I was surprised to see a show called Kopitiam in the ‘Nostalgia’ category on Netflix. I was intrigued – was it a show from Singapore? No, it was Malaysian. Oh, but I wanted something Singaporean.
Nevertheless, sometime in the hazy year that was 2020, I mentioned the show to VK and we decided to start watching it. To my utter delight, I enjoyed it thoroughly – not because it’s particularly funny (it’s a sitcom about a bunch of people, Chinese, Malay and Indian, hanging out at a Kopitiam [a coffee shop] all the time, run by two of them). I love it because I hear Singlish – ok, technically not Singlish because it’s Malaysian English, but they’re so similar that my untrained ear can’t tell the difference!
I moved out of Singapore ten years ago, but I have fond memories of Singaporean English and I’m happy for any opportunity to hear it. A friend’s little daughter went through a phase of saying ‘aiyah!’ at the drop of a hat and I loved every second of it; I even have a voice note of the kid saying ‘aiyah’ just for me. Another friend’s daughter referred to me as ‘uhntee’ (auntie) and I didn’t even feel bad about being called auntie – even now, the memory puts a wide smile on my face.
While in Singapore, especially in my early years in college, I tried my best to learn as many Singlish words as I could, though I never quite managed the accent (a South African classmate, on the other hand, was pro and would often be asked to say this and that in Singlish). Helped generously by my Singaporean classmates, I expanded my vocabulary slowly, even writing a blog post that to this day is one of the most popular ones on my old blog!
So imagine my delight when I get to hear it all through an episode of Kopitiam! Words I haven’t heard in years. The accent that make me feel happy and nostalgic, and sends a wave of fondness within – ‘eh Steevuhn!’ (hey Steven!) or a ‘three’ that sounds more like ‘tree’. Every now and then I eagerly translate for VK (never mind that he mostly doesn’t ask), proudly explaining the words kacang, chope or tai tai, although I was surprised to hear Steven address someone respectfully as tai tai, because I thought it was only used to mock someone. Hearing kiasu being used to describe the Singaporean in the show feels both stereotypical and heartwarming. I labour to explain kiasu to VK using an example given by a classmate (or was it a professor?!) – kiasu students make sure they’ve checked out the semester’s books from the library as soon as they get hold of the readings list I talk about teh tarik, teh halia and kopi-o-kosong, fueled by the conversations on the show; it is set in a kopitiam, after all.
My favourite Singlish moment on the show though was when it brought back a word from the depths of my memory: boleh! I was so excited to hear it that for days afterward my mind went back to that scene, where the bunch decides to save their kopitiam from being beaten by their swanky new neighbour, Dome.
I’ve always loved the ease with which many Singaporeans effortlessly switch between ‘good’ English and Singlish. The government ran campaigns on speaking ‘good’ English, but Singlish is too convenient and ingrained for it to go. I enjoyed the language enough to make a campaign ‘Save Singlish’ for one of my assignments.
My earliest memory of Singlish is from my first year of college, when as part of a course on public speaking, my group decided to extol the benefits of regular medical check-ups. My job was to introduce and end the speech, and being the only foreigner in the group, we somehow decided that there would be a fair bit of Singlish in my part of the speech. It took me a few tries to get my lines and the intonations right, but the class of nearly-90 was in splits. I’d performed rather badly in the ‘Singapore Society’ course the same year, but this speech made me feel like I could be a part of the city-state.