An Unfortunate Opportunity to Bridge Cultures
Jialat: The slang term Singaporeans use when everything goes wrong.
Last night, I saw on the news that the Singapore-owned container ship, Dali, lost all power, ran off course and rammed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore completely destroying the bridge and sadly ending the lives of at least 6 people.
Although I haven’t spoken to many Singaporeans about it yet, I imagine the the Singlish term, “jialat” being used liberally in the homes, coffee shops and workplaces across this nation. The term Jialat (or chialat) derives from a slang term in Hokkien, a Chinese dialect, which describes the exasperation one feels when a disastrous situation that is beyond repair occurs. There is no English equivalent for jialat but it is like combining “Oh no, what just happened?”, “What bad luck”, and “I’m totally screwed”. Jialat is not a vulgar term and, according to Singlish.net, it simply means “to eat away strength”.
Jialat is a useful for many unfortunate situations. For example, a business person could say, “When I was on business in Japan, my phone stopped working. Damn jialat!”
I’m sure that when the authorities listen to the black box recording of the Dali, you will hear the Singaporeans using this term. Or maybe, they will use a few other…