English Language & Usage Asked on February 6, 2021
I was in a training session today with a Singaporean trainer (lah!) and he kept using the phrase:
"Ok, Ken"
I checked the meeting attendees for a ‘Ken’ – but there was definitely no ‘Ken’ in the room.
He kept repeating it, also using the phrase:
"Alright, Ken".
Eventually I inferred that he must be using a contracted version of:
"Ok, I am confident that you can do this."
But I wasn’t sure.
I didn’t know whether this was a Singaporean English expression (lah!) or if he was just taking a Mandarin phrase in his head, and translating it directly into English.
My question is: In Singaporean English, what does the phrase ‘Ok, Ken’ mean?
The context was an IT Training course. For example:
Trainer: Here is how to install Azure Migration assistant and perform a Cloud Migration.
[Performs 25 steps]
Trainer: So that is how you use Azure Migration assistant. Ok can.
Or another example
Attendee: [Complicated question]
Trainer: It’s easy!
[Talks through 15 steps]
Trainer: So that is how you do it. Alright can.
According to Miel's An Essential Guide to Singaporean English - there are many phrases that use can as a verb in a distinctly Singaporean phrasing.
In this context - "ok Ken" is actually "Ok can" ie "ok can do".
And "also Ken" is "Yes I can too".
Answered by hawkeye on February 6, 2021
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