Saturday, April 29, 2006

003_multi-cultural society


there are 4 official languages being used in singapore; english, chinese (mandarin), malay and tamil. (there are also some other dialects such as hokkien, cantonese, etc.) the whole country is a cultural blender where different norms, arts and cultures from each group collide and unite interestingly. on tv, there are channels operating in each language separately to tackle differences in taste. announcements in subway stations are made in 4 languages. all the ethnic groups are living closely together and discrimination is considered highly illegal.

probably one of the most interesting fusions and some people consider this as a very uniquely singapore thing is 'singlish'. you will be quite amazed that local people are talking in english but you can't really understand. the sentences are short, straight to the point with classically wrong gramma. sometimes you can find more than 3 languages together in one sentence. for example, "aberthen! i don't makan i do what?! xiao ah you!"

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