Uncle go big round

On our first date, Andrew and I hopped into a taxi to get to Marina Bay Sands, in what I thought would be a quick ride from his hotel lobby in City Hall. The driver seemed to be taking us in a big loop, so I leaned forward and asked, "Uncle, why must go one big round leh?". Andrew turned to me with the most puzzled expression, because he was wondering a) if I was related to the driver and b) why I was stringing English words together in a way that made no sense to him.

I quickly explained that in Singapore we call everyone older than us 'Uncle' and 'Aunty' as a term of respect and that we spoke a colloquial form of English called Singlish with its own unique syntax and vocabulary. He was fascinated by how easily I could code-switch from speaking Standard English to him and Singlish to everyone else, but it was (and still is) the most normal thing for me to do.

During Chinese New Year, Andrew was really excited to meet my extended family for the first time and wanted to make a good impression. However, he was extremely jetlagged and it did not help that everyone was rapidly jumping between Singlish and Mandarin and left the poor guy lost in translation. He would unconsciously switch off early into the conversation and wouldn't even know if someone had directed a question or comment at him.

The thing is, I don't speak Singlish to Andrew. I haven't made it a priority in our relationship and Singlish is something you need to be in Singapore long enough to pick up. I have been wondering how I am going to teach our kids Singlish so they don't just grow up American... but we'll cross the bridge when we get there!

P/S: I have seen this YouTube video at least a dozen times... My favourite part is when the girl picks up the phone and goes, "Ah? Mummy ah?!" because I do the exact same thing and it cracks Andrew up every time it happens!