You could have done better, Dad

Singaporean parents don't understand their kids: Survey

One of the few news articles that is negative about Singapore, which apparently is quite rare, accorrding to another fellow singaporean Doubleyellow :)

Death Row

During the redesign of our office in the "yellow company" somehow all the AIESEC management trainees on the 23rd floor found themselves on the same row.



Herro to everybody from the "death row."

Talking Cock

Find it so farnee, my favourites are " AhButThen" and " Bodoh" :)


Singlish formally takes after British English (in terms of spelling and abbreviations), although naming conventions are in a mix of American and British ones (with American ones on the rise). For instance, local media have "sports pages" (sport in British English) and "soccer coverage" (the use of the word "soccer" is not common in British media). Singlish also uses many words borrowed from Hokkien, the dialect of more than 50% of the Chinese population in Singapore, and from Malay. In many cases, English words take on the meaning of their Chinese counterparts, resulting in a shift in meaning. This is most obvious in such cases as "borrow"/"lend", which are functionally equivalent in Singlish and mapped to the same Mandarin word, "借" (jiè), which can mean to lend or to borrow. ("Oi, siao-eh, borrow me your calculator, can?")

Read more:

Examples:
ah - eh? huh?
Ah Beng - uneducated Chinese man, butt of jokes
aiyah! (Hokkien) or ayoh! - (Malay oh, no!)
alamak! - surprise/shock (Malay)
ang moh - white person, Caucasian (red hair devil, Hokkien)
buaya - lit. crocodile (Malay), fig. a womanizer, flirt
bodoh - ignorant (from the Malay word, meaning "stupid")
boleh - can (Malay)
COE (Certificate of Entitlement) - (very expensive) permit for car ownership
CPF (Central Provident Fund) - government savings scheme
chop - rubber stamp, the act of stamping (from Malay cap, or the sound made when stamping) - "Immigration will chop your passport."
chope - reserve - "Don't take this seat, I choped it already."
gostan - go backward (Malay) (this actually originates from the nautical phrase "go astern")
HDB (Housing Development Board) - public housing
hawker centre - outdoor food court
ISA - Internal Security Act
kiah su/kiasu - somebody who fears losing out (Hokkien)
kana (kena) - be afflicted with (Malay)
kope - to take without permission "eh, don't kope my homework leh"
Kopi - coffee (Hokkien)
makan - eat (from Malay)
mata - police (Malay)
mati - die, be doomed (Malay)
Mindef - Ministry of Defence (Singapore)
MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) Often pronounced as "M, MA, T" - metro system (another popular pronunciation is "mert")
NS - National Service
PAP - People's Action Party - Governing party since 1959.
SAF - Singapore Armed Forces
sekali (pronounced SCAR-ly) - lest, what if "Skali no way to go out, then how?" (from Malay, sekali)
shiok - cool! (Hokkien)
sotong - lit. squid (Malay), fig. stupid (see also "blur")
suaku - uninformed or backward (lit. Hokkien "mountain tortoise")
ulu - rural, remote (Malay)
wah! - wow! (Hokkien)
[edit]
English words with different meanings in Singlish
arrow - pinpoint/pick on "Why he arrow me to do this?"
blur - confused
choose - browse - "Choose, choose, choose, but never buy, is it?"
follow - to come along - Can I follow?
heartlander - person from working class HDB estate
having here - "to eat inside the restaurant meaning the opposite of take-away"
help, lah - please, do lend me a hand by desisting from whatever it is you are doing - "Help lah, stop hitting on my sister"
keep - put away - "Please keep your notes"
on, off - to switch on/off "I on the TV"
send - to take somebody to somewhere - "I'll send you to the airport."
solid/steady - excellent - "Solid sia, that movie."
sabo - short for "sabotage", also meaning to betray or cause failure - "Because he sabo me, now boss mad at me!"
spoil - to be damaged "This one, spoil."
stay - to live (in a place) - from Malay "tinggal". "She's staying in Ang Mo Kio."
shy (don't shy!) - come on!
upgrade - to improve - "The service has been upgraded."
what? - eh? huh? - "You never give me, what?"
throw - to throw away "I throw it already

Other idioms include:
AhButThen - replacement phrase for - "isn't it obvious?" thrown in response to remarks stating the obvious
plain water - water (as opposed to soft drinks, etc.)
return back - give back
talk cock - speak nonsense (direct translation of a common Hokkien saying.)
toast bread - toast
no fish prawn oso can - accepting a lesser alternative (direct translation of a Hokkien idiom.)

The Great Singapore Sale

Can you imagine all the shops in a country can be on sale at the same time? You defintely can not say you have seen that if you haven't visited Singapore's "GSS" - a.k.a the "Great Singapore Sale".

How great it can be? Well, just imagine every shop is having promotions.. EVERYWHERE!! How crazy it can be? Well, just imagine all the office ladies would get up by 7am or even 6, get ready and queue up in front of the MANGO shop just for the 70% OFF sale starting by 8.

I guess there is no way you can look down the potential of Singaporeans' "shopping power". Look at Orchard, Bugis, Cityhall during the weekends. It's always packed, like everyday is a pay day for Singaporeans and they have so much money for shopping.

Anyway, it shall coming from how a country positioning itself. Otherwise, Singapore should not have such a national level sale to attract tourists just coming to "So Expensive Nothing to See Anyway" (This is how my friend described about Singapore and made fun of what "Santosa")to do shopping.

See? They even have a logo just for this sale. But at the end of the day, Who doesn't love shopping if you got too much money to spend? That's why I didn't join my colleagues for MANGO sale this morning. If I keep shopping like hell, none of my targeted trip this year would come true... Sigh!

Vendetta with Singapore Post

For an incredibly efficient country, perhaps I've gotten less patient with stupid processes that don't make any sense.

In Singapore if a package arrives for you, the post office will hold it for 5 days before returning to sender. So basically if you recieve a package on a Monday you will not get a chance to pick it up (unless you take leave from work) before teh weekend and by then it will be on it's way to sender. The same thing happened to me with packages from Angie, Apoorva and lately Surya. All returned to sender before I was able to get them. And if you are traveling, forget it.

I won't get into details of how I handled this final straw at the post office, and the fact that they wouldn't explain to me WHY they have such a ridiculous policy, but merely repeated their policy again (slightly louder in case I didn't hear it the first time) ... clearly not the best way to handle angry customers. Livid!

Basically the postal system sucks; never get any packages mailed to your home, have them mail it to your office instead. Anything bigger than a letter gets sent to your house and odds are you will never receive it.

Children move out but retain family ties

Married children tend to live on their own but remain close to parents

But inter-generational relationships continue to thrive, with about 40 per cent visiting their parents for childcare support, almost one-third to share a meal with them, while close to 20 per cent just want to keep in touch. Almost three-quarters also give their parents money. Read more

Dumpring Festivar

Duan Wu Jie, commonly known as the Dumpling Festival, is a day for commemorating a Chinese poet Qu Yuan and other national patriots. This day falls on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, and it reminds oneself of one's responsibilities and duties to one's country. Chinese eat rice dumplings and participate in dragon boat competitions on this day.

Origin:
There was this learned and patriotic poet called Qu Yuan (340 - 278 B.C.) during the period of the Warring States. He was a loyal official in the Chu Kingdom. Evil court officials, who were jealous of Qu Yuan's abilities, influenced the emperor to banish him from Chu Kingdom. During the next 20 years, Qu Yuan travelled widely and wrote poems on what he saw and thought. Qu Yuan was disheartened when he saw the Qin Kingdom conquer the Chu Kingdom. Overwhelmed by misery, Qu Yuan clasped a stone to his chest and plunged into the Mi Luo River in Hunan province. When news of Qu Yuan's suicide reached the fishermen, they set sail to look for his body, hence the tradition of holding dragon boat races. Unfortunately, Qu Yuan's body was nowhere to be found and the people threw rice into the river for Qu Yuan to feed on. Later the local fishermen were told in their dreams that the fishes and other creatures in the river ate the rice instead of Qu Yuan. Thus, the second time they threw rice into the river, they stuffed it into bamboo sections. This later evolved into what Chinese do now: wrap rice in bamboo leaves stuffed with meat, beans, salted egg yolks, mushrooms, etc..

Interesting fact:
Chinese start making and exchanging rice dumplings among relatives and friends as early as one week beforehand. Some of them will also set aside the dumplings to offer them to their ancestors.

Suppertime in Singapore

Human Pacman in Singapore

A human version of the classic arcade game Pacman, superimposing the virtual 3D game world on to city streets and buildings, is being developed by researchers at Singapore.
Full article