SINGLISH, The OFFICIAL Dialect of SINGAPORE

Welcome to Singapore! Singapore! Hi guys, David Hoffman here from David's Been Here in beautiful Singapore. I'm here with my friend Krissen from Wah Bananas. She's a local from Singapore and if you guys didn't know, here in Singapore, they have a second language called Singlish. It's like a mix of English with whatever else came, it's like a dialect. I really can't understand anything and today, Krissen's going to teach me a little bit of Singlish. Yeah, okay. So I'm going to say a sentence to you and you're going to guess what it means. Okay. Ready? Yeah. Okay. Day. We always eat at Kopitiamwan. Did you get that? Why do you always do something? Okay. In this one sentence, right, there is actually Malay, English, Hokkien, which is a dialect. So day is Tamil. It means... Okay. Pak Chor means like dating in Cantonese and always makan, it means eat in Malay, at kopitiam. Kopitiam means like food court. Okay. Wan literally means nothing. And the entire sentence actually meant, we always go dating at coffee shops. Two languages in one sentence and that's Singlish. So that's how Singlish was made? Yes. Just like five languages? Yeah, because there are like all sorts of races here. So you just mix it around and it's Singlish. Literally, if you say this to anyone... In Singapore? They will understand it. Yeah. It's a lot. And how did you guys learn this? From this homeschool? No! Because like, you know, you grew up with like so many different languages and you just sort of like pick it up. Pick it up, okay. Along the way, like everything. And it's not taught in school. It's not taught in school. Okay. Yeah. So it's just a dialect that's taught within locals? Sort of. Okay. Yeah. Do you know like if you say... Chok? Chok. It means to reserve something. Chok. Reserve something. Okay. Yeah. Okay. So you should try using it in a sentence like... Say, um... I want you to reserve this seat for me. Chok this seat for me. That's right! You got it right! Yeah? You got it right. That's super Singaporean. Oh, that's awesome. Chok. Yeah. You can use the word shok. Shok. It means very good. Very good. Like enjoyable. Use it in a sentence. How's the food? Shok. Yeah. Shok. It's correct. And if you want to emphasize it, you use the word sibei. Sibei. Yeah. Okay. Sibei is like very. Very. It means very. And it's a Chinese dialect. So sibei shok. That's right! Yeah. Sibei shok. Oh my god. That's awesome. Yeah. It's like it's widely used around here. And if you want to ask if something can be done... Okay. You say... Can or not? Yeah. Can or not? Yeah. So like can it or can it not be? Yeah. Can or not? Can I eat this? Can or not? Yeah. Can or not? I like it. So if you see someone older than you and you want to call them or anything like that, you just say auntie or uncle. Auntie or uncle? Yeah. If they're old. Yeah. You just call them auntie or uncle. Old or older? Old. Yeah. In Hong Kong, they're like 25 and you're 22. Something like that. You can't. Okay. So it's more like... Because it's kind of like offensive. So it's a different generation basically. A higher generation. Someone that's older than you. Okay. Much older. So anybody like in their 50s and higher for me would be like auntie, uncle? Or uncle. Yes. Correct. So basically I say something and she's like, auntie, what is this? Yes. Or what is that? Okay. Yes. It works completely fine. Okay. Unique. Yeah. Everyone's your relative. You guys are all related. Everyone's your relative. And to say like if you want to eat something, you use the word makan. Makan. It's Malay. It means eat in Malay. Okay. Makan. Try using it in a sentence. Can I makan this? It sounds a bit off right? But is it right? You can say something like, can we go makan? Can we go makan? Yeah. So can we go eat? Yes. Can we go makan? Yeah. And if we say no, you can reply with botio. Botio. Yeah. And what is botio? It means like, why didn't you ask me? Why can't I join? Okay, okay. Botio. You know? Botio. Yeah. So it's like botio with an exclamation mark. And if you want to say like you are really embarrassed by something, you say paiseh. Paiseh. Use it in a sentence. Just try. I'm so paiseh with my baldness. It's correct. Well done paiseh. Yeah. So if you want to take away something, food and all that kind of stuff, you say dapao. Dapao. Yeah. So basically dapao. It's Chinese. Dapao. But it's like tapau. No, it's not. It's like it's Chinese. It's Chinese. Yeah, but everyone use it. So you have like, you go to a food stall and you say, auntie, chicken rice dapao. Chicken rice dapao. Yeah. Chicken rice to go. To go. Okay. Yeah. Chicken rice dapao. And the next one will be donila. Donila. Do you get what it means? Yes. Yes? Yeah. Donila. Yeah. So like, do you want me to pack everything for you? Donila. So it means no? No. Yeah. La, la don't really mean anything. La is just like to make it sound more casual, more Singaporean. So you just add la to like sentences. Donila. Yeah. I eat already la. Yeah. So I'm like done. Okay. Let's go over there la. Let's go. Let's go la. Yeah. Let's go la. So like in Singlish, everything is shortened quite a lot. Okay. Yeah. So you cut phrases, English phrases down. Yeah. You just cut it down. Everything. Kiasu. It's a dialect. So it basically means someone that is unnecessarily competitive. Okay. Yeah. How was Jason eating just now? Kiasu. He was being really kiasu. Kiasu. Yeah. He was competing with me. He was trying to eat all the food. Yeah. Jason is very kiasu la. Kiasu la. Okay. So he's very competitive. Kiasu la. Boleh. It's Malay. So it means can. Can. Like okay. Okay. Boleh. Welcome to Singapore. La. Guys, if you like this video, please give it a thumbs up, comment below, and subscribe. If you know any other words in Singlish, leave us a comment below. Hey, thank you so much. La. Is there a thank you? Is there a same thing? No, thanks. So thank you, la. No, it doesn't work that way.