Spiaking Singlish: A Companion to How Singaporeans Communicate by Gwee Li Sui

Spiaking Singlish: A Companion to How Singaporeans Communicate Reviews

• 
  Kellynn Wee

  What a lot of fun this book was! The requisite tongue-in-cheek humour was present, and how could it not have been? As Gwee points out, Singlish is a language of bathos--of mockery, deflation, doubt and good-natured ribbing:
  
  "At some point in your life in Singlish, you will come to a jialat discovery. You will realise that many Singlish expressions involve cucuking other people and making them look macam goondu. Singlish seem to love to irritate or kacau (sometimes spelled "kachiao") people and to chip away at their self-esteem. This discovery is mo tak teng or matchless because you're getting to the heart of why Singlish is so shiok. It's shiok because every speaker is playing a part in a gotong royong--communal cooperation--of mutual humbling!"
  
  There are the expected features of this book that I truly enjoyed: the origins of particular words; the collation of Singlish words currently in use (and hence the book's desire to mark a particular vocabulary situated in time, following the "Coxford Dictionary" and "Eh, Goondu!"); and the many very funny examples of the usage of Singlish. Gwee points out that Singlish users love sound (fun rhymes); we love memes ("mee siam mai hum", "stunned like vegetable"); we love mixing languages ("buay tahan"); and we love making words sound like what they describe ("anyhowly", "anyhow-anyhow").
  
  What I didn't expect were three things: first, how Gwee connects language to the condition or experience of being Singaporean. Singlish, Gwee points out, is a language of skepticism and mockery; it both exaggerates and condenses; and it also meta-commentates. It is used to tekan and cuuck and punchek. For example, the word "meh" is an end-particle that "expresses doubt or disbelief as though people are out to con you. True-blue Singaporeans sibeh dislike kena tipu one. We have an ingrained problem with received information -- kum sia to an era of kilat Gahmen campaigns maybe? -- and so we no longer innocent liao. We neh believe that there's free lunch." Or the word "sian", for example, refers to how "Singaporeans are at their most philosophical. A sian person isn't fewling listless nia; this listlessness is oso curiously restless. This Singaporean knows that things shouldn't be a certain way, and yet here we are. He or she knows that one cannot fight the world and get one's way--because life itself is deeply bo meaning lor." In other words, Singlish is not the language of repressed automatons--far from it. It is the language of a deeply skeptical, pragmatic, and self-puncturing people who are muttering complaints even as they get in line (usually a queue).
  
  Second, Gwee is a poet, and so he loves language. This allows him to express not just the linguistics of Singlish but also its dazzling literariness, its potential for drama and theatre. For example, he talks about how crowing "siow liao!" marks a speaker's commentary on an unexpected plot twist. Or read the entry on "kua kua":
  
  "'Kua kua' is used macam the Western drum roll 'bada-dum', which follows a joke's punch line. To understand its purpose, you need to be aware of something called bathos in England... It refers to an effect in a story when some shiok, airy-fairy fewling suddenly pecah and becomes a joke. That's what 'kua kua' highlights! It sees things in a wider context and catches some sibeh ironic twist.
  
  'Kua kua' does this by being another technical thing, a non-diegetic sound... a sound whose source isn't in the action on screen. 'Jibaboom' is a diegetic sound... [but] 'kua kua' at once casts real life as a movie. In this movie, by making the sound, you ownself transform into a detached, higher commenting presence!... while 'kua kua' describes a downfall, it actually pulls the speaker out and lifts him or her up to a different plane."
  
  Or the entry on "England" (instead of "English"):
  
  "Because to gabra over 'England' is sibeh unlikely, it rather highlights wilful mislearning. In other words, Singlish speakers are gnay-gnay or forcefully using the wrong word one. We aren't necessarily showing a gap in knowledge--we're enforcing a gap in culture!... Through the use of 'England', Singlish reminds its speakers that England the language has been a colonial import. England came from England one, and that means through the tok kong British Empire... 'England' forces Singlish speakers to see England in both geographical and historical terms and to acknowledge ang moh impact on our part o the world."
  
  And finally, Gwee actually spends a large part of the book lovingly tekaning the state's language campaigns and politics in sly, circuitous ways, for example through the word "politisai" (pointing out firstly how "sai" is... well, "sai", and pointing out also how our politicians are the only ones in the world complaining about how everything "become politisai").
  
  All in all it was such a fun book to read. The cadences were familiar, I learned so much, and I gained an entirely new appreciation for what Gwee calls "kilat" Singlish.
• 
  Sean Goh

  If the Coxford is the Singlish dictionary (has a larger number of entries), this book is the Singlish encyclopedia. From expounding on the nuances of 'lah', to the possible origins of different Singlish phrases, even long-time native speakers of Singlish can learn something from this book.
  And like any good Singaporean English textbook, it has a quiz inside!
  
  Special mention to quickly incorporating 'stunned like vegetables' into the lexicon.
• 
  shauna

  this book breaks down the grammar and idiosyncrasies of singlish. it was informative, and I finished the book realising that the world of singlish is so rich in meaning & includes so much more vocabulary than I'd once thought it did. singlish is indeed an inheritance & must continue to be kept alive in enthusiastic and vigorous usage :)
  
  also, it was hilarious. I haven't laughed out loud because of something I'd read in a long time.
• 
  Wan Peter

  This book full of crap. No one bit have I enjoy reading it.
• 
  Ummu

  Interesting book with lots of information on Singlish words but I think non-Singlish speakers will have difficulties reading this. XD
• 
  Bogy Wiworotomo

  Lots of fun reading this