Fix this sentence.

[Snoopy]

Ok, got singlish problems here. For those who don't know what Singlish is, it's when you mix good chinese and good english together.

I myself am not local, but have been living here in Singapore long enough to know how it works.

Normally I would know how to fix a sentence written in a Singlish way, but today my brain is dead, and I thought it would be interesting to see how many variations of this sentence I can get.

So here is the sentence:


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All bank charges are to be bourne by registrant. Any short charges will be required to settle upon registration.

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So, how would you fix it?

 

[Tee Kay]

All bank charges are to be bound by registration. Any short charges will be required to settle upon registration.

I would say this is alright if not for the fact that it stil doesn't make sense

 

[History_Buff]

Well, the first part makes sense. Who ever is registering for whatever agrees to pay bank fees. But the second sentence I don't understand.

 

[Snoopy]

This was my suggestion:

Any bank charges are to be borne by registrant.
Any short charges must be settled upon registration.

I bulleted them into a list to try and seperate the sentence, as they are two different notes.

 

[Ansar]

Holy Sid Meier!

It's Sn00py a.k.a. IceDan!

 

[Guangxi]

All bank charges are to be borne by registrant*. Any short charges are required to be settled upon registration.

*registrar maybe?

 

[Taliesin]

Should the second sentence read, "Any outstanding charges must be settled upon registration"? I don't see exactly how 'short' is being used.

 

[Bartleby]

Maybe "shortfall" instead of short charges/outstanding charges?

 

[Plotinus]

I think it might mean "small" charges.

To my mind, Singlish has four main characteristics. The first is to translate Chinese words or expressions directly into English. So, for example, a mobile phone is called a "hand phone", because that's what it's called in Chinese. And the second is to use Chinese grammar when speaking English. So, for example, instead of "Yes, I can do that," you say "Can," because you can do that in Chinese. Which is why Singlish sounds so staccato and rude. The third main characteristic is the horrible mixture of American terms into what was originally standard English (such as calling university "school"), resulting in very confused spelling, which often alternates between the two in a single sentence. And the fourth main characteristic is the use of very slangy contractions even in relatively formal circumstances. For example, everyone seems to say and write "wanna" instead of "want to", which may be fine in a text message but not great in an undergraduate essay.

Now of course I don't speak Chinese but my guess is that "short" here really means "small" or something like that - that is, it's an example of the first main characteristic. But I could be wrong.

I have to admit, I find Singlish very wearing after only a couple of years (on and off) in Singapore. Mostly I'm scared that I'll start talking like that myself!