I was raised in a Mandarin-speaking household. At a very young age, I learnt Math from my parents in Mandarin. In school, I realised the advantage of bilingual mathematical thinking: Mandarin numerals, fractions and certain operations are more concrete so I can solve problem sets easily by Google translating my early Math problems to Mandarin. I sometimes wonder if I count predominantly in Mandarin or English.
I deeply appreciate the affordance of our multilingual inventory to promote closeness. When we converse with close friends or the elderly, our language becomes a rojak (1) of multiple languages, as if to signal our shared linguistic and cultural identity. As we intentionally (or implicitly) relate to one another with an “imperfect” form of English, we feel a deep sense of connection. And who hasn’t resorted to a small dose of diglossic magic (2) with an aunty to request a favour? It feels as though the proportion of Mandarin, Hokkien, Malay and Tamil we use in our “English” conversation correlates with how closely we identify with our interlocutors (3).
The ease of coordinating multiple languages in a meaningful stream of conversation never hit home until I moved to the United States for my graduate studies. I was not aware of the ease I have been code switching, and the burden on the listener to comprehend my message. I doubt I will ever forget the look of awe and frustration on my friends’ faces when we first met. They could never understand how Singaporeans could form a cryptic sentence with 5 languages! Conversely, I have also found the lack of translation-equivalents frustrating. There are some emotions that cannot be captured perfectly with a translated English word or phrase!
Dr Defu Yap is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the BLIP Lab, working on links between the senses and education-related topics.
(1) rojak (n.) ‘mix’
(2) diglossic (adj.) of, or pertaining to the use of two or more linguistic systems
see also. diglossic magic – switching between systems like a boss!
(3) interlocutor (n.) a fancy way of saying, ‘the people we are talking to’
