The world is closing in on us. It surely is becoming a smaller place, and now with the internet, and over half the world owning a mobile phone, with many willing to share their lives, experiencing another's world is accessible. We are becoming global citizens and sometimes we unintentionally adapt and adopt another's beliefs, thoughts and even accents.
This brings me to Code Switching. I had watched Singapore Social, which is a reality show of sorts, based in Singapore that was aired on Netflix. To be honest, you could tell the production was a kind of stunted compared to the other reality shows out there. No surprise though, Asians are a little more reserved about airing their dirty laundry.
As I was googling about the cast and the show to find out a little bit more about them, I read comments and watched videos where the casts' accents were being called out and expectations on how they should sound. I found this a little uninformed as Singapore, just like my country Malaysia (we are neighbours by the way) are a multiracial, multicultural, multilingual country.
To break it down, and I will use myself as an example. Malaysia (and Singapore, as once upon a time we were together before the separation in 1965) was under British rule. So, there is British influence including the education system.
However, when it comes to TV and radio, it is the American culture that infiltrated homes. In that alone, there is a confluence of American and British.
English was seen as a language that was going to give you a leg up for success. My parents spoke to me in English, scolded me in my mother tongue. And this is quite common in my country. It is not something to be proud of per se, but many of us can't speak our mother tongue and sometimes even our national language as well as English. We are told off by the older generation.
In my family, there are a few of us who married foreigners and live in a foreign country, their accent is different, and if they were to come back to stay here, this is the accent they will bring home.
So, to have expectations of everyone sounding the same is strange especially if you live in this country. It is so mixed up here, you just never know what to expect. Even within the local languages, there are so many different dialects and accents, that sometimes even the locals don't get it.
Don't be surprised, if you overhear friends at the coffee shop, converse in a mash-up of languages. Words get mixed up and slip in very easily into sentences that make sense - to us. You can catch someone speaking in 4 languages in one sentence, and dare I say, you are not going to find this in any other country (just here in Malaysia and probably Singapore).
For example:
"Annei! Satu teh-tarik! Ta Pau Please!"
👉 Annei! is Big Brother in Tamil/Indian, which is one way to address staff at a restaurant.
👉 Satu means One in Malay, which is our National Language
👉 Teh-Tarik means Pulled Tea in Malay.
👉 Ta Pau means to pack/to go in Chinese
👉 Please... well you know this one - English.
So, if you ever make a trip here, be prepared to bump into locals who speak perfect English, in an accent, and be absolutely oblivious of it.
Lead Image: Photo by Maria Stewart from Pexels
If you ask me it's everywhere the same. At school, we are taught Oxford English. American is not English. Today many children use American words due to games and American soaps, films and the never-ending drama, scolding, shouting shows called 'entertainment'. It's completely different from how I was raised, how I raise my children. The youth hardly knows the Dutch word/translation for English words used which is even a bigger shame. Their English is terrible. If schools will not invest in their own language and maths entire nations will be wiped out. It's nothing to be proud of.
By the way: children raised and taught with more than one language are more intelligent. My children speak and write 3 languages fluently soon 4 and do not mix words and grammar is important.