i already forget how i used to feel about you

don't you hate it when your friend starts speaking to you in a slang after he has gone overseas to study? it's as if suddenly he is above you, he is now cooler than you. i think people who slang are deliberately trying to show off and catapult themselves into an illusory position. they suffer from illusions of self-grandeur.

think about this. they have been in singapore for what, 20 years? And went overseas for say (ok let's cut them some slack) 5 years. they spent 80% for their lives here and 20% elsewhere. They grew up here and learnt to speak here, which (correct me if im wrong)ought to suggest that Singapore should have the bigger influence on how they speak. After all, their most formative years were spent here, absorbing the Singapore way of life. So how is it that after a few years in white-men-land, these people suddenly -gasp!- forgot how to speak English the way they had been for 20 years?

Besides, you don't see people who go to India for exchange or France or China coming back speaking with a slang from those countries. I mean, only people who went to what, UK, USA, Australia, Canada, come back speaking like that. What now huh? Oh so the newly acquired slang depends on the country you went. If you go to China, you will never pick up their super-slow-super-exaggerated-as-if-you-have-a-super-long-tongue way of speaking. But if you go to a cool place like California, there is no problem picking up their way of speaking there. Makes you wonder eh?

I mean seriously, we're all Singaporeans here. We all know our lahs and lors like these angmohs know their P's and Q's. What, are we suddenly too low class for you, that you have to pretend you're somebody you're not here? You're too atas now for us?

The only other thing more terrible than hearing a Singaporean slang is hearing another SIngaporean waxing lyrical about how wonderful the american accent is and how terrible singaporeans sound. I seriously cannot stand it when my sister hears someone speaking in a fake slang and saying "omg, she can speak so well! I wanna go usa and learn to speak well too!" In her opinion, speaking well = slanging. I've tried countless times trying to tell her that speaking well=speaking grammatically. It's not about the slang. It's about the English. As long as you speak grammatically, it doesnt jar on the ears, you're fine. I mean, of course you don't go around mispronouncing words, like "WAH-ter" (water) or "KER-league" (colleague). And there are the obvious ones with the annoying "th-s" like "every-DING"(eveything), "DE" (the), "DEY" (they) and so forth. Ok that Singlish is not exactly good english. Granted, but other than that, we're fine.

And even if we speak broken English among ourselves, is it really such a grievous sin? Oh come on. What is life without our "lahs" and "wahlaueh" and "you damn one kind" and "jialat"? Singlish is our way of life man. EMBRACE IT. not at the cost of forgetting real English, but it's just our culture.

It may seen quizzical to some people and sometimes people don't really understand what we're saying. But we're in Singapore. You don't go to Russia and laugh at Russians for speaking Russian. As long as we Singaporeans understand Singlish, what's wrong if we use Singlish? Just as long as we don't forget proper English, is Singlish really so wrong? It's our dialect man. If these angmohs wanna understand what we're saying, learn the language! Why do we have to change our language and the way we mix around OURSELVES for outsiders? As long as we interact fine with them, why should we change how we interact among ourselves?

I really hate that people try to act cool by slanging, by pretending to be people they are not. The way they slang when they are angry at you (an obvious show of power) and look down on you as if you're smaller just cos you don't slang. Cmon, everyone can slang. We've watched enough american shows to know how they speak. We're just more real than you are, you fake.

Slanging is NOT cool. It's fine if you have that slang naturally. But if you "gek" it out, not cool not cool. What are you trying to do, pull rank on us now? I despise all you who despise us. shame on you.