Apart from the important reasons why we should use standard English, as stated in the ministry letter, it is vital to be aware that Singlish will undermine Singapore‘s image as an education hub.
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” Teachers must explain to students why their Singlish usage is wrong, and show them the correct usage in standard English. Students should be taught not to repeat improper English in future.”
Just recall ourselves a few week back what our Minister Lim Swee Say talk about ” Letting Foriegn Talent goes first “, here is the summary of what he say in the news.
CNA 13 October 2008:
“The best part is, YAH, I know the CPF money won’t run away. CPF will still be around, AH, hopefully, for a long long time to come, not hopefully LAH, for sure LAH, for long long time to come, you know.”
Talk about Singlish, our favourite Minister also use it in the Public Event. How to tell or teach our future childern that Singlish is not a proper language to use?
So Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts and Ministry of Education, said ‘Good English the way to go’. Please first teach your Ministers to speak good English first before telling the childern that the way they speak are not “Good English”.
why like dat wan? can speak can speak can alreadi…why always must bring down our identity…angmoh also got cockney slang,aussie speak…rojak england wan.
I actually thought tat singlish is a pretty good language. It’s a identity and sincerely even though i speak singlish more often than proper english, so far i’ve not encounter foreigners tat can’t understand me.
I think the singlish tat the writer is talking about is extreme cases. I think those can be classified as “Broken English” and not “Singlish”
Sincerely i thought “Singlish” is actually proper English but adding all the expressive words like “la”, “meh”, etc. it actually makes the conversation more lively… =D
We should practice good english among our children so that they have the foundation when they become part of the global economy.
One can always fall back to Singlish when one is talking among friends or family. As adults, we then know when to apply good english and when we can speak singlish among ourselves.
But let us practice good English because its important to do so, NOT because we want to be an education hub. Please, let’s not be yet another hub. i’m tired of hearing us wanting to be yet another hub. its such a Temasek-GIC word.
And if we REALLY do wanna be an education hub, there’s a million other things that we need to learn from – eg John Hopkins and UNSW fiascos – rather than just “good english”.
singapore english is divided broadly into two varieties, Standard Singapore English (the high class one) and Colloquial Singapore English (aka Singlish (but the name itself is a clipping and blending of Singapore English, hence the confusion), the one MOE loves to slam).
therefore, singlish, as colloquial singapore english, is NOT ‘basically proper English but used in the local context, and sometimes peppered with local phrases’. not in the least. it has its own grammar, which obviously differs from that of standard english.
and broken english is again NOT pidgin english.
while i can accept that broken english is likely to be spoken by people who have little knowledge of the language, hence resulting in so-called grammatical mistakes, pidgin english is another thing altogether.
a pidgin is a contact language that develops among speakers with no common language, and sooner or later it develops a grammar of its own. singlish started life as a pidgin, and is now a creole (a creole is a former pidgin which now has native speakers).
daniel, singlish is not ‘proper English but adding all the expressive words like “la”, “meh”, etc’, please see my above comment.
and i agree with #2! :)
okay i had originally posted my comment in #5 in the ST online forum comments.
it’s here:
http://www.straitstimes.com/ST%2BForum/Story/STIStory_314778.html
allright fourth comment in a row, practically spamming! :P
hi Jun, so chim. My tiny brain already exploded.
But as wat u say, thus Singlish is the native language of SG which evolved over a period of time from a pidgin to become a creole.
Thus ur opinion is tat it’s ok to actually speak Singlish right? Since it’s our native language.
But of coz by saying all this, i’m not asking anyone to abandon proper english. Be flexible, if the person do not understand, switch. No point “Playing Music to the Cow” right?
PS: I did read before a research article tat Playing Music to Cow actually improves their Milk Output. Thus i’m just using it as a chinese phrase and not as facts.
This is just PAP using any reasons of pretence to systematically deny Singaporeans any sense of identity, so that the only identity Singaporeans would embrace is PAP’s. If you don’t want to embrace the PAP identity, then you ought to be apathetic. This is how PAP stays in power by ingraining propaganda into education.
With ministers who want to “upturn the downturn”, I think it’s best to start with ministers correcting their English first.
If you look at the Parliamentary debates, some of the English spoken in that sacred chamber is atrocious. “Pang sai” and all…
I like Singlish – just as I like the rhythmn of teochew and the dialects.
They are our backbone – but sadly they’re being destroyed. Even places with wonderful names are being replaced. Such as Tekka being replaced with “The Verge”.
The English name may appeal to tourists but I think it’s more important that Singaporeans have affinity to places which holds our memories and experiences.
Not everything should be made to bow to the tourist dollar.
The Verge is such a stupid name to replave Tekka.
indeed. singlish began life as a pidgin, when members of different ethnic communities tried to communicate with each other using english (or something like that, its actual origin is a bit murky).
when these speakers of singlish taught it to their children, singlish turned from pidgin to creole, as it had now speakers who were born using it.
>Thus ur opinion is tat it’s ok to actually speak Singlish right? Since it’s our native language.
yes, it is okay to speak singlish. it has a rich vocab and grammar and has its uses. (but please, do not compare singlish to english and conclude that singlish is broken english. singlish isn’t broken or bad english. singlish and english have different grammars and therefore, comparing them is like comparing mangosteens and durians!)
(i don’t okay singlish just because it’s our native language or not. frankly, i don’t even care if people want to speak spanish or french – if they want to learn, good for them! learning a new language opens another door.)
>But of coz by saying all this, i’m not asking anyone to abandon proper english. Be flexible, if the person do not understand, switch. No point “Playing Music to the Cow” right?
indeed. communication is more than just ‘speaking good english’ (or whatever language). there must also be the willingness to communicate (like a previous writer who complained about the post office staff who was unable to understand his english).
Singlish is not acceptable. I tried to speak proper English most of the time but most of my colleagues or friends are speaking singlish, it is really hard for me unless my colleagues & friends are all foreigners.
The fact that the never-ending debate on the acceptability of Singlish is even taking place at all is proof enough that the cause of Standard English is already a lost one in Singapore.
In some enlightened circles, it will be considered as stating the obvious if one is to assert that Singlish is poor English, period. If we are honest, we would have acknowledged that Singlish came into being because the majority of Singaporeans are not smart enough to master even one decent language despite more than 10 years of schooling.
The way forward is not to continue to deny our language deficiencies, but to show some willingness to learn. If our Singaporean identity is defined by an ineptitude in language learning we will continue to be the laughing stock of the world.
Bollocks. Singaporeans’ identity is being destroyed because everything which really belongs to our identity is really what the Gahmen doesn’t want. All in the name of economic stability, so they undertake absurd things like destroying Singlish.
Singlish very jialat meh? Everything also think can ban, stop, etc. PAP’s identity is kay eh one. No wonder people don’t identify with Singapore…
those who have not yet condemned singlish to the deepest depths of hell, and are willing to find out more can check out the wikipedia article on singlish, a good starting point:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singlish
The crux of the issue is to dish out proper English and Singlish at the appropriate situations. When speaking to a visitor from the states, proper English is good. When having lunch at a coffeeshop, Singlish sometimes gets you your food quicker than proper English.
Our ‘education hub’ image surfaced *despite the prevalence Singlish. The question ought to be how that image came about in the first place. Or, if we’re even a hub, as opposed to merely hubbub.
I think the use of Singlish is only limited to marketplace and casual coffeeshop talks. You cannot expect the uncle in the market to speak perfect English. And kids in school speak the minimum acceptable level of English at least, unlike those Singlish spoken in army barracks.
Those who mock the use of Singlish are rather removed from the reality of the average Singaporean life or should I say “elitist”. We should accept deficiencies in our society and not mock them by saying ” is vital to be aware that Singlish will undermine Singapore’s image as an education hub.” That statement is a complete exageration. It is unacceptable, nonsensical and above all, elitist.
If you want the kind of English spoken in the West, you will never have it. That is because as long as the ah soh, ah pek, pakciks, makciks, achis and so on are still alive, you can be sure that Singlish will still be alive. And how much can you expect from those ah bengs, ah lians, mats and minahs to speak standard English in everyday life?
Muhammad Shamin Bin Mohamed Sidek (#19),
The term elitist should not be used alone. It must be used in conjunction with the term bas-tards. Let me correct your sentence: Those who mock the use of Singlish are rather removed from the reality of the average Singaporean life or should I say “elitist bas-tards”.
Stop bringing fw that don’t speak english lah and stop teching second languages and third language when we speaks and write sing – glish. edu hub is another form of sustaining finicial indusries to rip off $$ from poor and producing meaningless degrees, diplomas and certificates.
I dont give a rat ass of singapore being an education hub,bio-hub,media hub…all i know we are the tuankang hub…
if singlish is such a national disgrace, it means that we singaporeans are all idiots, voting a bunch of whit loving jackasses into power
Ha, Singlish is good, it adds charm to our culture. I have foreigners asking me to teach them. Heck, I even know two angmos who speak Singlish, cool. You dun know, I tell you, one day Singlish sure become international one. then everbody want to come to S’pore to learn it., and then we become education hub mah. Collect or not?
Singlish will become international then foreigners come to S’pore to learn, so we become education hub mah, collect or not? You dun know, I tell you, Singlish adds charm to the culture.
Bring in more fw and we won’t even have Singlish to crow about. Who is undermining the language? Everything blame Singaporeans.
Singlish or English is ok as long as people understand you. When we speak to our country men speak Singlish is better. We can understand each other well and we feel closer as a Singaporean. Singlish is one or our identity. We can single out who is Singaporean and who is not. When we travel around the world, we can identlity each other through the way we speak. Singlish is well known in many foreign countries. These countries know that Singaporean speak Singlish. They find it curious and interesting. Some or them want to learn and use it when they travel here. Beside our icon Merlion, Singlish is also make us very different. The only way to make us feel at home and be close to our country man who are make up of different races is to speak Singlish.
Just to share my perspective on this subject matter. I like to make a distinction to the term “Singlish” as I understood it. To me, it is referring to the spoken language (English, Mandarin or any other languages) with Singlish idiom, eccentricity and accent. It’s rather language fusion.
Awhile back, I have made some comments on Patrick Loh’s piece regarding this similar subject matter that:
“Singapore is unique in a sense that we have no real language identity other than our born ethnicity (our “dialect”). True, English is declared by the government as our business language. Bahasa Melayu is our national language and in our melting pot of citizenry, Tamil and Chinese plays a significant role as well as far as social cohesiveness is concerned.”
It is with this unique identity and that through the years of cultural and ethnicity melting pot mixing and exchanges where Singlish was developed. Socially, I think it should be embraced in the local context.
I believe, speaking and writing well in ANY language (NOT just the English language) plays a significant role in fostering a better future aspect for the growing up Singapore youngsters as they enter the globalization age. That is a fact in the professional field that one cannot deny and cannot be ignored. However, I think one should not neglect the social aspects and the implications of the use of language. The number one golden rule and importance of communication is to convey your message that can be clearly understood without the meaning being misconstrued or twisted. Simple structured sentence will suffice. Whether it is spoken in Singlish, Bengali or any local colloquialism becomes secondary. Kudos to you if you uses “proper and widely accepted standard” English or Mandarin or any other languages to converse and if you happen to use Singlish and the meaning is not distorted or misunderstood by the receiving party or parties, I think it is okay as well. It is a personal choice not a mandate.
For the older Singaporean generation, there is no fall back as our very unique environment has foster the way we interact with each other. From televised media local programs to street talk, Singlish will somehow find its place one way or the other. From time to time, we too will hear leaders use it as well. There is nothing wrong about it in the Singapore context. However, when conversing with foreign bodies (particularly in a business setting and making the assumption that the receiving parties has never heard or no clue of Singlish), if Singlish is widely and freely used then it might pose a challenge for the receiving party to grasp the message conveyed. I am sure it is more so in a diplomatic exchange session, Singlish will be tucked away.
Can this trend be change? Certainly, but it is a tall task and will take many generations more to make it happen, provided that the environment settings, local televised media programs, local business settings, social settings, political settings and last but not least, its willing native citizenry effort to make it work. For as long as one remain in Singapore and not being exposed to other environment where you are force to or will use less Singlish in your everyday conversation, Singlish is here to stay for a long while.
Sorry folks, the following should read as “…with local idiom, eccentricity and accent. It’s rather language fusion.” rather than “with Singlish idiom, eccentricity and accent. It’s rather language fusion.”. My sincere apology.
It is rather sad that most people here advocate the use of Singlish over standard English. Perhaps they do not appreciate the implications of such a stand.
Possible disadvantages are:
(1) School children will lose their motivation to learn English properly leading to a vicious cycle of creating the next generation of poor communicators condoning successive generations of poorer and poorer language users.
(2) The linguists and foreigners who commented that Singlish is interesting and claim that they want to learn it, are actually laughing at us! Please wake up and realise this. They are glad that being such willing users of poor English, we are forever doomed to maintain our inferior and servile status vis-a-vis our former colonial masters. At this very moment, they are probably laughing out loud that we are so smug and foolish to be proud of our deficiencies.
(3) People who say that our citizens will never be capable of learning good English are guilty of looking down on Singaporeans. I think they should apologise. They are the same people who condemn others who would like to promote better spoken English here. I think their thinking is upside-down. Not acknowledging our poor language-IQ and pretending that poor English is uniquely Singaporean only accelerate our downward spiral towards cultural ignominy.
Despite being in the small minority, I’m not afraid to appeal to all to reconsider their stand and contribute towards an elevation of our language skills. Let’s aim to speak better English than the Westerners!
I think some got me all wrong when I said speaking Singlish is ok. What i am trying to advocate is that as a Singaporean speaking Singlish to each other is fine. If you will to look at the world at large, most countries speak their own languages to their countryman. In France speak french, Italy speak Italian, Spain speak spanish, China speak Chinese, Taiwan speak Hokkien, HongKong speak cantonese, then why Singaporean cannot speak Singlish among themselves. Singlish is not English. It is a common language only Singaporean can be identified and be understood. It promote bonding. Just like the above countries they are very proud of their own languages and they are united.
If you feel ashame of speaking Singlish to your countryman, then you are not a proud Singaporean(if you are one). We have already lost our dialects because of English and it is a shame to our forefather. And Singlish is only common language which our many races can be bond together and understand each other.
And I don’t think foreigners laugh at Singlish. If you think so, you are just being sensitive. They just find Singlish amusing. And they find it useful when they to speak to an uncle or aunty in a hawker centre. They will get more helping if they did.
Like l said Singaporean speaking Singlish is fine. But when we speak to the world at large we should speak English to be understood. In school ,children should learn proper English. They must speak and write English. But that doesn’t mean when they speak Singlish they will forget English altogether and their English . You will be surprise our kids is capable of both. So don’t write off Singlish yet.