Rapid Travel Chai

To celebrate Singapore National Day on August 9, select Jetstar Singapore flights will have Singlish service in addition to English, reports The Monocle Minute. It will be great fun to be on one of these flights and try to figure out what the heck is going on.

I first encountered Singlish as a college sophomore advising a group of freshman from Singapore. It draws on influences from China (primarily Hokkien), India, their regional neighbors, the UK and just about everything else. When talking among themselves I had no idea what they were saying and it took a while for me to understand them in non-Singlish English. I still find it among the most difficult forms of English for me to comprehend.

This builds on an April Fool’s joke that Jetstar was switching to Singlish and that passengers could request English if unable to cope.

Readers, can you understand Singlish?