From the Straits Times Forum (10 May 2008):
I find it a little ironic that a letter which puts down Singlish and extolls the virtue of proper English is so riddled with spelling and grammatical mistakes. My guess is that the sub-editors in the ST deliberately left these mistakes uncorrected. Someone in the newsroom sure has a sense of humour... But let's not go there. Instead, why don't we examine the arguments put up by this Gilbert Goh person.
1. I find that our spoken English and Mandarin in Singapore are appalling. However, what amazes me is that our Malay and Indian friends are speaking at least their mother tongue [sic] efficiently. Some are even competent in handling both English and Malay/Indian languages.
Actually, the usage of Indian languages (Tamil, Punjabi, Malayalam, etc) amongst Indian Singaporeans is declining and being eroded by English/Singlish. From the Wikipedia article on Indian languages in Singapore,
2. While working in China, I have come across people who handle two languages competently. Most naturally speak Mandarin well as it is their first language. However, many also speak English fluently enough and sometimes they put me to shame. I find that they learn most of their near-perfect spoken English from native teachers such as the Australians or Britons. Their level of competency in handling the spoken language is thus influenced greatly by their teachers.
I've live in the great US and A for the past three years and honestly speaking, most of the PRC nationals that I've encountered have a rather imperfect command of the language. Generally, their command of the language improves with time and many can attain a near-native or even native fluency in the language. However, I doubt that one can have 'near-perfect spoken English' without any kind of immersion in an English-speaking environment.
Also, I've spent some time in Shanghai before although that was almost 6 years ago. Don't bullshit me about PRC nationals with near-perfect spoken English.
3. I find that most Singaporeans can speak English and Chinese but at a basic level. Most could not express themselves well enough in either language, causing miscommunication along the way.
That's actually true. Most Singaporeans don't speak English and Chinese well. For example, many Indian and Malay Singaporeans have a rather poor command of Chinese. In fact, most of them don't speak it at all!
Seriously, Mr Gilbert Goh, Singaporeans =/= Chinese Singaporeans. Non-Chinese Singaporeans may find it offensive. Very offensive.
Are Chinese Singaporeans able to speak English and Chinese properly? Well, it's probably true that most of them can only speak the languages at a very basic level. What do you expect? Singlish is the lingua franca amongst a great number of Singaporeans, especially the young, and despite what you think, Singlish is a distinct language from English proper although it is largely derived from British English.
4. Our Singlish is a disgrace and should never have being promoted, nor encouraged at all. It is often peppered with grammatical mistakes and our pronunciation is horrendous, to stay he [sic] least. We also dare not express ourselves too much as we have limited capacity to do so.
Why should Singlish be a disgrace? I think Singaporeans generally speak perfect Singlish and can be very expressive in that language. Okay, so most Singaporeans can't speak English like Cheryl Fox or Arnold Gay. Why would you expect them to do so? Not everyone's a newscaster, you know.
Of course, having said that, this doesn't mean that Singaporeans cannot improve their English skills. Pronunciation is something that bugs me a lot and I believe that elocution is something that schools in Singapore should teach. It's just that you have to make the distinction between Singlish and English. They are two distinct languages. Singlish is not English with bad grammar. Mangle the grammar of English proper as you wish but you won't be able to reproduce Singlish. Singlish has its own grammatical rules which are, of course, different from those of English proper. There is no given reason why Singlish and English proper cannot co-exist in Singapore.
5. My Secondary Two daughter speaks Singlish often and tends to be lazy in the use of proper sentences. Moreover, she always ends her sentences with 'lah' or 'loh', making it sound like a mixture of Chinese and English when she adds Chinese phrases in between words. There is also no effort to pronounce words correctly. I am sure a Briton or Australian will not understand her style of spoken English.
Of course, a Briton or an Australian won't understand your daughter's Singlish. She's speaking Singlish, not English proper. Duh! Most non-Australians wouldn't be able to understand Broad Australian either. I've lived in Australia and trust me, Broad Australian is not easy to understand.
6. Having also travelled around widely, I find that when I speak to the Australians or Americans, I tend to make an extra effort to speak properly and my Singlish disappears almost immediately.
That's because you code-switch to English proper from Singlish. Code-switching is a perfectly good skill to have and I agree with you that people who need to use English proper should acquire that skill. I code-switch all the time (from Matlab to C and Singlish to English proper).
The point is that, proper English elocution can be learned regardless of one's existing background in Singlish.
7. However, when I return home, I switch back to improper English (Singlish) automatically and all my 'lahs' and 'lohs' come back to my sentences. I try my best not to speak Singlish but fail as most of my friends speak Singlish. They would laugh at me if I try to speak correctly.
Singlish without lahs and lors is just plain ungrammatical. For your information Mr Gilbert Goh, the lahs and lors, which are mood particles, are necessary because the intonation and the grammatical rules in Singlish are just different. Your friends laugh at you because you use a language inappropriate for the context. What is wrong with using Singlish in a social circle of Singlish speakers?
8. Maybe we should hire proper native English teachers for our schools here to teach us the right way to speak English. It may take a long time for us to drop the 'lahs' or 'lohs' but it is definitely worth the time and effort invested.
It depends. You don't need native English teachers to teach people to drop their lahs and lors in the appropriate context. Anyone who can code-switch between English proper and Singlish is perfectly capable of doing that. If anything, the ability to speak Singlish is a plus. How else can you teach people to code-switch unless you know something about the two languages in the first place?
Also, there is no more evidence that English skills can be improved by eradicating Singlish than evidence that one can do so by eradicating Mandarin or Malay.
Speak English the way it should be spoken
I FIND that our spoken English and Mandarin in Singapore are appalling. However, what amazes me is that our Malay and Indian friends are speaking at least their mother tongue efficiently. Some are even competent in handling both English and Malay/Indian languages.
So are the Chinese learning languages the wrong way or does it have something to do with how we handle the two languages?
While working in China, I have come across people who handle two languages competently. Most naturally speak Mandarin well as it is their first language. However, many also speak English fluently enough and sometimes they put me to shame. I find that they learn most of their near-perfect spoken English from native teachers such as the Australians or Britons. Their level of competency in handling the spoken language is thus influenced greatly by their teachers.
I find that most Singaporeans can speak English and Chinese but at a basic level. Most could not express themselves well enough in either language, causing miscommunication along the way. Our Singlish is a disgrace and should never have being promoted, nor encouraged at all. It is often peppered with grammatical mistakes and our pronunciation is horrendous, to stay he least. We also dare not express ourselves too much as we have limited capacity to do so.
My Secondary Two daughter speaks Singlish often and tends to be lazy in the use of proper sentences. Moreover, she always ends her sentences with 'lah' or 'loh', making it sound like a mixture of Chinese and English when she adds Chinese phrases in between words. There is also no effort to pronounce words correctly. I am sure a Briton or Australian will not understand her style of spoken English.
Having also travelled around widely, I find that when I speak to the Australians or Americans, I tend to make an extra effort to speak properly and my Singlish disappears almost immediately.
However, when I return home, I switch back to improper English (Singlish) automatically and all my 'lahs' and 'lohs' come back to my sentences. I try my best not to speak Singlish but fail as most of my friends speak Singlish. They would laugh at me if I try to speak correctly.
Maybe we should hire proper native English teachers for our schools here to teach us the right way to speak English. It may take a long time for us to drop the 'lahs' or 'lohs' but it is definitely worth the time and effort invested.
Gilbert Goh
Hubei, China
I find it a little ironic that a letter which puts down Singlish and extolls the virtue of proper English is so riddled with spelling and grammatical mistakes. My guess is that the sub-editors in the ST deliberately left these mistakes uncorrected. Someone in the newsroom sure has a sense of humour... But let's not go there. Instead, why don't we examine the arguments put up by this Gilbert Goh person.
1. I find that our spoken English and Mandarin in Singapore are appalling. However, what amazes me is that our Malay and Indian friends are speaking at least their mother tongue [sic] efficiently. Some are even competent in handling both English and Malay/Indian languages.
Actually, the usage of Indian languages (Tamil, Punjabi, Malayalam, etc) amongst Indian Singaporeans is declining and being eroded by English/Singlish. From the Wikipedia article on Indian languages in Singapore,
Interestingly, about half of Indians in Singapore predominantly use a non-Indian language in the home. 39% spoke mainly English, in contrast to 28.1% nationally. This made English the most spoken language in Indian homes, by a small margin.If anything, the proficiency of Indian Singaporeans in Indian languages is probably similar to that of Chinese Singaporeans in Chinese. In other words, most young Indian Singaporeans are more comfortable in Singlish/English than in their respective Indian mother tongues. Why should that be surprising? Both ethnic groups share the same linguistic environment; Singlish is much more prevalent than Tamil and Mandarin and English has far greater functionality in Singapore. I don't speak Tamil (because I'm of Chinese descent) and I get along fine in Singapore. Similarly, an Indian Singaporean can work and live in Singapore without knowing a word of Mandarin.
2. While working in China, I have come across people who handle two languages competently. Most naturally speak Mandarin well as it is their first language. However, many also speak English fluently enough and sometimes they put me to shame. I find that they learn most of their near-perfect spoken English from native teachers such as the Australians or Britons. Their level of competency in handling the spoken language is thus influenced greatly by their teachers.
I've live in the great US and A for the past three years and honestly speaking, most of the PRC nationals that I've encountered have a rather imperfect command of the language. Generally, their command of the language improves with time and many can attain a near-native or even native fluency in the language. However, I doubt that one can have 'near-perfect spoken English' without any kind of immersion in an English-speaking environment.
Also, I've spent some time in Shanghai before although that was almost 6 years ago. Don't bullshit me about PRC nationals with near-perfect spoken English.
3. I find that most Singaporeans can speak English and Chinese but at a basic level. Most could not express themselves well enough in either language, causing miscommunication along the way.
That's actually true. Most Singaporeans don't speak English and Chinese well. For example, many Indian and Malay Singaporeans have a rather poor command of Chinese. In fact, most of them don't speak it at all!
Seriously, Mr Gilbert Goh, Singaporeans =/= Chinese Singaporeans. Non-Chinese Singaporeans may find it offensive. Very offensive.
Are Chinese Singaporeans able to speak English and Chinese properly? Well, it's probably true that most of them can only speak the languages at a very basic level. What do you expect? Singlish is the lingua franca amongst a great number of Singaporeans, especially the young, and despite what you think, Singlish is a distinct language from English proper although it is largely derived from British English.
4. Our Singlish is a disgrace and should never have being promoted, nor encouraged at all. It is often peppered with grammatical mistakes and our pronunciation is horrendous, to stay he [sic] least. We also dare not express ourselves too much as we have limited capacity to do so.
Why should Singlish be a disgrace? I think Singaporeans generally speak perfect Singlish and can be very expressive in that language. Okay, so most Singaporeans can't speak English like Cheryl Fox or Arnold Gay. Why would you expect them to do so? Not everyone's a newscaster, you know.
Of course, having said that, this doesn't mean that Singaporeans cannot improve their English skills. Pronunciation is something that bugs me a lot and I believe that elocution is something that schools in Singapore should teach. It's just that you have to make the distinction between Singlish and English. They are two distinct languages. Singlish is not English with bad grammar. Mangle the grammar of English proper as you wish but you won't be able to reproduce Singlish. Singlish has its own grammatical rules which are, of course, different from those of English proper. There is no given reason why Singlish and English proper cannot co-exist in Singapore.
5. My Secondary Two daughter speaks Singlish often and tends to be lazy in the use of proper sentences. Moreover, she always ends her sentences with 'lah' or 'loh', making it sound like a mixture of Chinese and English when she adds Chinese phrases in between words. There is also no effort to pronounce words correctly. I am sure a Briton or Australian will not understand her style of spoken English.
Of course, a Briton or an Australian won't understand your daughter's Singlish. She's speaking Singlish, not English proper. Duh! Most non-Australians wouldn't be able to understand Broad Australian either. I've lived in Australia and trust me, Broad Australian is not easy to understand.
6. Having also travelled around widely, I find that when I speak to the Australians or Americans, I tend to make an extra effort to speak properly and my Singlish disappears almost immediately.
That's because you code-switch to English proper from Singlish. Code-switching is a perfectly good skill to have and I agree with you that people who need to use English proper should acquire that skill. I code-switch all the time (from Matlab to C and Singlish to English proper).
The point is that, proper English elocution can be learned regardless of one's existing background in Singlish.
7. However, when I return home, I switch back to improper English (Singlish) automatically and all my 'lahs' and 'lohs' come back to my sentences. I try my best not to speak Singlish but fail as most of my friends speak Singlish. They would laugh at me if I try to speak correctly.
Singlish without lahs and lors is just plain ungrammatical. For your information Mr Gilbert Goh, the lahs and lors, which are mood particles, are necessary because the intonation and the grammatical rules in Singlish are just different. Your friends laugh at you because you use a language inappropriate for the context. What is wrong with using Singlish in a social circle of Singlish speakers?
8. Maybe we should hire proper native English teachers for our schools here to teach us the right way to speak English. It may take a long time for us to drop the 'lahs' or 'lohs' but it is definitely worth the time and effort invested.
It depends. You don't need native English teachers to teach people to drop their lahs and lors in the appropriate context. Anyone who can code-switch between English proper and Singlish is perfectly capable of doing that. If anything, the ability to speak Singlish is a plus. How else can you teach people to code-switch unless you know something about the two languages in the first place?
Also, there is no more evidence that English skills can be improved by eradicating Singlish than evidence that one can do so by eradicating Mandarin or Malay.
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