I refer this issue in the Singapore context. Singapore is a tiny nation located in Southeast Asia with a population of 4 million where about 20% of them are immigrants. To begin with, Singapore has it roots as a migrant community back in the 1800s, when it saw an influx of Chinese and Indian workers who came to the indigenous Malay fishing village to escape poverty back at home. Today, the local population is made up of 65% Chinese, 20% Malays, 10% Indians and 5% Others (i.e. Eurasians). Although the official national language is Bahasa Melayu (as spoken by the indigenous Malays), English is predominantly used as evident in the street names, road signals, advertisements in shopping malls, official forms etc. Singaporeans are educated to be bilingual (English and their ethnic tongue) but a localized version of English called "Singlish" is often spoken. Singlish is a mixture of English, Mandarin, Chinese dialects, Malay and Tamil. It is extremely difficult to teach' somebody how to speak Singlish as it also mixes up the grammatical order of words.

Having said that, it is thus difficult for foreigners to understand what Singaporeans are speaking amongst themselves sometimes. Instead of trying to understand it however, I find many foreigners making fun of it and showing total disrespect. I have witnessed many foreigners being very rude and sarcastic to the local service staffs that speak in Singlish which the former takes it to be purely bad, broken English. What these foreigners fail to understand is the history of Singapore and how the use of English has evolved over time to differ from what they know as Standard English. They also fail to realize that no matter what their view is on Singlish, they should learn to accept that not everything has to be in accordance to what they have back at home. Afterall, English has been repackaged all over the world Jamaican-style, Australian-style, Indian-style etc, and given that Singapore was an ex-British colony, the English language has served various purposes to suit the circumstances at any given time.

As it is, the Singapore government has achieved tremendous success in turning a 3rd-world country into a first-world nation in less than 50 years since independence. Hence, it is already a commendable effort for the older generation of Singaporeans who are mostly illiterate to be able to speak some English just to catch up with times and also to accommodate to English-speaking foreigners that are very soon going to make up more than a quarter of the entire population. Hence, multi-racial harmony will be even more important as it has ever been for Singapore. Tolerance and respect for the nation's unique brand of English is essential as well. Of course, there are some foreigners who have mastered the art of speaking and understanding Singlish to perfection and those are very well respected and loved by the locals. Singapore does not have a unique mainstream language like the rest of the Asian countries, but it does have a language that can be understood by other Asians and Westerners alike. Preserving it is definitely the way to go to spur Singapore to its next stage of development.

Learn more about this author, Cairns Faber.
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