WEBVTT

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We all know the value of the new.

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The new changes our lives;

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it engineers progress;

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it shapes the future.

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But what is the new?

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When we first meet the new,

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it's always never quite
what we expected it to be like.

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It feels useless;

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it feels threatening;

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it feels disruptive to the way
we normally run our lives.

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It always feels easier, better
to do without the new.

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Today, I want to talk
about the new in language.

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Language, by definition, is something old.

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The age of language itself
secures for it two things:

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firstly, a stable community of speakers,

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and secondly, a stable,
consistent manner of use.

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That means the two things being

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people who will speak
this language together

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and people who know
what is the vocabulary,

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the syntax,

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the structures of the language

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and know how to communicate
with each other.

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So today, I want to talk
about Singlish, can?

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(Laughs)

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(Laughter)

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(Applause)

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[SINGLISH]

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Over the years, Singlish ah,
has 'kena' a lot of bad press

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from the government, from the schools,

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from a lot of sectors, you know,
who believe in English.

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We don't get the sense
of what the broader use of Singlish is

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other than, you know, you just buy food
from the 'kopitiam' or the hawker centre

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or trying to find the 'jamban' after that
when you 'kena' food poisoning.

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(Laughter)

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It feels too 'kampung',
the use of Singlish.

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It seems to be at odds

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with our Singaporean
pursuit of excellence,

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pursuit of economic progress
in the international world.

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So is Singlish the enemy of English?

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Is it the enemy of business English?

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But, you see, in this stigmatisation,

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what we all fail to notice

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is that Singlish may well not be
a creature of the old.

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What if it's the creature of the new?

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Here are three thoughts
I want to share with you this evening.

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Firstly, Singlish is only as old
as the concept of multicultural Singapore.

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That means there has been no Singlish

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before there was
a multicultural Singapore,

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and it cannot not exist

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as long as we, as Singaporeans,
remain multicultural.

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There are two fundamental
pillars of Singlish.

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And this is, firstly, 'kampung' life.

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Because in 'kampung' life -

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which is village life, when Singapore
was not as progressive decades ago -

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diverse people
would talk across languages.

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People from different communities
would learn how other people speak

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and then communicate with them by means
of how he or she knows how to speak.

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Secondly, there is commerce.

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And commerce is a way in which
people from different countries,

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different communities outside Singapore

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find a way to meet,

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to exchange things,

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to buy things,

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to sell things.

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But also, through those,

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they achieve a kind of common goal
of trying to understand each other.

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So people come into contact.

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Now, as far as our 'same-same' future
is about building some global 'kampung',

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or some global village,

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Singlish is actually very relevant.

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The future, if you stop to think about it,

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will actually sound a lot like Singlish
rather than English.

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[#2 Singlish globalises.]

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Secondly, Singlish is a version
of a global language.

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Speakers of Singlish do this:

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they find something
in their own stem language

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that can overcome
its own language barrier.

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So what we do

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is that in the language
that we normally speak,

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we move from the inward-looking part

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and we move to the borders,
to the accessible, outward-looking part,

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and there create communication

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with other people
from a different language sector.

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Singlish is therefore very open
to the involvement of other languages

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and to the developments within languages.

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It is more able to do
what we call 'potong jalan' ah,

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which is 'potong' - 'cut' -

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'jalan' means 'walk'.

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You 'potong jalan' across
distinct grammars and syntaxes.

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You create a way where previously
there was no way to communicate.

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Is this not how English itself developed

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and become the global language
of our time today?

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After all, English
has developed for 1,500 years

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by absorbing German,
Celtic, Latin, French,

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and words from different British colonies
like Singapore and Malaysia and India.

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If you look at how English developed,

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it shifts.

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It began as Old English,

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500 to 1100 AD,

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to Middle English,

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which was spoken 1100 AD to 1500 AD,

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to Early Modern English

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during the 17th century
to the 19th century,

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and arriving at what we get now,

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which is English
in the 20th century onwards.

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In other words, English itself
hasn't been stable -

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it's also always changing.

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Do you know, for example,

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that the words 'one',
'two', 'three' in English

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came long ago from the German words
'eins', 'zwei', 'drei'?

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Did you know, for example,

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that less than three lifetimes
of Singlish ago,

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people were still saying
'thou art' and 'thee'?

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Today, we say 'you are'
and 'you' and 'I', right?

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And also, notice that in Singlish itself,

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the words that we have
are always changing,

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and that is an interesting aspect.

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You never expect to see this
on a TED stage, ah?

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(Laughter)

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We have the Malay word 'hentam'.

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It became 'hantam' at some stage.

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And now we say 'hum-tum', right?

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The word is changing.

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We say 'puncit' in Malay.

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And then at some point
we say 'puncik', with a 'K'.

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And now we say 'pumchek'.

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We say 'ah, but then' a long time ago
as a way to show disbelief or - you know.

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But now, we say 'arbuthen'.

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(Laughter)

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And also consider how Singlish
is about mixing different words together.

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So the word 'buay tahan' -

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the phrase 'buay tahan' we use,

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which means 'I cannot stand it anymore',

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comes from, in part, Hokkien,

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in part, Malay.

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We have the word 'relak one corner' -

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which was what I was doing before this -

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(Laughter)

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which is one part Malay, one part English.

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And then we have 'steady pom pi pi',

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which means ah, 'very good ah, excellent',

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like a lot of TED speeches so far.

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'Steady' is English;
'pom pi pi' is Hokkien.

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So, you know, in this,
we see that Singlish is evolving,

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and that is my third point.

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Singlish's evolution actually proves
its trend towards a more global form.

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Because why?

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(Applause)

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Singlish is still changing.

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And because it's still changing,

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it's open to influences from any source
it comes into contact with.

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A finished language
is useless to outsiders.

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A finished language has no future

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in a multicultural society

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because a multicultural language
resides between languages.

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Singlish's openness and its fluidity
is therefore actually its strength.

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But yet because of its shifting status,

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Singlish lends itself very often
to being treated badly

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by people who don't understand
what it's actually doing.

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They think it's teaching
our kids bad English;

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they think it's doing all sorts
of horrible things to people's minds.

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It is reflecting and encouraging
the psychic interaction among people.

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More than we believe, therefore,

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Singlish needs our support
and our love now.

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(Applause)

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We have, in Singlish,

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a very unique, powerful,
and unconscious national invention.

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I don't think anyone
actually set out to plan this.

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It may well prove to be
our Singaporean one national resource

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in a country that doesn't have any.

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(Laughter)

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Singlish may well be
our great contribution

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to the world of inventions
and to the world of languages.

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It is practical,

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it's good-natured,

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it's funny,

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it's self-deprecating,

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it's succinct,

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it's futuristic,

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it's identity-clarifying,

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it's communal,

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and, most importantly,

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it's people-powered.

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With Singlish, if you therefore
dare to keep your heart on it -

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while, of course, speaking good English -

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we can help make ourselves
into the hub of how the future speaks.

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So I'd like to thank you today.

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(Laughs)

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As we would say,
I hope you enjoy the time here.

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And in Singlish, we say 'song bo'?

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Audience: 'Song!'

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Thank you.

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(Applause)