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More than 30 years after their use was discouraged due to the Speak Mandarin campaign, dialects seem to be making a quiet comeback among an unlikely group - the young. More young Chinese Singaporeans now see dialects as an important part of their heritage, and are taking steps to make sure they will not be lost. Business undergraduate Jasmine Tan began uploading basic Teochew tutorial videos on YouTube last year. Her channel, Teochew Gaginang (which means "our own people" in the dialect), currently has 214 subscribers. "It's a way of reaching out to people," said Ms Tan, 19. "It's about cultural preservation but it's also to show people that dialects are not something uncool." The self-professed "cultural zealot" said that she started her tutorials after being inspired by another YouTube user who uploads tutorials of Native American languages in an effort to protect them from extinction. "You could call me sentimental," said Ms Tan. "But if you lose your dialect, you lose your culture." Others, like students Jeraldine Phneah and Mah Poh Ee, have even petitioned the authorities to bring dialects back on air. Ms Phneah, 22, has lived with her Hokkien-speaking grandparents since she was young. "When I listen to people speak in Hokkien, I feel a sense of closeness and warmth," she said. Ms Mah, who communicates with her family mostly in Cantonese but also speaks Hokkien and a smattering of Hakka, agreed. "I use the language to bond with my closest kin. If grandchildren can't communicate with their grandparents, that's a very sad thing," the 18-year-old said. There are also efforts to promote the use of dialects as a tool to communicate with those in the broader community. The National University of Singapore's Students' Community Service Club, for example, is experimenting with dialect tutorial videos to equip volunteers in their interactions with the elderly. The club used to hold two to three dialect workshops each academic year. However, it decided to switch to videos this year to increase outreach. "We wanted our volunteers to have a more meaningful interaction with the elderly," said Ms Kristabelle Tan, 21, the club's president. "Some are afraid to volunteer if they have no dialect skills." Ms Annie Lee, 24, who works with the Social Service Institute, has found that speaking "very fluent" Hokkien has made her job as a community relations officer easier. She recalled how she used to have difficulty conveying her thoughts to her Hokkien-speaking parents as a teenager. "I knew what I wanted to say but I couldn't verbalise it properly," she said. That was when she made a conscious effort to brush up on her Hokkien, and she now considers herself to be "very fluent" in the dialect. Ms Lee is now trying to pick up Cantonese, and has bought a Cantonese copy of social worker Koh Kuan Eng's dialect picture book. She has even purchased the Teochew and Hokkien versions of the book for her 20-month-old nephew. "Personally, I want to let dialects be passed on," she said. "I like the whole idea of continuing the legacy." Source: http://www.straitstimes.com/the-big-story/case-you-missed-it/story/young-people-speak-dialects-20131023

http://rousingreads.com/how_singaporean_are_you/ I'm below average because I got one wrong. Apparently, most people got full marks. If only Kiwifruit were still around. Wonder how we would've done?

Its fake but have a laugh ba haha http://therealsingapore.com/content/sg-f16-pilots-use-singlish-stop-us-f15-pilots-listening-during-joint-exercise Being in the Singapore Airforce for many years already. I would like to share with your readers this story of ours which makes Singlish a very powerful and unique identity for us Singaporeans. The Spore air force went to the US to take part in their Red Flag combat exercise. For the first three days, our F-16 pilots, no matter how much they planned and prepared, they were always ambushed by the USAF F-15s. Then they realized that the USAF pilots were eavesdropping on their conversations (not disallowed by the rules), so they switched from plain English to Singlish/Chinese/Malay. Suddenly the F-15s lost their magic, and for the last three days, found no way through the defensive screen set up by our F-16s. So who says Singlish got no use har?

In case you missed this..... Enjoy!!!

enjoy http://www.drjiajia.com/

If you find some words / expressions which sound Singlish but not sure about their origins, please bring them here.... for example:- The common expression "he/she is one kind...", does it originate from chinese dialect or Egnlish ??

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNsrl86inpo Does the new Siri OS5 understand Singlish? "Ang Mo Kio, how to go?" "CTE or PIE faster?" "Weather si pei hot, what temperature, ha??". :)

Saw this link on another forum.. Wah, this ang moh's singlish sipeh tok gong.. Pretty hilarious.. And yeah, the char bor also buey pai.. But the shan's singlish is totally not singlish.. It's more like buey hiao english wanna speak english.. LOL.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYsz85Z9Ho4

Singlish check this out! Singlish.WMV