Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Kiasu-ism
OKIE!! My 3rd consecutive weekly post is here. I am going to touch on kiasu-ism. The term "kiasu" means scared to lose in hokkien dialect. Firstly, why do i consider this a culture of Singapore?? It is because Singaporeans are known to be very calculative and would not do anything for FREE!! But they will be the first ones to grab everything thats among the trend and everything that is FREE!! If you try to think from another point of view, Singapore, being a highly competitive country, often lead we Singaporeans striving hard to be ahead of others be it in school or work. They are also likely to compared material status and educational qualifications. Being KIASU for those reason is not a bad thing but all these years, the KIASU spirit brings about unhealthy levels of competition. for e.g, playing a game, winning and losing is common and is part of a competition, but, being AFRAID TO LOSE (KIASU) is totally unacceptable. Sadly, some Singaporeans seem to be proud of this local image and they even developed a local character named Mr.Kiasu who behaves in an extremly exaggerated kiasu behaviour. In conclusion, striving for excellence is a must for everyone but being kiasu is seriously unacceptable. Its only a thin line between these two catogeries. We need to work hard to change this negative perception or we may just end up in a sorry state. A small small test on how kiasu u might be http://www.med.nus.edu.sg/pcm/stress/Kiasu.html.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
The 5th language
Well, its culture time.............. AGAIN!!!
During my last post, i mentioned that SINGAPORE has 4 languages, chinese, malay, tamil and english. Today i would like to talk about a special 5th language which SINGAPORE has and its also consider as one of its culture i supposed. Its called "SINGLISH". Singlish is a portmanteau of the words Singaporean and English. In my opinion, it is considered a dialect of English. It is difficult of people from another country to understand when they interact with it. Main difficulties in uderstanding singlish is its unique slang and syntax which are more pronounced in informal speech. Singlish shares similarities with a language called "MANGLISH" in Malaysia. Although distinction can be made, particularly in volcabulary. Basically i think that singlish should be cut down because if a person is so used to speaking singlish, wouldn't it be hard for them to speak proper English upon stepping into the society?? These are some e.g of Singlish: "don't know" don no, "sorry" saw lee, "already" orredy.
This is a website of more singlish. Have fun speaking but DON'T get use to speaking.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singlish_vocabulary
During my last post, i mentioned that SINGAPORE has 4 languages, chinese, malay, tamil and english. Today i would like to talk about a special 5th language which SINGAPORE has and its also consider as one of its culture i supposed. Its called "SINGLISH". Singlish is a portmanteau of the words Singaporean and English. In my opinion, it is considered a dialect of English. It is difficult of people from another country to understand when they interact with it. Main difficulties in uderstanding singlish is its unique slang and syntax which are more pronounced in informal speech. Singlish shares similarities with a language called "MANGLISH" in Malaysia. Although distinction can be made, particularly in volcabulary. Basically i think that singlish should be cut down because if a person is so used to speaking singlish, wouldn't it be hard for them to speak proper English upon stepping into the society?? These are some e.g of Singlish: "don't know" don no, "sorry" saw lee, "already" orredy.
This is a website of more singlish. Have fun speaking but DON'T get use to speaking.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singlish_vocabulary
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Racial Harmony
Greetings!! This is a blog full of cultures. As a Singaporean, I will first start out with our very own Singapore culture.
Singapore is the ONLY country where people live harmoniously due to the fact that they got 4 different races. The 4 races are “ Chinese, Muslims, Indians and Eurasians.” Each racial group has its own religion and each religion has its own festivals to celebrate. There are colourful festivals of special significance all year round. Languages in Singapore also divide into 4 types, Chinese speaks mandarin, Muslims speaks malay, Indians speaks tamil and Eurasians speaks English. Its interesting to see how people of 4 different races in Singapore interact and what influence they have on each others.
Singapore is the ONLY country where people live harmoniously due to the fact that they got 4 different races. The 4 races are “ Chinese, Muslims, Indians and Eurasians.” Each racial group has its own religion and each religion has its own festivals to celebrate. There are colourful festivals of special significance all year round. Languages in Singapore also divide into 4 types, Chinese speaks mandarin, Muslims speaks malay, Indians speaks tamil and Eurasians speaks English. Its interesting to see how people of 4 different races in Singapore interact and what influence they have on each others.
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