Post date: May 5, 2014 9:53:51 PM
30th April 2013
My topic is Singlish, but before researching Singlish, I thought that it is necessary to know about Singapore. So at this time, I researched mainly about Singapore and why Singlish was born in Singapore.
For a long time, Singapore was under British colonial rule. Since 1819 to 1965, British East India Company had dominated Singapore. Since then, Singapore developed to be an important place for trade in Asia. After that, in 1965, Singapore became independent from British. During this colonial rule, Singapore accepted so many immigrants from many countries; India, Ceylon, Japan, China, and other neighboring countries. Because of this, now about half of population in Singapore is from China. Also, about 30% of Singaporeans are British. So there are 4 official languages in Singapore. They are English, Mandarin Chinese, Malay, and Tamil. I can say that Singapore is in diversity. In other words, there are many people from many countries, many cultures, and many languages. Some people say that in order to develop the country, English started to be used. Especially, it is said that more and more people started to use English since the independence from British. This is the birth of Singlish.
As I mentioned, I could grasp the outlines about Singapore and Singlish. However, I did not want to know just about Singlish. Singlish is one of examples. The big question is ‘why was English chosen and used as an official language? ’ I want to research and think deeply about the necessity of official languages (especially Singlish) to integrate the country. Moreover, I am also interested in the functions of immigration. Why British encouraged immigration? What was the purpose of British? These are my further questions for developing my research. I will find connections between language and immigration in this cycle.
290words 20minutes
References
Singapore English| Richard Nordquist| About.com Guide| date not available
Singapore Colloquial English (Singlish)| Anthea Fraser Gupta| Hawaii University| date not available
About Singapore| auther not available|singapore expats| date not available