I went through the Singapore education system, studied Chinese as my mother tongue, and I would never put my own country in a state of shame.
Kelly Poon, Sigapore singer, denying that she had said, “’There are no Chinese idioms in Singapore” on a Taiwanese variety show
Whether she uttered that is no relevance. Important thing is she generated enough publicity for herself thru this news.
For entertainers like her, any news, good or bad, is better than no news. And as we know, things are always magnified and exaggerated in the entertainment world.
I wish her luck and success in her “struggle” at the tough taiwan market.
Singaporeans do pronounce “pregnant” as “pegnant”. It is true! It is just that not all Singaporeans do that. Not everyone speaks English in the same manner our English news casters do.
There is nothing shameful about having low standard of Mandarin as long as it is functional.
What’s wrong with not knowing chinese idioms? At least she speaks English.
Kelly Poon should be well aware of the consequence of her words when she thought of making a joke, which end up, making a fool out of herself and country.
She should know she represent Singapore whether she like it or not as taxmoney is been thrown to groom and promote her, and that she is actually ambassador for the country.
Didn’t she herself aware that as a “idol”, her words will be taken at face value especially in entertainment world like Taiwan, Hong Kong where compere will try to make joke out of the guest ?
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Singaporeons generally are unaware that the Taiwanese look down on us as “Bananas”, that is yellow on the outside, white on the inside, with little understanding of the Chinese culture and a low command of the Chinese language.
Unless you have been surfing the net regularly for AV examples of the ridicule heaped upon Singapore in the Taiwanese entertainment scene, you will remain clueless and will continue to live in our first world, PAP led, HDB well, as a frog looking up and marvelling at the size of the moon!
Kelly Poon alleged faux pas is nothing but an own affirmation of what other Chinese dominated nations’ impressionist us!
Taiwanese like to diss Singaporeans because we are easy targets. If a white or japanese comes on board, they will treat him like a god!
Taiwanese’s english sucks BTW. I noticed that they place huge emphasis on mimicking an American accent rather than improving their vocabulary and sentence construction. Although they sound like they had an English education, most cannot hold a conversation in English nor write in English. I had a Taiwanese acquaintance whom asked me to edit her English email although she worked in USA before!
Their Chinese sucks also when compared to PRC! Often borrowing terms from English language, and without knowing what they actually meant. “Fans” become “FengShi”. Use P.K. (penalty kick) and V.S. (versus) liberally because they don’t know what they meant!
Everyone is too polite to tell them how they suck!
Zeitgeist,
Taiwanese are too arrogant to try to understand why Singaporean Chinese are poor in Chinese. They only have eyes for Americans, Europeans and Japanese.
Firstly, we are not that bad at all if you compare us to ALL overseas chinese, especially chinese in South east asia. Only Malaysian chinese have an edge over us because they study in Chinese schools! We take Chinese as a second language only.
Secondly, Taiwanese again due to their arrogance don’t bother to find out that Singapore comprises of many races and nationalities. Hence we have to emphasise on English so that we can communicate with one another.
Thirdly, Singapore is an international port and our economy is dependent on foreign investments. This means we have to use English as official and working language. On the other hand, Taiwanese use Chinese.
Chinese People (PRC) on the other hand are more realistic. When I go to China, they are often surprised that I can speak and read Chinese well.
I noticed also the Taiwanese like to make fun of the accents of their aborigines. Chinese isn’t even the aborigines’ first language but they still made the effort to learn and correct their accents. To me, this effort should be applauded. Yet, the Taiwanese make fun of them! If Singapore Malays learn Chinese, we Singapore Chinese will encourage them. On this count alone, we are already much better in character than Taiwanese!
When Ang Moh or Japanese speak a few broken words of Mandarin, the Taiwanese will feel so proud as if it is the greatest honour bestowed on them! These Taiwanese are bloody racist, arrogant and have no sense of shame!