Writing Task

Language in Singapore, is it a problem?

Entering in to the roots of Singlish 

   I've travelled through different countries for the past three months, and I had never found such a mix of cultures like here in Singapore. I went to eat to the coast and found myself immersed in a soup of different dialects. So I decided to interview someone who worked in the shore, and founded Shabil-Ash, a local fisherman. He told me he was an Indian descendant; his grand father arrived as an immigrant 75 years ago. I asked him about the peculiar dialect he specked, and answered “is Singlish, a mixture of English and other languages”. I wanted to get deeper in this issue, and asked “Can you identify, while speaking Singlish, if someone is Indian, or Chinese, or Malaysian?” Shabil said “of course, but sometimes is harder with the more ancient descendants”. “And how you recognize them?” I was almost forced to ask. “By their different dialects they use sometimes, for example, Chinese people end their phrases with funny terms like “lah”, “leh”, and “mah”. Sometimes is harder to understand them, but we make the effort.” Whit this information I was satisfied, so I left him with his net and his boat and travelled downtown. There, I realized that there were all kind of religions, but they still remained as the original, there wasn’t any mixture as I expected. Buddhism, Taoism, Muslims, Hindus and even Catholics, all of these different religions and more can be found in the same street. Chinese temples in a corner and a Christian church down the road. I was amazed with such a variety of cultures and religions, and how they convey. If someone comes for holydays, you will feel lost with this peculiar language at the beginning, but the knowledge you will gain justifies the effort. I strongly suggest this destination if you are a cultural tourist, because you have a wide variety of cultures in a 581, 5 km² country.