For those people who are still confused about what Singlish is as a medium of communication.Wikiped wrote:
While English is one of Singapore's official languages, Singlish (a particular dialect** with its unique intonations and grammar) is commonly regarded as having low prestige.
**A little misleading,
but here's the definition.Cambridge Dictionary wrote:
a form of a language that people speak in a particular part of a country, containing some different words and grammar, etc.:
Therefore, Singlish is still a separate(and different!) language from its derivatives.
Wikiped wrote:
The vocabulary of Singlish.....from English, Malay, Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese, Tamil and to a lesser extent various other European, Indic and Sinitic languages....elements of American and Australian slang have come through....
Singlish is categorized as a
English-based creole language, meaning that it is a language that originated as a mix of many other languages, as shown in the first quote. It's grammar, vocabulary, tenses, phrasing, subject-verb agreement rules, sentence structure, etc. are vastly different from standard English, and people who only learn standard English might not be able to understand or comprehend a sentence said by a Singlish speaker, as there are so many factors differentiating the two mediums of communication.
Although other countries in our region do have their own
English-based creole languages, Singlish is the only one explicitly stated to be "spoken by most Singaporeans".
Singlish is so vastly used that our government even pushed for a "
Speak Good English Movement" to discourage the use of Singlish in everyday life, extending to mass media and schools. "The Singaporean government.....discourage the use of Singlish in favour of Standard English and Standard Mandarin.... The government has created an annual
Speak Good English Movement to emphasise the point."
Further evidence to support the vast usage is, "In informal settings......Singlish is used without restriction.
For many students, using Singlish is also inevitable when interacting with their peers, siblings, parents and elders."
As most players play this game in an informal setting, it should come naturally that they use their own language that they are most comfortable with. That's why a channel dedicated to such banter should be opened for our community to find a place to relax in. What's more, we as a country will finally be able to have a place to actually bond and get to know one another in our own skin, and connects a quite frankly segregated (not in a bad way but yeah) SG community.
As our community grows, it should only make sense that this little country gets it's own channel.
We have a base of 30,518 active users, and many more new players to come, all of which will have a proper place to go to and chat and bond with like minded people if this is implemented.An issue I know about is channel moderation, and the "translation" of Singlish to proper English. If we could find proper users to manage and overlook this channel from our country that would be a plus. Else, we would have to find means of translation through compilation of Singlish slang and phrase (Which I checked does not have some of the slang spoken) or the mods learn to recognize certain phrases and slang themselves (which is hard work for them so....), or we could hire new moderators that have a decent grasp at the language (I'm not too sure about this)
All in all, Singlish is a separate language, disparate from English and it's other elements. Singaporeans all speak this common medium, so it should only fall in line that this community should have a space to talk and actually be themselves in all of their "Singaporeaness" and have like-minded people understand what they are saying and to bond with.
Apologies for long post, here's a kitty.