“Let’s just buy back,” I said. My colleague turned to me and asked, “What did you say?“
“You know, let’s buy back and eat in the kitchen.“
The whole Melbourne team burst into laughter.
English is not my first language; they knew, and I knew that they knew it, too.
To me, “buy back” seemed like a perfectly normal phrase.
But, they had never heard it before.
So, I had to explain to them that “buy back” is a term I picked up in Singapore; it’s Singlish, another version of “ta pau” and it means “takeaway.”
And no, it’s not just another word I made up. At least not this time.
To confirm, I Teams messaged my Singaporean colleague and asked her to come to our desk to maybe explain buy back better. She came but only gave half-assed confirmation – pfft, she has been here for too long.
This phrase, though, has been picked up and used generously by the Melbourne team.
There you go, Singapore. Don’t say I never gave you back anything for homeing me in my 20s.
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