English translation can, lah?

So the guidebooks warn you about a little problem called "Singlish." In our first weeks here we really didn't encounter too many problems understanding people and were delighted that it really was true that everyone speaks English. I think its only when you start to listen more closely, or say, have to listen more closely in a business meeting that you realize these people may *think* they speak English, but its a far cry from what you and I speak. Singlish is the result of the melding of cultures and languages in Singapore over the years- various Chinese dialects, Bahasa Malay and Indonesian, Indian dialects and colonial English- the result is mind boggling.

Entire books have been published on Singlish and how the unassuming western English speaker can navigate the never ceasing ran of "lah" that everyone says. What is funniest about Singlish to me is that its not say exclusively working class people or young people or recent immigrants who speak this way, its everyone. Educated professionals routinely say "can, lah" in meetings which, depending on context either means "can you do it?" or "yes, I can do it."

Here is an except from my business meeting.

Erin: In paragraph 2, it should be the mall is ON the street, not IN the street.
Singapore Business Man 1: No, thats wrong
Erin: No, I am pretty sure that something is located ON a street, and IN an area. But here its a street
Singapore Business Man 1: No, mall IN street can lah.

A battle I fully lost.

Another situation that created great confusion until recently was purchasing food. They ask you, what I now understand to be "take-away or stay here lah" but until about two days ago sounded more like "tks#jsxhajshjsu%$#&*hhsdks&shsh%a,  lah" which would prompt me to repeat my order again, thinking they didn't get it. So it would go like this:

Erin: Large Almond Soya Milk please
Mr. Bean Worker: "takeawaycarrierneedlah?"
Erin: Umm, no? Large Almond Soya Milk
Mr. Bean Worker "youneedcarrierfordrink"
Erin: (baffled look, just wants milk)
Mr. Bean Worker: (shoves milk drink in bag and thrusts it and straw at confused american)

Now, while I still don't always understand, I just assume that the follow up question to my food order is going to be related to carrying away and related carrying away instruments (its an elaborate process really) so I avoid this whole conversation by adding, "take-away" to the end of every order, whether I really wanted to or not.

What I can say is that the average Singapore never ceases to amaze me by effortlessly switching between Chinese and English, or Tamil and English, or Bahasa... you get the idea. Practically everyone here is multilingual and use both or multiple languages in the same day or in a 10-minute span of time. My friendly (ok- not really friendly) Mr. Bean workers quickly take my order in English and then take the next order in Mandarin and the following order in Singlish. Its impressive.

The speaking of Singlish and attempts to stifle it are quite controversial here.  One blogger writes:
Singlish, Singapore’s brand of colloquial English, is accepted by some as an essential marker of Singaporean identity but deplored by others as a variety of English that puts Singapore and Singaporeans at a disadvantage because of its lack of international intelligibility.

In 2000, the Singapore government, started the "Speak Good English" campaign to encourage people to drop the use of the hard to understand language. As you can imagine, it wasn't met with enthusiasm... and as someone living here 10 years later I doubt it has made a difference.

So since Singlish is apparently here to stay, us westerners are just going to be forced to consult a good-old Singlish-English dictionary when in doubt.