A Question of Language
I have been a secret reader of Rockson's blog for some time now. Of course now that I've blogged it, its no longer a secret. I have so much fun reading that blog; he says all the politically incorrect things I secretly think and he says in the most politically incorrect way possible. You won't believe how thrilled and amused I was by the NKF post.Given that I'm probably the most un-streetwise person most of my friends will ever encounter, the blog was a real eye opener, language wise anyway.
I still recall the look on my boyfriend's face when I first asked him what "knnccb" stood for. Poor boy, he laughed until he literally had a tummyache while trying to explain it. But having now heard the full expression and also many many more from Rockson's terribly educational blog( all of which I had to ask my friends the meaning of), I now think that Hokkien is the best language ever for swearing. Its phraseology and enunciation carry the greatest impact and communicates the maximum amount of malevolence. There is this visceral strength to its vowels and it somehow even manages to be alliterative as well.The Cantonese "tiu lei *****" doesn't quite cut it, in fact, beside the vituperative might of hokkien insults, the cantonese ones sound almost genteel.
Which is why I was mildly perturbed by Ephraim Loy's letter complaining about the blog and the way it was featured in Lime magazine. With all due respect, if one is old enough to read Lime, one probably already knows how to say "sh*t' and 'F***' so adding a few hokkien words to the stable probably won't make a whole lot of difference. Besides, I happen to like the thoroughly Singlish way in which Rockson writes and the vulgarities give it a flavour it wouldn't otherwise have.
Rockson writes exactly like the way alot of people on the street speak and while its not pretty, it is significantly more interesting than the blandness of politically correct and pure english/ chinese. A couple of decades ago, the government made a move toward 'encouraging' Singaporeans to speak more Mandarin and less dialect and until the recent SARS problem, I'd literally never heard dialect spoken on national television.Same goes for the move to eradicate Singlish from television and radio as speaking 'good english' is supposed to be encouraged.
Thing is that languages tend to evolve and develop. There aren't many places in the world where supposedly pure English is spoken; everyone who adopts the English language adds their own stuff to it. An easy example is the Aussie word for a quilt which is a 'doona' and their word for some kind of outdoor toilet is a 'dunny'. That's how a language like Creole evolved into being, a mix of French, English and African. The mixture is what makes the language so interesting and varied.
But I do know that my saying all this makes no difference. Rockson is likely to go on being lambasted in certain quarters as being low brow, ah beng and vulgar anyway. But in case Rockson ever has to justify himself and his language before our loving men in white, I've come up with a brilliant idea for him.
You see, I've noticed recently that certain Hokkien swear words are actually perfectly innocent in Japanese. "kani nabe" is suddenly shorn of its vulgarity when one realized that it actually means crab hotpot in Jap!CRAB HOTPOT! So go ahead, scream it from the rooftops if you like, just tell people that you're ordering crab hotpot extra large and loud. There is also the additional dish called "Nabeyaki Udon" if you're interested; the name sounds bad, but the dish itself is pretty yummy and you get the added pleasure of ordering it and saying 'nabeh' legitimately.
Oh, and there is an actual Japanese subway station named "Shite". Really, I'm not kidding! You can go look it up! I was so impressed by the significance of the station. I realised that Japanese is a language just filled with possibilities. Why, every other swear word could have its lovely innocent Japanese counterpart! Its the perfect reason to go learn the language!
So excuse me while I go and watch more Naruto. (Watching anime is sure to help me learn more words and besides even the Jap word for idiot sounds cute) After all the shite I had to go through in school today, I really need some R & R.
Oops, did I just say shite?Must be lapsing into Jap already!
My goodness, those Japanese lessons are definitely coming along. I just knew watching Naruto was a surefire way of picking it up!
I still recall the look on my boyfriend's face when I first asked him what "knnccb" stood for. Poor boy, he laughed until he literally had a tummyache while trying to explain it. But having now heard the full expression and also many many more from Rockson's terribly educational blog( all of which I had to ask my friends the meaning of), I now think that Hokkien is the best language ever for swearing. Its phraseology and enunciation carry the greatest impact and communicates the maximum amount of malevolence. There is this visceral strength to its vowels and it somehow even manages to be alliterative as well.The Cantonese "tiu lei *****" doesn't quite cut it, in fact, beside the vituperative might of hokkien insults, the cantonese ones sound almost genteel.
Which is why I was mildly perturbed by Ephraim Loy's letter complaining about the blog and the way it was featured in Lime magazine. With all due respect, if one is old enough to read Lime, one probably already knows how to say "sh*t' and 'F***' so adding a few hokkien words to the stable probably won't make a whole lot of difference. Besides, I happen to like the thoroughly Singlish way in which Rockson writes and the vulgarities give it a flavour it wouldn't otherwise have.
Rockson writes exactly like the way alot of people on the street speak and while its not pretty, it is significantly more interesting than the blandness of politically correct and pure english/ chinese. A couple of decades ago, the government made a move toward 'encouraging' Singaporeans to speak more Mandarin and less dialect and until the recent SARS problem, I'd literally never heard dialect spoken on national television.Same goes for the move to eradicate Singlish from television and radio as speaking 'good english' is supposed to be encouraged.
Thing is that languages tend to evolve and develop. There aren't many places in the world where supposedly pure English is spoken; everyone who adopts the English language adds their own stuff to it. An easy example is the Aussie word for a quilt which is a 'doona' and their word for some kind of outdoor toilet is a 'dunny'. That's how a language like Creole evolved into being, a mix of French, English and African. The mixture is what makes the language so interesting and varied.
But I do know that my saying all this makes no difference. Rockson is likely to go on being lambasted in certain quarters as being low brow, ah beng and vulgar anyway. But in case Rockson ever has to justify himself and his language before our loving men in white, I've come up with a brilliant idea for him.
You see, I've noticed recently that certain Hokkien swear words are actually perfectly innocent in Japanese. "kani nabe" is suddenly shorn of its vulgarity when one realized that it actually means crab hotpot in Jap!CRAB HOTPOT! So go ahead, scream it from the rooftops if you like, just tell people that you're ordering crab hotpot extra large and loud. There is also the additional dish called "Nabeyaki Udon" if you're interested; the name sounds bad, but the dish itself is pretty yummy and you get the added pleasure of ordering it and saying 'nabeh' legitimately.
Oh, and there is an actual Japanese subway station named "Shite". Really, I'm not kidding! You can go look it up! I was so impressed by the significance of the station. I realised that Japanese is a language just filled with possibilities. Why, every other swear word could have its lovely innocent Japanese counterpart! Its the perfect reason to go learn the language!
So excuse me while I go and watch more Naruto. (Watching anime is sure to help me learn more words and besides even the Jap word for idiot sounds cute) After all the shite I had to go through in school today, I really need some R & R.
Oops, did I just say shite?Must be lapsing into Jap already!
My goodness, those Japanese lessons are definitely coming along. I just knew watching Naruto was a surefire way of picking it up!
posted by adinahaes at 12:17 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home