Alamak... Don't get it? Good communication is more than grammar

From Singlish to emojis, the rules of language are shifting. Drama may just be the training ground for students in real-world communication.

- Ee Ling Low, Nora Samosir and Lionel Wee

Recently, the oft-mentioned "alamak" and "tapau" were among a list of words deemed untranslatable that were added to the Oxford English Dictionary. It will come as news to anyone who has ever gasped in exasperation or taken their lunch to go. This also reminds us of a news report back in November 2024 that stood out: The Singapore Civil Defence Force is training an artificial intelligence (AI) model to handle incoming calls and medical emergencies using Singlish.

These are very interesting developments because they remind us of an important fact: Effective communication requires being adaptable. This means knowing how to adapt the way we use language according to the topic, the people we are interacting with, and whether we are communicating through speech, in writing or online via social media. Being competent in just one variety of English, even if that variety happens to be standard international English, is simply not good enough.

An AI model limited to standard international English will not be intelligible to those who are not familiar with this variety. Its inability to adapt will reinforce the perception that it is robotic and unemotional. This problematic perception applies even more so when the speaker is human.

The inability or unwillingness to adapt one's variety of English gives the impression that the speaker is socially awkward and perhaps even insincere. Someone who uses the exact same greeting ("Hello, how are you?") all the time — when interacting with a new acquaintance, with old friends, or even with family members — will soon have to deal with questions about whether there is something socially odd about them.