here English speaken, lah
When I came to Singapore I was told mixed things about teaching English here. I was told that some schools need actual Ph.Ds or Masters in English to teach it since English is wildly spoken here so they are only after the fine tuning. I was also told that some schools will hire me with just a simple BA not in English because they are getting people from other countries moving here to work and live. All I have to ask is that if English is spoken here in Singapore, exactly where is it being spoken? Do I have to go to a CEO or manager of a big company before people can understand me?
I have been told that I do not have an accent, or at least not a thick one. I was told that schools would love to hire me because I dont have a strong accent like the British or Australian that you have to struggle through to hear and understand. I have been told, on many occassions, that I should try to spice up my speech patterns cause I am so monotone and bland that you can hear the words but there really isnt much power or interest in the way they are said. Sort of like how you can hear a guy in church say "AMEN" monotone and you know that he is there just cause he has to whereas a guy going "AAAA-MMMEN!" with power and passion means that he really believes in the religion. So I had to say that it was not my accent that is causing the problem.
So many times I have gone to a food stall and asked for food and said it quite clearly "Noodles with pork" or "seafood porridge" and I get a blank stare like I have just asked for a 'beef wellington in a red wine aus jus sauce on yorkshire puddings'. I end up having to point to the picture of the item and instead of a grammatically correct English statement of "ah, pork porridge. Would you like egg with that?" I get "porridge, lah. you wan egg?" Makes me wonder where is this English that is so wildly spoken in Singapore actually being spoken?
Of course I figure maybe I am just speaking to the wrong people. However, the co-workers and friends that I have met are basically the same. I have gone around the accent, gotten used to the odd rising and falling of the stresses and intonation that make pretty much ever statement made a question. I dont think I have heard a single statement since I got here but people are constantly asking me "ok, you take the 810 bus?" when giving me directions when I have asked them how to get somewhere. Even though I have accepted the wrong stress and intonation I then wonder about the total lack of complete sentences. Granted, my friends back home would never sit down and do the full answer of "where are you going to" with "I am going to go to the mall", instead they say something like "going to go to the mall" or "to the mall, want to come?"
also, getting used to the different usages of words. Apparently when someone asks "can you help me with something?" there is a chance that what they are asking you is "Can you do this for me?".
Also, lights are spoiled? 'the room is dark because the light is spoiled'? I always thought of it as 'burnt out' because the filament burnt out and not because the bulb went past the expiry date and went bad like milk or meat.
'how did you find the test?' quite simple actually, I looked at the desk and the teacher put it down in front of me. How about "what did you think of the test?" I thought it was hard/easy/boring.
'how did you find the food?' easy, I walked into the restaurant and the waiter brought it to me.
I mean, I love literal questions to such a degree that I have managed to annoy at least 50 people here with my smart ass responses. I just wonder...why is it that with the English language, you can take a word, put the stress on so many different syllables and people still know what you are saying, but when learning other languages, you put the stress on the wrong syllable and you go through at least a 20 minute talk where the person seems to think that if they say it faster/slower/louder/softer you will grasp the stress here or there. I think the only reason that English is so hard to learn is because we really dont have a set rule for our definitions. So many things are said in so many ways. Perhaps we should stop calling English a language, and start calling it a dialect. We have the English language broadly, just as there is the Chinese language broadly, but then there is the dialect of American (broken down to regions), England (broken down to regions), Canadian (broken down to regions), Australian (broken down to regions)...and you get my drift, just like Chinese is broken down to Cantonese, Mandarin, Hokkien and other regional dialects.
I have been told that I do not have an accent, or at least not a thick one. I was told that schools would love to hire me because I dont have a strong accent like the British or Australian that you have to struggle through to hear and understand. I have been told, on many occassions, that I should try to spice up my speech patterns cause I am so monotone and bland that you can hear the words but there really isnt much power or interest in the way they are said. Sort of like how you can hear a guy in church say "AMEN" monotone and you know that he is there just cause he has to whereas a guy going "AAAA-MMMEN!" with power and passion means that he really believes in the religion. So I had to say that it was not my accent that is causing the problem.
So many times I have gone to a food stall and asked for food and said it quite clearly "Noodles with pork" or "seafood porridge" and I get a blank stare like I have just asked for a 'beef wellington in a red wine aus jus sauce on yorkshire puddings'. I end up having to point to the picture of the item and instead of a grammatically correct English statement of "ah, pork porridge. Would you like egg with that?" I get "porridge, lah. you wan egg?" Makes me wonder where is this English that is so wildly spoken in Singapore actually being spoken?
Of course I figure maybe I am just speaking to the wrong people. However, the co-workers and friends that I have met are basically the same. I have gone around the accent, gotten used to the odd rising and falling of the stresses and intonation that make pretty much ever statement made a question. I dont think I have heard a single statement since I got here but people are constantly asking me "ok, you take the 810 bus?" when giving me directions when I have asked them how to get somewhere. Even though I have accepted the wrong stress and intonation I then wonder about the total lack of complete sentences. Granted, my friends back home would never sit down and do the full answer of "where are you going to" with "I am going to go to the mall", instead they say something like "going to go to the mall" or "to the mall, want to come?"
also, getting used to the different usages of words. Apparently when someone asks "can you help me with something?" there is a chance that what they are asking you is "Can you do this for me?".
Also, lights are spoiled? 'the room is dark because the light is spoiled'? I always thought of it as 'burnt out' because the filament burnt out and not because the bulb went past the expiry date and went bad like milk or meat.
'how did you find the test?' quite simple actually, I looked at the desk and the teacher put it down in front of me. How about "what did you think of the test?" I thought it was hard/easy/boring.
'how did you find the food?' easy, I walked into the restaurant and the waiter brought it to me.
I mean, I love literal questions to such a degree that I have managed to annoy at least 50 people here with my smart ass responses. I just wonder...why is it that with the English language, you can take a word, put the stress on so many different syllables and people still know what you are saying, but when learning other languages, you put the stress on the wrong syllable and you go through at least a 20 minute talk where the person seems to think that if they say it faster/slower/louder/softer you will grasp the stress here or there. I think the only reason that English is so hard to learn is because we really dont have a set rule for our definitions. So many things are said in so many ways. Perhaps we should stop calling English a language, and start calling it a dialect. We have the English language broadly, just as there is the Chinese language broadly, but then there is the dialect of American (broken down to regions), England (broken down to regions), Canadian (broken down to regions), Australian (broken down to regions)...and you get my drift, just like Chinese is broken down to Cantonese, Mandarin, Hokkien and other regional dialects.
posted by Capt_Canuck at 9:07 PM
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