vocabulary words in Singdarin and Singlish.

[@TomKellyXY]

Visited Singapore several times. Always a pleasure. You definitely can get by only speaking English. It is awesome that they put so much respect for diverse cultural backgrounds into their policy and education. Everyone should have the opportunity to learn another language to understand a different perspective of those around them and further abroad.

[@yinglunsu2424]

I live in Singapore. I speak Singlish and Singdarin with my friends and colleagues but I do code-switch and speak a more standard form of English and Mandarin in more formal situations - just like what you've mentioned in the video. Thanks for making this video!

[@rondoflicflac]

I've just found your channel and I love it. Thank you very much, love from Argentina x

[@2x2leax]

Arwen Si no entendés lo que dice, hay varios videos traducidos al español, como el del quechua, vasco, anglés (inglés puramente germánico) o el mismo video sobre el español. :D

[@ap5141]

Thank you for doing a focus on Singapore!

[@princelawrence1101]

Wow, this guy is a genius! He will explained it in absolute details. Thank you so much!

[@eszee7474]

I'm a Singaporean Malay. I can assure you, Bazaar Malay is not specific to older Malays. Both young and old use them daily, along with both Standard English and Singlish. With majority of Malays being educated in English, Standard Malay is sadly now only spoken in educational institutions and formal occasions. Malay TV, radio and newspaper still use the standard version.

[@shadowm5342]

Your grammar/tatabahasa in bahasa was ungrammatically that's different with bahasa melayu 😅

[@eszee7474]

@@shadowm5342 I'm not sure I understand what you're saying.

[@belle_pomme]

@@shadowm5342 what do you mean?

[@rizaradri316]

​@@shadowm5342What? Indonesian grammar to makes more sense than Malay grammar. Maybe I'm biased because I'm Indonesian

[@JacobSaideri3486]

​​​​@@belle_pommehe means he doesn't what that guy saying know what the guy saying that who reply to him

[@enjuju1]

I'm from Singapore and have been following your channel for some time! I'm amazed at how accurate depiction of Singlish is! It's actually how i would switch into, when speaking with my local friends. On a side note, while working alot with china clients, i found that many times they would mistake my chinese accent to that of Taiwan. It has happen on many occasions.

[@whereeveritgoes]

I believe Singlish started off as a direct translation from Malay or Chinese (not sure about the latter because I'm not familiar with it) because, upon closer inspection, the structure of the imperative form of Singlish or any subject-less sentence is perfectly similar to Malay (or Chinese?). The same Singlish-like type of communication can also actually be found in Malaysia and Brunei as well, spoken by both the peoples of Malay and Chinese ethnicity. It is very apparent when two people from both races are conversing and all the standard English rules are instantly out of the window.

[@theboredprogrammer1114]

As a Filipino, hearing Malay is like hearing something familiar but you're too drunk to remember the content as Malay sounds so alike with Tagalog and Bisaya.

[@laughwithmalcolm]

I'm a Singaporean and yes, in formal situations I use mostly SSE (Standard Singaporean English). I speak Singlish and Mandarin to those who may have difficulty understanding the formal version of English such as at hawker centre, etc.

[@Kalaimahan]

Thanks for your introduction in Singapore...

[@ssanimess]

Thanks for the video! Was pleasantly surprised and found it amusing that our Creole languages could be analysed this way. To answer your question: I'm a Singaporean Ethnic Chinese of the Hokkien dialect group, with a smidgen of Zhejiangnese from my maternal grandmother (very rare, don't know any Singaporean as of now with any origins to that area in China). Was born after 1987. I grew up speaking English and Mandarin. My parents were both Chinese-educated way back when the language of instruction in schools were not standardised yet, but they both went to the University of Singapore (now known as National University of Singapore) where the language of instruction was in English. I was actually discouraged by my mother to learn Hokkien when I was young, though I wanted to learn it so I could converse with my paternal grandparents. In school, I learnt English and Mandarin as "first languages". English is taught as usual with an additional Higher Chinese subject, on top of Mother Tongue lessons in "Standard" Chinese. Did 2 Chinese subjects for 10 years. I mainly converse in Standard Singaporean English in most situations now. I speak a mixture of English and Chinese with my family and some friends who are comfortable with code-switching. Because I work with the elderly, I also converse in Mandarin and (very poor) Hokkien. I learnt basic Malay and am going to learn Hokkien soon to brush up. I'm hoping to pick up some Cantonese as well. I speak Singlish/Singdarin, but I don't do as much mixing and crossover of languages, unless it's to emphasise a point or when I absolutely can't find the right expression to describe certain things. My grammar and syntax are in the Singlish variety. For example: "Wah! Why she didn't finish her food? So wasteful sia!" -> "My goodness, why didn't she eat all of her food? That's really wasteful!" "She still haven't submitted her assignment yet? Tomorrow deadline liao leh. Jialat liao lah!" -> "Has she not submitted her assignment yet? The deadline is tomorrow! She's going to be in deep trouble! (Loose translation, but it doesn't sound quite right either lol)."

[@mcsmedia8081]

What a linguistically fascinating place! Based on your description of Singapore's linguistic environment, it sounds like a linguist's dream come true; it almost sounds like there is no end to the different variations of communication that a person could learn to use. I'm also quite impressed with the linguistic planning in the education system in the city state. In the United States, the matter of whether an child ought to receive instruction in their native or language of heritage in addition to or in replacement of the informal national language of English is still a very much open question insofar as I am aware; furthermore, that question has been known to provoke some rather passionate and emotionally charged responses. Singapore, based on your work, solves the problem by doing both. I frequently hear people around my area in rural NY passionately objecting to street signs appearing in languages other than English, citizenship tests being given in languages other than English, classes being given in languages other than English, etc. I find it quite remarkable that such comments are made in light of the fact that the state government publishes information on its' websites in multiple languages, signs and the like in NYC are in multiple languages in many cases, just over the boarder in Canada people get along just fine with two major dominate languages; my only conclusion currently is that people in my rural area have extremely limited exposure to different languages and people from various parts of the planet and perhaps react in such a manner because they possibly view linguistic diversity as a threat to their perceived identity. This tangent aside, what a fascinating video! Many thanks for creating and sharing!

[@stewartang77]

I am quite impressed. This video seems quite well-researched and well-presented.

[@ChaineYTXF]

I'm continually amazed by the quality of your videos. Big thanks from France🙂

[@hest.]

As a native Singaporean, I thank you for your sibei tokong video; it is far more accurate than most other ones found on KZbin, and the examples are some pretty common ones found in everyday life! It's damn shiok to see this video (although i downright cackled at some of the pronounciations and accent) spreading correct information with research to back it up. Keep up the good work :)

[@MarcelPolman]

very cool to see languages come together like this to form language varients such as singlish. You have sparked my interest and I want to learn more about it now. Such a cool way of speaking and a it's if I'm not mistaken a good link to how other language structures work.

[@GavinLiuranium]

I regularly speak Chinese at home, and English and *Russian, Swedish, Polish* or *Serbian* at school

[@prisminc158]

w0t?

[@SL-st4gd]

wow nice. where you from?

[@dylan-mw3fq]

WOT TE FOK M8

[@DraoxxMusic]

Сука Блять

[@GavinLiuranium]

S L I am from China but my family migrated to Singapore. I have now lived in Singapore for about half my life

[@Rationalific]

I like how you are spot on with every topic. I know a lot about this, and I have lived in Singapore, so it was cool to see all of that information as if it was from someone who was living there.

[@nwxzzz]

Useful video for anyone who wants to learn more about Singapore from a Singaporean myself and im talking in a formal way right now but I can go singlish anytime

[@Jordantzd]

Love love this detailed breakdown of our languages. Thanks for doing this!

[@desanipt]

What if your "heritage language" is none of those? I mean they're most probably a big minority but I doubt there's not a single child living in Singapore that hasn't any of those 3 backgrounds and that is schooling in the Singaporean public educationcal system.

[@GeorgianaStorey]

yeah i was wondering that! like if you're the child of, i dunno, a french business man who lives and works in singapore and so all your schooling is there, do you have to choose which of the ascribed heritage languages to learn, or do you just miss that class?

[@poichingsch]

Yes, you would have to choose one of the three Mother Tongue languages. Currently there are 5 other Indian languages offered as Mother Tongue languages in public schools. But besides those, unless you have entered the schooling system significantly later than first grade, you will not be exempted.

[@poichingsch]

Personally, i know a number of friends from different background who usually take Mandarin or Malay. The former because it is becoming increasingly relevant in the global community, the latter because it is a useful language in the regional context.

[@iKrivetko]

I only had to learn English, but that was 20 years ago and only primary school, then my parents went back to Moscow.

[@revertrevertz5438]

One of my friends has an aunt living in Singapore with her young daughters. They are Russians, and their main education is English, and apparently they have chosen Chinese as a secondary language. My guess is that in that case, you are able to chose what you'd like to learn. For foreigners Mandarin might be more appealing than Malay or Tamil, but they could probably chose any of the other languages.

[@nTo-vlog]

Thanx Paul for another great video. Singapore always fascinates me and the singlish is something I find amusing. Your explanation on that was also very nicely done.

[@DakotaAbroad]

This was really fascinating. I have some friends from Singapore but don't know much about it. It was great to learn a little bit more. Always love your videos! Thanks for posting it.

[@timothylaiwg]

Singaporean here. Code switching is definitely an important skill to have here, knowing the right social situation and context to mix and use the different forms of the different languages forms a key part in shaping the growth of a Singaporean (and our relatives the Malaysians as well). One thing that is worth emphasizing is the sentence modifiers in Singlish. They are a huge deal, and can change the entire meaning of sentences.

[@JrgenFoged]

Paul - as a sailor, I've been to Singapore so many times, I can't remember. But we were always very well treated - no problems with the Authorities whatsoever. Clearance of the Vessel was very Swift (as a Radio Operator it was one of my tasks). So Singapore AND that time Hongkong BCC which was equal easy rank among the easiest Ports to enter.

[@youskain]

I'm a local Singaporean. Born and raised here. Use Singapore English mostly at home. In most outside situation will use Singlish too, unless there's a formal setting then standard English will be required. Funny thing is conversing with people especially hawkers or just elder people providing services, I choose to use Mandarin instead. It's just very natural and don't have to think twice before using either languages.

[@eliTUNE]

Awesome video!! As a Singaporean, I really appreciate your effort in making this video and showing interest in Singapore!!! :D thank you!! To answer your question: I'm a Singaporean living in Singapore. I speak English most of the time - at home, in school, to myself and it's the language i think in. Because my family does not have the habit of conversing in Mandarin other than the random Chinese phrases we insert into daily convos sometimes, I only speak Mandarin with my grandparents, while ordering food at hawker centres/coffeeshops/canteens (if the listener is Chinese), in school during Chinese lessons (which end after secondary school or junior college), and sometimes with my friends who switch between English and Mandarin, though only a little. I also use Singlish a lot, but I can switch between proper English and Singlish with ease :) I use Singlish more in casual conversations, but when you speak in class, you are expected to use proper English.

[@shaunwong158]

@Langfocus, as a Singaporean I have to salute you for your excellent piece of work! Marvellously done. To answer your question, I use standard English, standard Mandarin and standard Cantonese for daily conversation. I don't really use creole (Singlish/Sindarin) unless it is really necessary, because I realise standard languages are fully comprehensible to creole speakers if you keep your spoken vocab relatively simple. In an official or multi-racial setting, English is the default language. Otherwise I'll try to accommodate my audience. Code switch seems automatic to me.

[@nanyate]

This video sibeh tok kong. :D I'm Singaporean Chinese though I spent most of my childhood overseas. I primarily speak Hokkien and English at home, Mandarin/Sindarin to order food, English with some Singlish at work. By the way, the etymology of the word "die die" has Chinese origins. I'm not too sure but possibly Hokkien. My grandmother used to say it a lot but it had a more negative connotation in Hokkien. E.g. "Your exam is tomorrow? You must die die get an A!" It carries the meaning of "by any possible means" with a sense of urgency.

[@nathanchoi3763]

Thanks for sharing Paul, I never thought that there are so many intriguing things in Singapore's language. I once been to Singapore when I was small, but didn't have the awareness of the complexity of it's languages and communications at that time, this video provided me a structure to understand them. And I also thought that Singlish is a form of incomplete English before, like it's a displaying of individuals' or groups' learning processes to master English starting from the context of their mother language and their (major societal culturally different) familial social circles, so it's a new and stimulating thing to me when seeing you compare Singlish with other formal language in the area.

[@madeshshivam952]

I'm Tamil from india....I support Singapore.. it's my dream City ❤️❤️❤️❤️

[@MrBenHaynes]

My wife is Singaporean, (first 30yrs SG, 20yrs Australia). She speaks Hakka to her direct family members, Mandarin to other Chinese people, was tertiary educated in formal English and therefore whilst she completely understands Singlish, a lot of it has never been spoken by her. I (Australian born) speak Singlish to her for fun in Australia (from what I learn on annual pilgrimage to the "Little Red Dot") and to keep her connected to her SG identity. I see Singlish in much the same way as an English speaking person in Australia whom extensively uses colloquialism. They struggle to express themselves in "educated" English which can be awkward in many situations. I enjoy speaking to her SG friends who have acquired their degree qualifications in English speaking countries abroad (because I don't have to strain to understand their words or pronunciation). Very interesting video, and I hope that I haven't appeared elitist or snobbish. Take care!

[@narapo1911]

Wow!! Singlish is so cool! This video was so informative and easy to watch!!

[@JA-vu1qt]

Good job on the video, quite accurate! I can feel the amount of research put into this, definitely not an easy task to able to provide accurate info about another country's language. I laughed after watching the part on "Singdarin" and further realising how "unique" and "diverse" our different languages are! Damn zai sia we all LOL

[@tangerinedreamer237]

Wow I almost thought you're an expatriate that has lived in Singapore for a couple of years. Very well researched and well-explained.

[@sherrysicle4341]

i’ve never heard of singdarin, i’ve always thought of it as just a mix of english and chinese. i use english on a day to day basis, wether it’s at school or when i go out. my two best friends are korean and many of my other classmates can’t speak chinese so we speak english all the time. i used to be in a sep school when i was younger which means everyone learned chinese but we still spoke in english. the english i speak on a day to day basis definitely has a bit of singlish in it but it’s mostly proper english. at home with my family i speak singadrin as my mother is an immigrant from china, my grandmother speaks little english and the other members of my family are pretty okay in chinese as well. an exception to this is when i speak to my helper who is from the philippines and cannot speak chinese. anyways great video, really enjoyed it!

[@quinntessential._]

I'm a Eurasian Singaporean and I speak English as my main language at home. However, I also speak German with my grandma who's from Aachen. I was taught Mandarin in school but I never took to it and got exempted, I've forgotten most of it now but I can understand a leeetle bit if you speak slowly 😅

[@cornetchan]

I was extremely sceptical before I clicked on this video because I haven't seen anyone who could explain our languages well. Man, I was proven wrong. You nailed everything right. Especially those parts on being context dependent and the continuum where it depends on formality.

[@skychaos87]

impressive, quite an in dept review and explanation of the languages used in singapore backed with information on historical background and governing policies. much better than other random foreign youtubers trying to explain singlish from their personal experience that lacks connection to singaporean roots.

[@andy.5332]

Every time I get back hear, I see how good your content is and how this dialects (singlish and singdarin) are lit

[@frmcf]

I loves me a good sociolect continuum, I does!

[@MeanBeanComedy]

Fraser McFadyen ha! This is funny.

[@iceborne1061]

I me a sociolect continuum good loves,does I

[@Hx_jamie]

@@iceborne1061 LMAO

[@jasonjljunsu2801]

Thank you so much Paul for presenting everything in a concise and extremely accurate video! :D Well done !

[@SerYang]

As a Singaporean, I must say this is a pretty interesting analysis of our languages. But as a Singaporean Chinese, come on, I've never heard of the term "Singdarin" in my entire life 😂 The way I see it, Singlish is simply the mash up of all languages and dialects found in Singapore. Rojak. But honestly, great job in trying to make sense of Singlish. This is one of those things that foreigners struggle with in Singapore. And you're right - it's our national pride.

[@g00nther]

Very interesting video. I plan to visit Singapore later this year, or next year. Seems like a fascinating place. Added a subscription lah!

[@MannyExploresVlog]

Thanks for this video, I was always curious about what language was spoken in SG

[@Keean_TTRealm]

Manny Explores Vlog We speak mainly english lol 😂 unless you're good at your mother tongue (which nowadays most of us aren't)

[@ThomasNovLoh]

Manny Explores Vlog, that is Malay, English, Chinese and Tamil.

[@soggytoasty]

Keean's TTRealm LOL CLB and foundation Chinese classes are getting bigger each year

[@alusias3183]

Dejuv our sch almost needs a second CLB class XD

[@soggytoasty]

MinecraftGaming04 CLB could be Normal chinese in the future 😂😂

[@Iluvcakez1256]

sgean here! speak English at home, mandarin second language. I was so impressed when u started to break down singlish into like actual english sentences lol I've nvr seen it liddat before

[@malaysiadentist4637]

Congratulations and well done Langfocus for the effort that you have placed in making this video. Your Malay pronunciation was also very good! You must also credit the phrase " lah" to the malays as it is the core phrase in Singlish.

[@blueshirt26]

Singlish - English vocabulary - Malay grammatical structure and the iconic emphasizer -Lah is of Malay origin - Loanwords mostly from Chinese dialects and most of Singlish emphasizers such as -Lor, -Leh and -Meh. - Some Tamil loanwords as well

[@gokul7753]

Singapore is very beautiful ❤️ Short time become richest developed country in the world. Indian Tamil is one of the national language in Singapore is very happy. It is one of the oldest language in world. சிங்கப்பூர் மிக அற்புதமான நாடு. குறுகிய காலத்தில் பணக்காரன் நாடாகவும் அதே சமயம் வளர்ச்சி அடைந்த நாடுகளில் ஒன்றாகவும் உள்ளது.

[@GeorgeLaw5]

Thank you for a most excellent video - the best KZbin video I’ve watched and definitely my favourite! I was born in Singapore in 1969 and lived there for 22 years before moving to London. I spoke English at home, at school … in fact almost everywhere. At that time, I despised Singlish and would always speak "proper" English, whatever other people spoke to me. But now that I’ve been living in London for more years than I have in Singapore, I feel sort of nostalgic for Singlish and wish I hadn’t been such an idiot in the past. Speak Singlish dem shok! (Which is Singlish for "It’s very nice to speak Singlish!" - "dem" = "very" is from "damn(ed)", which is not a swear word in Singlish, just an intensifier; "shok" is Singlish for "excellent; very good"; don’t know which language it comes from, though.)

[@QLTD]

respect to *Singapore!*

[@boblocks3747]

Quick Look n Teardown GOODx1000000 000000000000000000000000000000000 000000000000000000000000000000000

[@LisBerenguer]

Great video Paul! Very informative. I specially liked the historical background (however short it must be) to put in better perspective de lanugage diversity of Singapore. Keep up the good work!

[@GlobalPoltube]

Fascinating content as always!

[@jackchen801]

This is interesting and quite refreshing . Most other youtube videos tend to poke fun at Singlish.

[@sitmengchue4077]

You are absolutely fantastic! Btw, have you heard of Kristang, a language spoken by a v small no. of Eurasians in Singapore? It's Creole Portuguese n it's a dying language. Really fascinating! I marvel at your knowledge.

[@june_joy]

i searched for singlish and singdarin. and you langfocus have excellent one. thx

[@goldenspoon87]

This video die die must watch. The resident population who speak "English" at home tends to be more of Singish rather than English. There is no "Singlish" when the census is done. I totally agree "mother tongue" lessons in school do not correspond to actual mother tongue spoken at home, and its just one of the ways to reinforce the categorisation of the races. I'm not really against it, as I think its necessary for the Chinese to learn Mandarin, for example. Though I think it's also a pity other Chinese varieties are dying out. There is renewed interest in these "dialects" these days among younger people, but no one really can speak those anymore. Anyway, so happy to see a LangFocus video on SG!

[@lawrencedoliveiro9104]

1:10 being a (very young) Malaysian at the time, I can remember some of the fallout from the separation. “Malaysia-Singapore Airlines” (MSA) had to break up. The “Straits Times” newspaper operation split into two, with the Malaysian side renaming itself to the “New Straits Times”. And probably other things that escaped my attention.

[@RandomPerson-bj1su]

Wow, this is the first time I've seen singlish being explained grammatically. To be honest, singlish has always been something we spoke based on pure instinct. We don't have any particular rules for, it to be fair, the points mentioned can really be observed in many situations... Good job!!!

[@Langfocus]

Yes, you’re right. I’m just describing the way people speak it rather than giving grammatical “rules”. :)