“Can or not?” — F1 drivers Charles Leclerc & Carlos Sainz rev up for ‘Singlish Showdown’ as they battle each other in Singapore English quiz

SINGAPORE: In the run-up to this year’s Singapore Grand Prix, which took place last weekend, some racing drivers found out how much they knew of Singlish.

On Sept 22 (Sunday), Monaco’s Charles Leclerc and Spain’s Carlos Sainz Vázquez de Castro were seen in a video uploaded on the YouTube channel of Ferrari, for whom they both race.

The two were given a series of Singlish words and several options of what they thought the word meant. The racing drivers were given a point for every correct score, and, as we can probably all imagine, it got very competitive indeed.

The first phrase the two men were given to guess was, “Can or not?” with the meaning options being “Is it possible?” “Can you do it?” “Is it okay?” or “All of the above.”

While Sainz guessed “All of the above,” Leclerc said, “No. ‘Can you do it?’”

“They all mean the same,” said Sainz, but Leclerc said he was “lucky.”

They were also asked to guess the meanings of “shiok” and “paiseh,” which neither man got right.

However, the two racing drivers guessed “catch no ball” correctly.

Sainz, however, was able to guess the meaning of “siao,” while Leclerc was right in guessing that “bo jio” means not being invited to something.

“I would never have guessed that,” said Sainz, while Leclerc, who had been behind by two points, crowed that he was “back in the game.”

But when Leclerc guessed that “Wah lau eh” meant surprise or frustration and Sainz gave the same guess afterwards, Leclerc pretended to get upset, implying the other racing driver was copying him.

He cheered when he learned there were three more items to guess, but he said he would not reply first because Sainz would just follow him.

This would result in a win for the Spanish driver since he was already ahead by one point, he added.

“I’m not that clever,” replied Sainz.

Leclerc then correctly guessed what “liddat how” meant, and when Sainz asked him how he knew it, he said, “I speak Singlish.”

He went on to win the game after guessing the meanings of “kiasu” and “alamak” correctly.

The teammates gave each other a high five as Sainz congratulated Leclerc on getting “three in a row.”

It also meant he won the game, although Sainz teased that it was the “first (win) in your life.”

“It’s been a very long time since I won a challenge,” Leclerc quipped, closing the quiz with “Thank you, everybody.”  /TISG

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