People Talk Funny

And, no, I don't mean because of any obvious Asian language barriers.  This is all due to the fact that Singapore is a former British colony, so there are lots of British ways of speaking.

- Keen.  As in, "Are you keen for dinner tonight?" Or in American "Do you want to go to dinner tonight?"
- Fancy.  Similar to "keen." "Do you fancy a drink?"
- Posh.  I would typically say "fancy," but that's now been replaced by "posh."
- Lift AKA Elevator.
- Bin AKA Trash Can, which leads us to...
- Rubbish AKA Trash or garbage
- Toilet.  This is quite literal, but it still grosses me out.  "Little girls' room" has a much better ring to it.
- Return AKA round-trip.  When booking a flight, no one says "Oh yea it was $200 round-trip."  It's ..."$200 return."
- Quite.  They just say this quite a lot.
- Flat AKA apartment
- Air-con AKA A/C.  Just a funny way to shorten "air conditioning"
- Holiday AKA vacation
- Opposite AKA across the street
- Cheeky.  Meaning something rude or disrespectful.
- Take away AKA to-go
- Booking (often subbed for "reservation")
- Give way AKA yield
- Alighting AKA....disembarking?  One should "give way" to "alighting" passengers before boarding.
- Queue AKA line

These are all small, and things we've likely heard before, but I always have to pause for a second or two and make sure I know what people are saying.  I'm getting the hang of it though.  Next comes spelling things like "favourite" and "specialise" -- even professional emails from Americans/native English speakers have words spelled like this.

Oh, yea.  And there is Singlish, which would qualify as one of those typical Asian language barriers, but it's almost English, too....hence, SINGLISH.

- Ah then -- "and what else"
- Don't shy -- "don't be shy"
- Don't play play -- telling someone to take you seriously
- Shake leg -- for people who can't sit still (I'm looking at you, Schaefer)
- Fatty pom pom -- to make fun of people who are overweight
- Fly aeroplane -- if someone stands you up
- Sorry no cure -- when you don't want to accept someone's apology
- Confirm and can -- just used to say that you can do something.  "Can, lah!"
- LAH -- added to the end of every sentence just for fun to add emphasis
[So many more of these...when I learn more, I'll pass them on.]

So, when I come home sounding completely different, perhaps you will understand :)