Learning the Tongue

Briefest of briefs. A trifle for linguists and those historically minded. Other readers would be advised to look away now.... These little oddities have been rattling away in the brain for a good long while now. Saturday's edition of The Hindu struck a much harsher note in the recollection of Empire on the sub-continent; specifically in the north-east in this instance post-war when the Indian National Army (essentially formed here in Singapore among the expatriate community of Tamils) was attempting armed rebellion against the British. A good time to engineer a famine, teach the rascals a lesson. About three million people were estimated to have perished across West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha and Bangladesh. A much later piece of Colonial devilry than that detailed by Mike Davis in his eye-opener book Late Victorian Holocausts: El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third World. Many of the heinous crimes of the recent past never acknowledged by many of the perpetrators on "our" side. Buried, selective history.... These Chinese in Singapore never had too much cause to complain. Circumstances here in the strategic transport hub were for the most part moderating and less than demonic. The earlier generation of Coolies perhaps suffered greatly; perhaps the first two generations. Brutal times. Slavery in many parts of the world was far from eradicated in the relevant period. In Singapore the English left much to their inheritors for which they could be grateful. And not merely the upper crust to whom the torch of freedom was passed.
         But brevity.
         Three unusual common expressions on the streets here every tick of the clock in every quarter of the island no let-up. Sketch in rubber plantations, the English superintendent from northern parts (Manchester, Birmingham, Leicester, Lancaster), pith helmet, twin-pocketed safari shirt, long walk-socks, a kelpie at his side brought over on the boat; stepped out under the rubber trees, gone down into the tin mines, the house-boy needing instruction, lads laying down the rails:
Carry on
Never mind
Correct
These three words and phrases in particular penetrated deeply right down to the present generation. Utterly ubiquitous, impossible to avoid one or two dozen times per diem in the strangest contexts. The author's illiterate former boxer landlord possessing no more than 100 - 120 English words maintains in his kit the last two. Unremarked previously and needing to be dislodged; worthy of some mention for the strong echo and the indication.
         .... Get Help To Arrest Your Mistakes mug at the Blue Diamond for lunch today from the Speak Good English campaign of a decade or two ago. Still very much active and widely promoted by the foreign-educated technocrats and mandarins.

NB. And a fourth afterthought arrives, used by the same groups, common island-wide and taught to current day youngsters too, even in Bukit Timah. In primary English speaking countries we say, Will you/Can you accompany me? ….go/come with me? On the rubber plantations and in the tin mines it was something else; something instrumental. No time there for mincing words.... You FOLLOW ME.... The exclamation mark half-retained in the tone two generations later here. More than a little irksome when directed at oneself: pretty girl extending an invitation to a picnic under the trees ruins the venture with such unseemly grossness. Horrid. Damn well ghastly. Ooooh those superintendents and administrators getting out the product!