Talkative Thursday - A case of the Redundant GOT

I was enjoying my lunch in a food court, alone.  Along came a lady & a man to join me at the next table.  While they were eating, they were gossiping too.  I was tuning the radar in my ears to catch the gossip, glad to have some entertainment while I enjoy my bowl of noodle.

Lady : "Wah!  This XXX is on MC (medical leave) today.  Tomorrow is our payday, wonder she do it already or not."

Man : "Ya... She's is always on MC lah."

Lady : "Aiya, she is quite weak.  I told her to go TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine), dunno if she got go or not."

I cringed when I hear that word... Its like someone scratching the blackboard with the fingernails, making that eerie sharp high pitch sound that sends chills down your spine or goosebumps all over you.

Its one thing to blabber on with our notorious Singlish but to speak like this is really unacceptable; well, at least to me.  I don't even know if I can say that its direct translation from Chinese to English as its even not the correct translated word in the correct tense.  I am not perfect in my English both written & spoken, I blabber Singlish to others too but as long as I can remember I have never spoken or written in direct translation or broken English unless I am doing it purposely or use that word in such a manner.  I was taught by my primary school teacher to speak proper English which includes sticking out your tongue just in between your teeth to pronounce "Th".

Have you guess what is that "offending" word?

Its the word GOT.  So what is the meaning of GOT?  Here is the answer I get from an online dictionary website.

Source from Dictionary.com

And here it explains about the word GET

Source from Dictionary.com

So what is the relation between GOT/GET and GO?  Obviously NONE. 

So why use "got go"?  I really have no idea.

It seems to be a "trend" to use GOT loosely (if I am allow say that).  DinoBoy has been using this a few years ago when he was just starting to speak better.  He must have picked it up from school (most likely from the classmates because I know his form teacher and those he interacts daily does not speaks this way.) as we do not speak like that at home.  I have been constantly correcting and reminding him even till today whenever he uses that word in this manner! 

"Mummy, you got bring my jacket?"

"Mummy, Teacher ask if I got bring money to pay for Friday I tell her you did not give me."

In reply I will say "GOT?" or "Say it the correctly" or I just give him one of my look which he will immediately repeat the sentence in a proper way.

Some of you may wonder where is the problem?  Well, GOT is being used to do the job of 有 - aka HAVE in English, so to speak.  Or as I mentioned earlier, GOT is being used loosely and treated as an extra most of the time.  Such injustice to both beautiful words!  Is it such a trouble or long winded to even speak in proper sentence if not English?  Let's take a look at the following grammatically correct sentences;

"don't know/dunno if she went or not."

"Mummy, did you bring my jacket?"

"Mummy, Teacher asked if I brought money to pay..."

To me, it does not make you say lesser words, in fact you say more because you added a redundant GOT in it.  So why not choose to speak proper & grammatically correct sentences?  It projects a better image of you to others, gives you self confidence (to know that you speak better then certain people), enable those English speaking people who are not exposed to our special flavoured culture to understand you better.  With this 3 plus points; I'm sure some of you can list down more, I am appalled that some people are still not speaking right.  Maybe they think its ok to speak this way since every one (read - majority of the people they interact with) seems to understand them.  Perhaps its because every one's doing it so they follow suit just to "bland in".  

What ever are their reason(s), I have nothing against them, honestly!  Hey I speak Singlish too you know!  Plus I am not in any position to judge anyone besides my son.  He is the one I should spend time to nurture and guide towards the correct path, including speaking in proper English AND Mandarin.

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