How Phua Chu Kang's Singlish Catchphrases Stirred A National Controversy
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 ม.ค. 2022
- Phua Chu Kang is Singapore’s longest-running sitcom with over 160 episodes across 8 seasons from 1997 to 2007. The series revolves around an eccentric contractor and his family, Singaporeans who used Singlish catchphrases like "don't play play!" and "use your blain!" liberally.
But back in the 90s, then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong called out the use of Singlish in PCK, during his National Day Rally speech.
When the cast of Phua Chu Kang was reunited for an episode of #OnTheRedDot, actor Gurmit Singh revealed that he was so worried that he was ready to migrate. Some wondered if the show would be cancelled.
The PCK production team made changes to the show - like tweaking "abuden" to "ah but then", and had Phua Chu Kang attend an English course.
The beloved TV character and his catchphrases have been featured in Public Service Announcement (PSA) music videos. In 2003, Phua Chu Kang rapped about SARS and in 2020, about COVID-19 in ‘Singapore Be Steady’ (lyrics included ‘‘Our frontline workers, don’t play play.")
Watch the full episode of Phua Chu Kang Reunion: How's Singapore's Favourite Contractor?: • Phua Chu Kang Reunion:...
WATCH more ‘reunions’ of popular TV series on #OnTheRedDot:
Under One Roof & Growing Up: • Family Reunion: Under ...
Singapore Idol: • Video
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Pierre Png was cryogenically frozen under ice for the last 15 years...his face looks the same from the last show...
Got age abit lah, last time he look like he early 20s, now he look early 40s
@@MrBoliao98 lol he looks older in the show compared to now
For me as an outsider it feels genuinely weird people are - or were - so concerned about singlish.
To me, it is really quite charming, even though I do not get some of the finer workings. I ask friends about the use of some phrases and they are like "it's hard to explain" xD
But I just like the sound of it.
Of course, kids still should grow up learning proper english, but I really do not think that one prevents the other. The way I see singlish, from outside, it is part of the cultural identity, of the heritage. Something worth to be preserved.
That aside, youths also have their own language, their own words and terms from generation to generation, unrelated to education. At least has been like that in every place I have been to.
Actually I agree, but today, things got worse. People blame foreigners (like me, and I heard others also experienced similar situations) for not using Singlish. My email was ignored (while I got replies from the US), they claimed they didn’t receive, or they couldn’t understand (because I wrote only English). And when the work was not done - whose fault? Me!
Even worse, since covid I think businesses care less about customer-facing rep, one Subway staff corrected me “lettews” loudly till I felt like she wanted to humiliate me. And you know, it’s not English.
Using at home or with friends is good and should be preserved, but using Singlish as weapon to attack others is not acceptable.
@@RatinanLee Yeah stuff like that sucks and got nothing to do with preserving a cultural heritage and everything to do with people being flat out asshats.
(and potentially bigots)
It is kinda sad, cuz while Singapore surely has some issues too, all in all I think it still is one of the better examples of people from different cultures and walks of life coming together, creating something special, showing it can be done.
Surely not without friction, but all in all in a peaceful and respectful way.
Just wish, we as a people, as human beings could finally move on from stuff like that and just treat each other with understanding and kindness.
OR, at the very least, judge one another not based on superficial factors but based on merit and actions.
But alas...there always are such people too.
And don't get me wrong, I feel issues like those need to be addressed, but we must not let it prevent us from striving to create something better.
Albeit I do realize it is more easily said than done, at times.
Wish you the very best!
@@vaisravana2092 one bad thing about this video is the offensive comment about using Singlish to connect to people, everyone in Singapore.
It’s not only me who felt offended, my friend very first response was also the same after I sent him the link. And it seems like none of the Singaporeans realized that this video is more harmful than good and none of them responded accordingly.
To me, this is discrimination because I felt like they are not including foreigners in their definition of “people”. And this is very disturbing.
@@RatinanLee Have you given any thought that perhaps your encounter with a customer-facing rep may be a foreigner or PR from Malaysia or the Phillipines? Singapore as an international business hub does take in plenty of foreign workers who may speak different variants of English heavily accented with Filipino or Malaysian.
@@midnightsun1728 You think I can't differentiate Singlish from Manglish or Filipino English? Read it well; I got the insult and the blame from the company I resigned from years ago.
Singlish shows that Singaporea has a multitude of races.
Don’t play play in the ear of PM is bad.
But in modern world,
Don’t play play is not harsh words.
Phua Chu Kang gave my childhood happiness in Malaysia.
To PM Singapore,
I am 50 years old now,
I didn’t become bad girl after hearing don’t play play 👼
Seriously? The reason they were so widely accepted is because they are the way the misch-masch of languages in Singapore are thrown around!
For facts that's what people are talking outside. You like it or not, it's already there. Singlish for Singapore and manglish for Malaysia, we all understand wan. We're so kanchong and speak whatever in our otak. Dun play play ya.
ya lor. our identity mah. when u hear some people speaking manglish or singlish abroad, you feel like you're home.
Is it ESM Goh blaming PCK on children failing English?
When you need to reminisce the old shows, just go to show we don't have as good of a show these days.
To be honest, I thought this video would have the government views on Singlish.
Hmm
EMOTIONAL DAMAGE
Not being able to communicate in Singlish = you could be blamed or rejected from workplaces already. Believe it or not I got the blame after the small team in Singapore ignored my email because it was written in English. Despite the reply from American team, Singaporean still blamed me for not using Singlish and they don't understand!
This is too much already. You have to be able to use proper English in business settings, too. Don't just use Singlish every day and night and insult people who never use Singlish stupid and blame them for not being able to communicate.
Hasn't your mother taught you not to tell lies? Singaporeans mostly speak English quite well. Plenty of Singaporeans gain admission to universities in the Anglosphere and successfully graduate from them annually. Most have no issues with proper English. There is no way that your email is being ignored just for using English, the department you're writing to is probably short on staff or burdened with way too many emails to reply to.
I honestly have NO problem with Singlish (even though I don't know too much slang from it). It's just a sitcom anyways, not an English course - USE YOUR BRAIN and live a little!
Let this go in their head
when in rome do as the romans
when in singapore do as the singaporeans
when in thailand do as the thais
dont live in your 'foreignerness' bubble when in other country.
you adapt to local culture/language, not the way round.
if after a period of time while you live in foreign country and still not able to adapt then the problem lies with you.
*singlish/manglish just slightly different from english. just add/replace some english words with hokkien, cantonese, mly words. singlish/manglish and english both using same roman alphabets. basic sentence structures remain the same. it's not like thai and english.
why no problem with 'ain't' , 'wanna', 'gonna', 'shoulda' etc where they are also slang words.
Hear hear ah
1:30 that's why PM Lee era have a song about mindfulness teaching us to do or say the right thing like in the song This is Home Truly.
1:37 Tanya Chua singer
Give
St 💄🏡
Get 🏡🏢
imagine a singaporean speaking in a fluent n Britain accent english will kena hamtam..for acting abc...being local behave local
He crashed Yuu with his song , he crashed our English language with his 3rd grade intelligence, he crashed shopee with that childish voice, he is killing anything he touches.
Singlish is just bad English
Agree. It’s ok to use at home, but once at work, with foreigners, stop using it.
LISTEN CAREFULLY!
Can connect with everybody? SINGLISH is NOT everything and PRs and other foreigners can’t use it. If you say that you can connect with every people using Singlish, then you are not welcoming, you are rejecting those people who come to Singapore, who help Singapore build its economy.
And you just clearly stated that you don’t count these people “people” because they can’t connect with you using Singlish.
I FEEL OFFENDED!
Because I can’t use Singlish.
When I reached the end of it, I can’t help but asked myself did they count me as “people”?
Do you know that in Thailand, อย่าเล่น means “be serious” or “don’t mess up”, and it literally means “don’t play play”, too! But you know what, if you use “don’t play play” in Thailand, people will say that you are “stupid”. Use incorrect English is ok, but don’t transliterate the language because it’s not understandable.
What in the world are you raving about? Singlish represents localized English in which a whole generation of Singaporeans grew up with when they tuned in to this program after work and school. Since PRs and foreigners never did watch this family favorite, of course it is natural for you to be unable to identify with elements shown in this program. While Singaporeans are generally open to foreigners, we do not expect you to completely become one of us in such a short amount of time being here, and then proceed to impose your cultural values on us. If you're truly keen on exploring in-depth a somewhat fictionalized Singaporean culture, along with its gaffes, then I suggest you to watch the entire series to enlighten yourself further.