Singapore English/Singlish:
Singapore is a multilingual nation. The Singapore government recognizes four official languages: English, Malay, Mandarin Chinese, and Tamil. Students in primary and secondary schools learning English as the language of instruction also learn a second language called their “Mother Tongue” by the Ministry of Education, where they are taught Mandarin Chinese, Malay or Tamil. A main point to note is while “Mother Tongue” generally refers to the first language overseas, in Singapore, it is used by the Ministry of Education to denote the traditional language of one’s ethnic group, which sometimes can be their second language.
There are two main types of English spoken in Singapore: Standard Singapore English and Singlish. Singlish is more widely spoken than standard English. It has a very distinctive tone and sentence structure which are both strongly influenced by Malay and the many varieties of Chinese spoken in the city. ~30% of Singaporeans speak English as their main language at home. There are many foreigners working in Singapore. 36% of the population in Singapore are foreigners, it is very common to encounter service staff who are not fluent in English. Most of these staff speak Mandarin Chinese. Those who do not speak Mandarin Chinese tend to speak either broken English or Singlish, which they have learned from the locals.
Examples of Singlish: bojio=didn’t/was’’t invited; chope is a kind of backdoor reservation commonly used in a setting such as an eatery, also the action of placing tissue packets on tables in hawker centers as an informal reservation (from chop, to leave a mark); shiok is an expression of excitement for something—it is typically used to describe enjoyed food dishes. It is a common Malay slang word to describe one’s feelings of excitement, or of anything that pleases them; kiasu [a Hokkien word that has crept into Singlish] is often used for calling out someone’s selfish behavior.
KPKB [Kao pei kao bu]=lit. “Cry Father, Cry Mother”, in use–whining and complaining in a petulant way. Singaporeans are known for their grumbling; salakau=lit. means 369 in Hokkien, Sah Lak Kau, a street gang/secret society in Singapore. The numbers 3, 6 and 9 add up to 18, which was the name of an older gang; the number signified the 18 arhats (principal disciples) of Shaolin Monastery. As one of the oldest and most prominent gangs in the country, they are known to take part in many illicit activities such as narcotics, extortion, and prostitution; and many of their members have been in and out of prison for violent attacks and rioting. Chikopeh is a Teochew expression, lit. chiko [to molest] and peh [father’s older brother]. In Cantonese, it is an elderly male molester who goes around touching women’s body parts; Rabak=horrible, bad, mean, and useless; pai she=embarrassing. Chiong=to rush, to hurry, to give your all to complete something; catch no ball=unable to understand something; arrow=to appoint someone to do something/to be appointed.
