Entry 4: Singlish Cool!

A few people I've met seem to be asking me this very same question: so what's up with Singapore? And in this sense, I don't suppose they mean "so what the fuck is up with Singapore?" I'm assuming (a very dangerous word indeed) that they mean "so what is it about Singapore that you can enlighten me about because I've never been there before", and most of the time they do, fortunately.

So it set me thinking: what is it about Singapore that I find the most intriguing, and possibly the most interesting fact? What exactly IS up with Singapore?

1) Mambo nights. If it was one thing that they'd find crazy, it'd be Mambo nights. See, retro disco music is a fun night out for us to do stupid Para Para moves, but to Americans it reminds them of Flower Power, of psychedelic colours and drugs, of Vietnam War and The Graduate, of big Afro hairdos and open sexuality, and maybe even Cher (definitely not a good memory). Not exactly bad, but not exactly that good either. Anyhow, I lent Alex my Mambo Jambo CD, and he said it was crazy. Crazy in a good sense, and he exclaimed that simply had to check the Mambo Jambo phenomenon out.

2) Conscript army. When some of them ask me why I'm still a freshman at 21, they'd always go into shock and require resuscitation when I tell them why. See, Singapore is one of the few countries where we send two years of our lives in green. The kids here, they've been studying (or so I think) for the past.. decade or so. Elementary school, then high school, now college. So to know that someone who lives 10,000 miles away has served the military comes as a huge surprise to them.

3) Singlish. If it is one thing I can never put down, it would be Singlish. Singlish, as I have discovered after spending more than a week here, makes things more convenient and adds flavour to conversation. At times I am extremely tempted to say "Ok lor" when someone asks to borrow my Calculus book, instead of saying "Yeah I suppose so". Because the former somehow conveys a sense of buay song-ness i.e. unwillingness automatically, whereas you'd have to enunciate the latter properly to emphasise the fact that you'd still do it, though not exactly happy about it. And where else can you call your friend's dad "uncle" regardless of age or race?

Singlish is a beautiful language, no doubt. The British have Scouse (mostly Irish influence) and Cockney (think Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) and the Americans have the Southern American English (where words like y'all or a-callin' came from, something like how cowboys talk). So I don't see why we have to follow "proper English" when there supposedly is no "proper" language in the first place. Singlish Cool!

4) Food. For those uninitiated, the likes of char kway teow or chicken rice or carrot cake is sort of a trademark for Singapore. I could spend hours explaining what each dish was, how it's prepared and how it tastes, but it could never beat the real thing. This came to my mind when I was eating instant laksa on a cold, windy, rainy Sunday afternoon.

5) Singapore river. It's not a river - it's a huge canal! Which other river in the world has concrete banks, no "proper" tributaries or distributaries (if you don't consider the other smaller canals), and spans as far as most streams in other places. Even the Panama Canal is 77km long, about 7 times the length of Singapore River. Ah but wait, the Panama Canal has concrete bank I hear you say. Well, it's a CANAL, you'll hear me say. Don't try to outsmart me. But yes, we are still fucking proud of the Singapore River.

So my question is this: what else do you think would make for a good interest topic about Singapore? Leave me a comment. NO TAGS.