Singapore's 40th Birthday

I have made a couple of lists before. One was regarding Singapore Fashion Faux Pas and another on the type of freaks people you meet when clubbing.

In line with the date: 9th August 2005, I have decided that I should have something written in here since I am in such a celebratory mood. *rolls eyes*

I had wanted to create a list of things uniquely singapore. So I set out thinking about things that I look for as clues when I suspect an asian looking person to be from Singapore. One of the first, especially if the person is sleeveless is the BCG mark. It's actually against tuberculosis. I never knew....Or that most primary school children in the 80s and 90s (do they still do it now??) will remember having to brush their teeth, squatting next to a drain with the rest of his/her classmates? Or how about hearing the story of bukit merah, you know, swordfish, wreak havoc, smart boy, banana trunks, jealous king, murder, blood, stained hill....was it really a boy and not some girl???so much blood....

But I decided against it.

And came up with a list of Singapore Slang. Some rhyming, like the cockney rhyming slang, others, just...erm....don't rhyme. There are more certainly. but I try not to have too many of the army lingo stuff. I didn't want any that was in common hokkien or malay language. Cause our friends up north will know as well and it's not as localised anymore is it?
Here it is anyhow. The 10:

10. steady phoon pi pi
This is in common use isn't it? I am not sure if it is really local. I haven't been up to Malaysia much and never been to Borneo. So I won't know if they have this elsewhere. Anyway, it's used when you want to praise something or to confirm an appointment. Often used alone as a reply. Steady is english so it's understood. Phoon Pi Pi means to blow whistle. I figure it came about partly due to the similar sound steady has with pi pi.

9. panh chance
Ok, another of the english mixed with hokkien type of slang. it literally means to give chance but how it is often used is when asking for some leeway. like when faced with a stronger opponent, you hope the opponent can panh chance. "panh" by the way, is pronounced as "pun". I am not sure if our neighbours up north/southeast blah use this as well? This is because I have some malay friends and indians too, using this phrase.

8. chop chop kalipok
This sounds rather "army". I do know that chop chop is actually from the english. but to add a kalipok behind is purely colloquial. But i am not sure if it is 100% Singaporelian. I can imgaine a moustachioed englishman in a safari suit hurrying his local worker, "well, chop chop now, we can't be doing this the whole day. I will miss my afternoon tea!" How the kalipok comes in I will perhaps never know. Kalipok means curry puff. Like Old Chang Kee type.

7. pattern jueh kueh badminton
Help somebody. This gets stranger. It's like "steady phoon pi pi. Not much meaning just alot of rhyming. And that's what makes it more interesting actually. it's got a sllighty negative connotation though can be neutral as well. Most often used on people who has got more style than substance. Defnitely not with reference to badminton. Although it can be used to describe sports. Like when a particular footballer dazzles everyone with his fancy footwork but fails to score... "jueh kueh" means "more than". So I suppose in badminton, one can have alot of fancy footwork, smashes, drop shots etc etc....how it ended up with patterns? I don't know.

6. talk cock sing song
Ok, "talk cock" was made rather famous by one Ling How Doong. He mentioned this in a parliamentary session once...He later explained that it was a proper phrase and was referring to "cock and bull story". right....Now, there is this other guy, Charles Chong, who made a lewd funny remark on oral sex by saying he is not a "cunning linguist". He was never penalised. So the lesson here is that you can use dubious phrases/words in parliament but always in good dose of humour. Anyway, why talk cock and sing song? Does it rhyme? Not exactly. Do they sound nice together? Sorta. Was it first used here? I don't know.

5. seow ding dong
This is not related to Ling How Doong, however much it rhymes with his name. Now, this slang is a little clever. Because ding dong is a proper english slang by itself. But by adding a local word, "seow", which means crazy in hokkien, you get this hybrid of craziness that can only be reserved for...really crazy people! I wonder when the first person to use this phrase, did s/he consciously know that ding dong was a slang. and thus, fortifying (sounds nutritious) the craziness. it's like saying fucking fucker or crazy asshat or swinging swinger or ugly horse face etc etc... anyways...when people say this phrase, it can be further (!!!wow!!!) emphasised by rotating the index finger around the ear.

4. ponten
This is very old school. And I think it is still being used. I don't know the spelling. And I don't know where it came from. If it is from a malay word, can someone just tell me? It's pronounced as Pon-Ten. And it is a word used by kids of schooling age, from primary school through to university. When you ponten, you are playing truant. You are AWOL from class. And it is so damn fun.... By the way. Why is it that we are playing truant? Why play? Is ponten a lousy pronunciation of playing truant? If it is, it is a damn lousy mispronunciation.

3. sabo
Short for sabotage. Some people pronounce it as say-boh. some as sar-boh. Very army, like chop chop kalipok. people who sabo alot are called sabo king. when you get sabotaged, you are said to be sabo-ed. when you are committing sabotage, you are sabo-ing. it is not pronounced as saboing as in boingboing.net but more like sar-boh-ing. It has been spread across the causewau already i think but i wonder if sillypolians used it first.

2. tawn
This is a BBQ at East Coast Park word. When you want to stay out after a bbq at east coast and not go home till the next day, you are tawnning. So you have your friends asking you, "eh, you going to tawn or not?" Is it also a case of lousy pronunciaiton? That this is actually a mispronunciation of "dawn"? As in, if you wanted to stay till dawn? I don't know.

1. shak
Army. I almost didn't want to include this. Shak. As in shaquille o'neal. It means tired, which is how I feel now..


Ok, so I have finished with the top ten. And I am wondering which ones should be taken out. I had wanted to include "piss" cause i thought only singaporeans use piss as being in a state of drunkedness but it is not apparently. then i wanted to have "mug" in there as well because in US and UK, mugging and to mug is to rob someone. But apparently to "mug up" is to study intensively in english. So no "mug".

Alright. This has been a long entry. I was kept interested. Were you?
Oh and er...tomorrow, I will give an analysis of the design of our State Flag.