When I first came to Singapore I thought communication would
be a breeze as English is the national language. But I soon realized that
knowing English before entering Singapore is like knowing running before
entering the tennis court: it helps you to get around but not actually play.
Affection for Acronyms
The enthusiasm for abbreviating names into acronyms in the
country is unparalleled. The World Bank places Singapore no. 3 in the world in
population density (with 7,713 people per square kilometre) but if we reapplied
the measure to acronyms used in everyday life, Singapore would be world leader
in acronyms per square kilometre.
“Where’s PIE?” I asked my Singapore colleague in my early
days here. “The road signs pointing to it are very prominent.”
“It stands for Pan Island Expressway,” he explained.
“Ah!” I said. “And CTE?”
“Likewise: Central Expressway.”
“But that’s CE. What does the ‘T’ stand for?”
“For ‘Tral’, in ‘Central’. Singaporeans love three-letter
acronyms; we think two-letter ones just don’t make the cut.”
“What’s BKE?” I asked.
“Bukit Timah Expressway,” he said.
“Wrong! That’s BTE, not BKE!”
“No! The ‘K’ stands for ‘Kit’ in ‘Bukit’.”
“But why?!” I cried. “Unlike CTE, we have a perfectly
legitimate ‘T’ waiting to be used here.”
“That’s why! If we have CTE and BTE, where’s the
creativity? People would wonder if future highways would be DTE, ETE and so on. And how silly would ATE sound? People would
wonder who ate it!”
I thought if we already had a PIE, there should be no
problem if someone ATE it but I didn’t say so.
