Eh, Singlish so damn cool, ah...

One more thing that I have grown to find very interesting about my adopted country is the colloquial Singaporean English, Singlish.

The Batangueños have their "ala eh." The Singaporeans have their "lah."

In the short span of time that I've been here though and after numerous conversations with local friends, I've learned that "lah" is just one of the many phrases in Singlish.

You've got lah, leh, loh, mah, meh, among so many other Singlish phrases.

And if you think that you can use these phrases interchangeably, uhm, no, you can't. Each phrase is used for a certain statement.

I know! So confusing mah!

The local government actually discourage the use of Singlish and favor the use of standard English. From what I've read, certain steps have been made to promote using standard English.

For me, I see Singlish as one more instrument that gives the country its identity. So really, I dun see anything wrong with it.

Actually, I'm even more interested by ang mohs (ang moh is a local term used to call Caucasians) who speak Singlish, just like the guy in the videos above.

Uhm, honestly, I dunno if he considers himself an ang moh because it seems like he's been living here in Singapore all his life. Hence, his very familiar Singlish accent and use.

Stumbled upon his videos while looking for Singlish videos. I may have been living here for a really short time, but I'm actually glad that I could understand some of the terms he's using in his video.

Eh, so damn cool.