AAS (abbreviation association of Singapore)
(Baws shop: Singapore)
Singapore seems utterly obsessed with abbreviation, this being my absolute favourite example; BAWS: beer, alcohol, wine, spirits. For all the Scots out there, this hopefully makes you laugh as hard as Ying and I did when. For all those confused parties, ‘baws’ is a Scots derivative of the slang word for testicles, ‘balls’. The phenomenon isn’t limited to shops, but permeates every aspect of Singaporean life. The boy I know as Ying is actually referred to as two letters by friends and family; YT (his full name is Ying Tsao), his sister is HT and I dread to think if I have been daubed with a set of letters. RC isn’t particularly favourable.
The train is the MRT (mass rapid transit), although the government allegedly attempted to dub it ‘Mr T’ but it failed. We drove down the AYE and the PIE. The lottery is 4D, the new casino is known locally as the IR (integrated resort) and even Singapore itself is shortened to SG, as well as the first Prime Minister, Lee Kwan Yew to LKY. All the schools and colleges are referred to with brevity of two or three letters, along with galleries, theatres, hospitals, job descriptions and organisations. Where a British person might say ‘city centre’ or ‘town’, Singaporeans actually say ‘CBD’, a term I haven’t heard since I completed my General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) in Geography. Apologies, I thought that was funny.
Brilliant!!!!!
Yes, it is very interesting indeed, abbreviation is used everywhere in Singapore. I am quite puzzle too.
A lot of them I don’t understand that I need to ask Ying’s father or find out slowly, for example CNY, I first saw it at his email, I didn’t know what is it: however, think again, one should know. It seems that this is a new abbreviation used this CNY haha…
ps Y.T. and H.T. are the initials of Ying and his sister. do you call them
abbreviations?
I suppose so since they’ve been shortened to letters. Or they could be nicknames. Or abbreviated nicknames?
s o m c s baws…
hehe!
Ying Tsao is not my full name. My full name is Tan Ying Tsao and my surname is Tan.
I meant your full first name. Otherwise that would have confused everyone. Sorry everyone!