“I speak good English lah!”

There are four official languages in Singapore: English, Mandarin, Malay and Tamil, English being the lingua franca which everybody has to learn in school. However, when you first leave the safe haven of your hotel/apartment to explore the city, communication can be difficult. It’s not like the taxi drivers and hawker stall vendors don’t speak English. They do, but it’s mostly Singlish, which is Singapore’s unofficial language and real lingua franca. It’s basically an English dialect, stripped of verb tenses, adverbs and other complicated stuff and enriched with some Chinese, Malay and Tamil words. Add a Chinese accent and a few words like “lah”, “meh” and “ayah” which convey nothing but emphasis and there you have it. You’re now ready to say things like: “What you wan?” “Why you like tat?” and “Everything see must buy lah!”