Singlish
The first and most important skill which will make you a Singaporean and allow other people to single you out from an international crowd is the ability to speak Singlish.
Cannot make it lah if you need to read this book to understand Singlish.
Yes, Singlish may seem to be an extremely easy "language" for a Singaporean but it may be more than difficult for a foreigner. Singlish allow Singaporeans to identify with each other and allow us to convey our message across in a more personal and effective way. Netherless to say, I'm an expert in Singlish.
Here's what my MSN conversation may look like:
Me: Hi
Friend: Hello
Friend: Wat you doing now?
Me: Sian lah, nth to do, so shake leg loh.
Friend: Wah, good loh. Can slack. I busy until siao juz now, so many customers.
Me: Haha. So cham ah? Too bad for you loh.
Friend: Eh, you free later or not? Wanna go town walk walk?
Me: Ummm ok loh.
Friend: Don't pang sey me and go pak tor with your bf later hor.
Me: yalah. Cya later.
Friend: bye
Catch no ball? Then you're probably not a Singaporean. Its quite easy picking a Singaporean out from an international crowd just by listening to the way we speak. There was once when I was shopping in Bangkok with my friends and the shopkeeper asked "Are you all from Singapore?"
When asked how she know, she answered that its by the way we speak. Not surprising indeed.
Not only in real life, its easy spotting a Singaprean in online forums just by the words they use or the way they type too. Sometimes in forum, there were times where I find it hard to avoid using Singlish to get the tone of my message across. For example,
Q: Are you very bored now?
A: No lah.
Without the lah, it just seems too serious. The lahs, lehs and lohs make it so much personal and make the tone much more relax and laid back.
Sales, Kiasu
Besides Singlish, I love discounts, sales and freebies too.
(credit: http://virgoblue.files.wordpress.com)
I just can't walk past a sales without stopping by at least for a while to take a look at it and check it out. I'll go to a place really early if there are any sales on items that I really wanted, so that I can grab those offers and bargains before they're gone. Yeah, call me kiasu.
Now, with the internet, I often take part in online contests and source for good deals and bargains on the internet. Yeah, the interenet makes things much easier now.
Queuing
(credit: http://paulcsc.moblog.com.sg)
Queuing and sales is somewhat connected. My philosophy: When there's a sales or extremely good bargain, there's gotta be a queue. So whenever I spotted any queues, I'll check it out and see what is the queue about.
I queued hours before at the Creative Warehouse Sale to buy my Creative Zen Mircophoto at a bargain price.
I cut out the coupon, and queued for an hour plus to get free Coffee Prince mug and poster at Bugis from U-weekly.
(Pic from my blog: Starsonscreen.blogspot.com)
I queued at twice at Suntec for an hour plus to buy donuts at Donut Factory when there was still the donut craze. The good thing is that the craze had died down and there's not much queue for the donuts now. But weirdly, I've not bought donuts recently now that there's no queue.
I joined the longest queue numorous time at food courts to get food even though I've not tried the food before. (Remember my philosphy? When there's a queue, there has to be something good).
There are other numorous occassions which I queued for something, but its just too tedious to list them all down. You get my point.
Late
(credit: passingdaes.blogspot.com/)
Being late for concerts and wedding dinners has become a habit. I used to be very early when I meet-up with my friends was younger last time, but I realised that everyone else is late. So there's no reason to arrive early and wait for the other people when that's not much difference when I'm late . As a result, I'm often late for concerts and meet-ups with my friends now. But there's not much of a difference since everyone else is late. I found out that I just have to be late by a few minutes of the scheduled meeting time in order to arrive just at the right time.So now, I'll mostly arrive right on the dot or a few minutes later and most of the time during large gatherings, I'm still one of the earliest to arrive.
This characteristic very much explains the reason why I'm making my post minutes before the closing dateline for the contest. Hope I'll still qualify for the contest on time!
Lastly here's a funny video I found on Youtube.
WE LIVE IN SINGAPURA the MTV version(credit: NCHProductions)
Yes, I'm Singaporean! Blog Contest
Check out other Singaporeans at mySingapore.sg
