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I’ve been one that never really advocate ‘Speak Good English’ as for one, my English ‘cannot make it’ one, so I resigned myself to my usual norm speaking ways, but after reading Muneera’s entry on the issue, I think we all need to.
Here’s the link to her specific blog entry on ‘Speak Good English’ movement
At times I’ve been caught by my near to perfect English speaking friends on my horrendous English.
They’re all from fine JC schools, so their English has been drill to the tee in them.
For example I would usually say “Eh I draw money ah”. My friends would then correct me “Uncle, it’s withdraw money”. Wah such a small mistake, they would still arrow me. Luckily I didn’t try my lame engineer joke after saying ‘draw’ money which is, “Eh got pencil, I wanna draw money” … Get it?
And why do you think there’s a need to speak good English you might say cheerio chap?
Well we need to be comprehensible . With our major dialect of Mandarin and Malay in the English rojak mix, no wonder the Westerners are poking fun at us.
No more I tell ya!
Let’s all Speak Good English
Read Muneera’s Entry and comment there!
actually to “draw” money is correct.. nothing wrong with it.. its not a shortcut of withdraw or a broken verb..
draw = to take out .. example.. i draw water from the well..
hope this helps
sure or not bro
My friends die-die say I wrong
draw = google definition
see i was right what..
withdraw: remove (a commodity) from (a supply source); “She drew $2,000 from the account”; “The doctors drew medical supplies from the hospital’s emergency bank”
then my friend is wrong … pandai2 jer diarong
and theres no need to speak good english.. why cant we just be proud of our singlish.. european speak bad english with bad accent… so again nothing wrong being different..
and plus i hate it when a singaporean slangs it up whenever they speak to a foreigner then changes his accent when he speaks to his local friend..
like come on people… who u impressing here?
I think there’s such needs .. I do still use Singlish, no i’m not abandoning it but usually used with my friends but business-wise, to get the deal, you need a good form of English communication
Hahah yes, those slang type, waduh more power than the ang moh. I just wanna cringe when i hear them
i happen to switch back and forth between accents….
in the states, i speak with an accent and in singapore, i TRY To speak like everyone. it’s not a matter of impressing pple. it’s a matter of bridging language/speaking barriers…even when i’m there and my mother calls me on the phone, i switch back to “singapore” mode…it’s easier and i won’t have my mom saying “eh…aku ni melayu tau…bukan mat saleh” :)
if ur talking of singaporeans slang-ing it up to foreigners IN singapore, then yes, there is a problem….but sometimes, some foreigners really do not understand us. i myself sometimes, don’t understand the Englishmen cuz their accent is so thick.
bad accent and bad english are 2 diff. things. accent is the speaking sharacteristic of a specific grp of pple…bad english is well, not having a good grasp of the language….
personal opinion i guess…
I soooooooooooo agree with you on this one muneera.. i find that sometimes when speaking to certain groups of people, it is easier to “switch” accents to make communication much more easier and understandable. Because if you dont, sometimes you get misunderstandings and sometimes u have to repeat OVER and OVER again..
hahah thanks!
then again, sometimes all we have to do is enunciate…
you can switch? i thought it comes natural?
sherizan – hahah!! well impress the jews lah. :) kan kalau kita bicara bahasa inggeris yang mampat, boleh attract orang yang bagus2 like make another friend who can speak and write well… to me, i dont care lah!
shah – draw money is the correct word what… errrm my english cannot make it like some ppl so am i still in the position to speak here? (PEDULI APA AKU! hahah!!!) u know what shah? if orang faham apa kita cakap, ok lah tu.. kalau orang tak faham, explain lagi je lah… kata melayu boleh! ;P
engrish!
haha … your engrish more powderful than mine seh
i think, if you talk and people understand can liao… no NEED TO BE LIKE,
i speak the QUEEN kinda english.. wahahhahahahahah….
no need to speak proper english lah.. to me, that what makes our singapore english, power!!! ;)
malique – mine more powderful lah… want to challenge aku tak yang english tak seberapa ni… oh well (with an accent like mat saleh cannot make it, like mintak kena tampar.. ;P)
eddyboi - ah betul tu… since national day baru lepas, let’s make a recap to it. we must be proud to be the singlish singaporeans… wooowww kallang wave… hahhaa!!!
gosh yanni why are you so negative! slap your face! hehe. just messing around.
i think nobody speak queen english in singapore … maybe just SPG. haha
Personally i feel that its good to have a good grasp of languages and i really admire people who can speak and write well in whatever language.
In terms of business. English is not really a necessity cos you need to know who are you working with. There are millionaires who don’t speak good English either..haha..Imagine talking to them. All they understand is how to make more money..hmmm..I knew a few in our Malay communities but in whatever languages they talk, they speak it confidently..
Language evolves from time to time. I believe that its better to be yourself and speak whatever language that fits you best. As long as you understand the basics that would be sufficient. The rest can ask and find out.
About these campaigns.. I guess its just for the short while. People being people will just adapt to the languages that they are familiar with eventually.
About the blogger – Muneera she is in a foreign land and she does need to adapt to her surroundings to allow better communications between her and the Americans, so i guess the perceptions of improving the language.
i agree with u actually…
…but are all news readers comfortable with speaking in english like that? and WHY do we have the needs to speak good english then, on tv? why are all tv shows (ok…minus PCK, under one roof, sassy neighbor, n other heartland shows) speaking in good english?
true, we should speak in what we feel most comfortable in.
also, why are some singaporeans labeling singlish as ugly, when most pple feel it’s what MAKES us singaporeans….
i guess what ur saying, what is key is that we should speak confidently?
i’m learning human resource now
my prof told us, no matter how good your language is, if you yourself don’t potray a confidence outlook, nobody gonna take you serious
but than again that’s another topic yar
for language, as long you know the ‘right’ basics, nobody can fault you
hmm… my england had not been tat powderful since i left sec sch..no more english lessons la.. haha
Anyway i do feel the stress when i spoke to “ang mo” sometimes cos you know.. the “lahs, lohs” just come out as i’m so used to it.
But then..the other day, i encountered and “ang mo” speaking singlish.. how cool it that man.. The way he spoke “Power lah” just made my eyes grew big in awe.. haha
So.. to speak good english or not, i think depends on individual lor..
I’ll stick to me singlish. HA!
its a matter of environment & upbringing … like you mention, just be comfortable with how your speak. that’s more than enough. but doesn’t mean you can’t correct some grammar or dictation in there right :-)
Sometimes the fun of speakin in our own unique way makes life more interesting.
Good English is definitely important but imagine everyone speaking in perfect grammar and vocab and using all the right words, damn! Life would be so boring wifout all the local slang.
Cheers!
strongly agree with jon lee.. :) cheers! (with my ribena!)
*sigh*
i think pple getting misconceptions of my “mission” ah….it’s quite discouraging
dunnolah…what i really meant to do is not make everyone abandon Singlish. it is who we are, i know. but malaysia also uses it (lah, hor, meh). so i mean how Singlish is it, really? but i think what i was trying to do was ask that in more formal environments (school, work, foreign land), we practice better english speaking skills. what u practice at home is entirely up to a person’s choice, right? although the bulk of conversations do come from home.
and just the other day, my friend told me of this person who told their friends “yeah she just pretends to have an accent…sajer tak sadar dunia” things like that are discouraging sometimes too. i know this is TOTALLY contradictory to what i was trying to say in that entry, but i try to speak as MUCH singlish as i can when i’m home just so i FEEL like i belong here. if not, it’s like i feel like an outsider. i’ve been alive for what? almost 23 yrs and 16yrs of it has been overseas….maybe pple don’t understand my perspective or what, but i’m not asking pple to de-singaporean-ize themselves…
aiyah dunnolah…. *hur hur*
i guess u can’t always win, ya?
i think in this matter theres no right or wrong
pursue your initiative, there will always be disapproval here & there but you also get some people who support your mission
competition or what…. win lose or draw…
24 years in singapore. never go anywhere at all.. just here only. so kesian…
well i believe in if you want it, go get it
yanni boleh!
From my perspective, there are only 2 sides to this matter. Attempting to make the best of both worlds will only bring about downfall.
It’s kinda like when you play RPG games. For Silkroad Online, I level up my character with PURE strength stats. That gives me huge life and stamina. Somecharacters are levelled with PURE intelligence stats, which gives them huge damage.
Wherelse, if you try to be a hybrid with equal stats in both, you’re weak. It means you get PWNED most of the time.
best of both world … hmm possible but thats on the multi-tasking side
my arguement is that.. if you can make someone understand you, and vice versa.. then we have a winner!!
i think thats the ultimate bottom-line
the outcome outweigh more than the measures taken
During the course of my diploma obtainment in NIE, I’ve sat through
sotoo many discussions about the use of Singlish and proper English here in Singapore. Tutors were obviously advocating “abolish Singlish!” and brainwashing us with it. This was, of course, ultimately done to make our lives (i.e. the teachers) much easier (especially in terms of written work). On top of that, we were told that it would be a tad difficult for us to bring our students back on track once they heard us converse in Singlish. “But Ms Linda speak like that one leh. so why i cannot?”Personally, I feel that the acquisition of Singlish is fine, as long as the learner can identify and switch between the use of right (or should I say grammatically correct English) and wrong (er, bad English?). I guess it all boils down to an individual’s common sense and good judgement – he cannot possibly use Singlish at work (assuming he’s in a professional line i.e. law, education, politic). If there is a need for someone to use Singlish because he is interacting with the public or a group of people who prefer communicating in that language, then fine, by all means. It is all a matter of bringing your message across, being understood, getting work done and minimalising the occurence of communication breakdowns.
I have non-local friends who, during their short stay here in Singapore, had difficulties understanding the way we converse. My Czech friend resorted to requesting some shopowners to write down what they wanted to convey to her. Most of the time, she couldn’t understand our “slang”, which I presume was our “Singlish Slang”. Having an accent is subjective. Some people acquire a certain accent because they felt that it would make communication between them and a particular group of friends/people better. Some conformed to a certain accent because they thought they sound cool with it. Some stayed in a foreign (as opposed to “native”) land for too long, hence the accent. Again, it’s just a matter of being comfortable with yourself and the people around you, being understood and enhancing communication.
Singlish has always been, and will always be an issue here. No use fretting over it for too long. He’s right – “People being people will just adapt to the languages that they are familiar with eventually.”
Just so you know, I speak Singlish with my friends, yes (betol tak lahliiiiiiiiiiiing?). Never in the presence of my students. I prefer writing in good, proper English. But I do not deny the fact that I succumb to Singlish writings once in a while. Like wat some of you mentioned in your comments, it is indeed “fun for us to speak in our own unique way”, “makes life more interesting”.
=)
betoooooollll, lahliiiiiing….hehehe
Draw money, ahhaha. Draw money with a green pencil on paper, and its the same thing as withdrawing money.
haha .. yes you are correct
Hi Uncle Sha,
Im a Malaysian, all ready work here for almost 3 years. I want speak good english but i don’t have d confident.. Im so upset wif my english.. its effect my communication at office..