How to Bashing Man in Singlish

After a girl talk at a lunch with two Singaporean ladies, the novelist Rosie Milne ventured some awkward questions. She was being fed delightedly by her lunch companions. Not the foods, as Rosie dutifully reported at the Telegraph, but man bashing.

There is nothing unusual for girls to bashing men behind their back. Actually, something is wrong if they don't. What is unusual for this particular girl talk is that Rosie was taught to bash man in a colorful language called Singlish.

Here is how one of her companions defined Singlish:

“It’s a bit like a rojak, is Singlish” said one of the Singaporean Luscious Ladies, using the Singlish word for salad - an actual rojak is a mixture of vegetables and fried snacks, served with a sweet, spicy sauce.

No doubt they were eating. Then they quickly moved on to man bashing, in Singlish:

Like a schoolboy looking up rude words in the dictionary, I asked these Polyglot Paragons to teach me a few phrases of Singlish that I shouldn’t know.

They kicked off by teaching me a mild insult often used of hen-pecked husbands. These unfortunates are apparently described as Kiasu-kaici-kaibor – three words spoken all in a rush, as though they were one.

It all went downhill from there. You can read the complete article here to get the full flavor.