For Our International Visitors ... a guide to Singaporean English or Singlish

[AReality]

Coz we're too small a country to be considered as a large enough force to start our own language. Our garmen scared that others dunno wat language is dat.

 

[etgoh]

sorni...my england belly no good...

i think as long as you can understand what i try to say can liao. Who care what england you use.

Try to order roti prata with standard england (just dun say roti prata)...the pakci will look at you eye big big and saliva drip drip..... :bigeyes: :bigeyes:

 

[jonlou]

relac, relac ,
we r not alone...... http://www.engrish.com

Honey, stand over here....

A-hem..... and here, if having 1.... :sweatsm:

oh no .......

(sign in a Taiwan cafeteria )

jus for :bsmilie:

my goodness....its hilarious....its really amazing how english can go through all these manipulations and survived...hahaha...

 

[GDSNP]

Singapore English is ok but definitely not Singlish = broken English :nono: :nono:

 

[snapz]

hmm. yah.

but i think that most of us, when speaking to Singaporeans, will use singlish... but when we speak to other nationalities (like ang moh), we will use proper english (though not always 100% correct).. hahaa. i duno leh. tts my 2c worth.

 

[Phildate]

My two cents worth...

I am English, but having been here for five years I feel as much a part of Singapore as I do England. I mix well with locals (anyone who has met me at one of Bob's shoots will hopefully agree - back me up on this SF!) and understand and use some Singlish.

However, I was reading an article in Grain magazine about Clubsnap and it's future as a leading international photography forum. Well, if that is to be the case then the hokkien/singlish posts will have to stop as I sometimes have no clue what people are talking about. I don't even know what Bokeh means and this is used a lot!! This will seriously put off users from US/UK/Europe etc...

I guess it depends on how people see Clubsnap. If they are happy to keep it as the Singapore forum then continue back if you want to aim higher, I'm afraid some of the confusing posts might have to go and a change of attitude will be enforced on some users...

 

[sfhuang]

Haha yes Phil you do mix well with the locals. Sometimes I'm surprised you know Singapore better than I do! (That's meant as a compliment, btw.) :thumbsup:

 

[clive]

bokeh is not singlish =)

 

[Phildate]

But WHAT DOES IT MEAN?? My point is that it will turn international browsers off the forum and it I was under the impression that Clubsnap is trying to attract them.

 

[hansia]

But WHAT DOES IT MEAN?? My point is that it will turn international browsers off the forum and it I was under the impression that Clubsnap is trying to attract them.

"Bokeh" is a term used to describe the quality of off-focused background created by a lens, based on subjective evaluation - good, bad, fair, etc. Think the jargon originated from Japan, and it's now a fairly common term in photography.

Do follow the link below to find out more about bokeh in portraits, where it is often more important:

http://forum.clubsnap.org/showthread.php?t=79117&highlight=bokeh

Hope that helped.

 

[Phildate]

"Think the jargon originated from Japan, and it's now a fairly common term in photography

Hmmm, I'm a more frequent user of another photo forum more US based and I've never heard of this phrase. But understand it's meaning I think, as from the post you attached, it seems many people don't

 

[clive]

usually the term bokeh will pop up now and then whenever theres a discussion about focal length, aperture and DOF. sometimes its "accurately" used, sometimes its roughly used.

its a "quick n easy" way to describe how the visual qualities of those out-of-focus areas in photos look like; along with conventional adjectives like rough/smooth/sharp/blur/concentric/hazy/tilted/etc...so its kinda like a newly coined adjective that applied to photographic descriptions. ;-)

 

[BurgaFlippinMan]

Can someone please enlighten me on what 'chio bus' means? Am I far off the mark by guessing it means something like 'pretty girl'?

 

[kelster]

Can someone please enlighten me on what 'chio bus' means? Am I far off the mark by guessing it means something like 'pretty girl'?

Chio Bus is the plural form of Chio Bu....

Chio Bu means...."dang...tats a real pretty babe man!!!" pretty girl....

 

[clive]

chio bu is chinese dialect

chio = pretty
bu = female

chio is another romanised spelling form for the verb "invite". so the statement "i chio my best friend to dinner " means "i invite my best friend to dinner".


exercise : translate the following sentence to english:

"i chio the chio bu to dinner"

 

[baobeitan]

Isn't it " I jio my friends, not i Chio my friends?? "

 

[jonlou]

Isn't it " I jio my friends, not i Chio my friends?? "

yeah yeah....JIO, not CHIO...

 

[glennyong]

" The Chio bu Jio me go her house and see her Chio bu friends, and i jio her 2 my hse to see Chio Kang friends..."

Chio - Pretty
Kang - Male

lol.. =p ;p

 

[grandrake]

Folks... this guide will blow you away. The Romanization of Hokkien.

http://www.taiwanchurch.org/twscript.html

 

[Ben1223]

there are many types of english
why can't we promote Singapore English, aka Singlish

Because Singapore is becoming a global city. It's trying to be the regional hub for this, the international hub for that, etc. To deal with the international community you need to speak and write proper English to be understood. If you insist on polishing your Singlish you'll only be isolating yourself.