Singlish for Idiots: Wait a while, OK?

Ju is coming to 10 months and is most adept at shrill yelling, cackles and wet razzing which leaves either the 

floor or the person next to him drenched in drool.  I don't know if he really understands language, i.e. when

he hears "Bye, Bye" does he associate that with waving, and hence waves, since he only waves maybe 8 

out of 10 times we coax him with Bye Bye and only after 5 to 10 seconds of exuberant goodbyes from 

everyone. He's started to ignore me when I yell at him to stop, but he does give me a knowing look before 

he about-turns and goes on his merry way into whichever room he is banned from. 

Today I will say a little more about the most frequently used Chinese words in our household: wait, and 

okay? And of course, more clues on our peculiar Singlish ways!

*****

Okay or not?

One of my frequent refrains to Ju is "Wait a bit, okay?". I would say:

等一下, 好吗？ or 等等, 好吗？ 

(deng yi xia, hao ma) or (deng deng, hao ma) 

好吗 (hau ma) can work as a tag to a statement.  The function of the tag is to turn the statement 等一下(wait a bit) 

into a suggestion or a request. Another way to say "is that okay?" is 好不好? which is literally "good, no good" but

translates also to "good, or not?"

This explains why Singaporeans like to use the Singlish term "okay or not?" to turn a statement into a question,

like this: "Each of us pays $10, okay or not?" instead of saying just "okay?" or "Is it okay if each of us pays $10?"

It totally makes sense because "okay or not" is the literal translation of  好不好 (okay, not okay). 

Next, to express consent and agreement, the response is usually 好  (hao) or  好啊 (hao a) with the 啊 in

neutral tone. [This also explains why in Singlish there is so much "ah"'s, it's because people are translating the  

啊 word into their English sentences.] 

*****

Wait a while, okay?

The other infamous singlish phrase is "wait a while". It is a literal translation of the Chinese 等一下 (deng yi xia).

The phrase 一下 always follows a verb (like 等, to wait) to indicate that the action expressed by the verb is 

informal and does not last long. Like such:

我看一下，好吗？ (wo kan yi xia, hao ma?)

Lit: I look, okay? 

Meaning in context: Could you let me have a look at it? 

So when I want to ask Ju to hang on to his horses and just wait a bit, I say 等一下 because I mean that he

should just wait a second or two, hence the  一下 which loosely translates to "a while". So the usual way we

would ask someone in the informal way to wait a sec is: 

等一下啦! (deng yi xia, la!) 

This is why when Singaporeans actually mean to say "Hang on a sec!" or "Wait, please", they instead say
"Wait a while lah!".