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Angry little men, going about their angry little lives.The honour is mine.
Friday, November 23, 2007
From today's ST Online Forum:
Singaporean traits that don't endear us to others
I was born, grew up and educated in Singapore. Now that I have moved overseas, I look back fondly on my life in Singapore and I am grateful that I was given opportunities that made me who I am.
However, in recent years, I have found it increasingly difficult to feel proud of my home country and my countrymen.
When I see posts left by Singaporeans on international forums in which they lash out at another person for asking them to refrain from using Singlish and quoting from Wikipedia to define Singlish as a 'crazy mixture of languages' but not 'improper English', or defensive blog entries by the younger generation which state that our country cannot possibly be inferior to another place because our currency unit is still stronger, it makes me feel ashamed.
I have kept the words of a very wise lecturer in junior college close to my heart all these years; she told me that if a person undergoes years of education up to university but comes out no better a person in terms of character and attitude, then the education was in vain.
The education that Singaporeans are blessed with is not to just give us book knowledge; it is also to equip us with the ability to reflect and better ourselves.
To my dismay, I noticed that many Singaporeans' reaction to any kind of criticism is to take it personally, fight back and then walk away with a 'I'm too civilised to continue the argument with you', without giving a thought to the criticism.
Our people are supposed to be well educated, well travelled, familiar with international happenings, so why are we acting so narrow-minded and provincial?
If we think of ourselves as 'knowing better', think of any criticism as a personal attack, where can we go if not down?
Let me reiterate on behalf of my Singaporean friends who are in situations similar to mine: We want to be proud of our country but it is hard to do so when our countrymen are giving the world excuses to call us 'defensive, inferior people'.
Those of us abroad are not gloating over having 'made it' in the global arena, we do not look down on those in Singapore, we are not trying to dissociate ourselves from our nationality.
We are just frustrated, and wondering what happened to the quality of our people.
It's actually a remarkably reasonable letter, and I can agree with her on most of the points she makes, except this one here:
"When I see posts left by Singaporeans on international forums in which they lash out at another person for asking them to refrain from using Singlish and quoting from Wikipedia to define Singlish as a 'crazy mixture of languages' but not 'improper English'..."
I want to make the point here and now that Singlish should by no means be equated with bad English. It should not be condemned as such and we should not intensify attempts to eradicate one of the few unique things to come out of this country.
If you hate Singlish, you are an ignorant snob, plain and simple. Why? Because your condemnation of Singlish (and some go further to condemn all dialects of English) indicates that you presume there to be a universal Holy Grail of a language known as Standard English. That is a complete misconception.
Simply put, Standard English quite simply does not exist. There are no set rules or vocabulary for something called "Standard English", because the English language lacks a governing authority to ensure these uniform standards. Singlish in itself has developed very unique grammar, vocabulary and turns of phrase, and can thus be considered a dialect. As such, saying Singlish is poor English is like saying Hokkien is poor Mandarin - which it is not, because Hokkien is one dialect and Mandarin another, wholly different one. Singlish is thus one dialect out of many within the English language, and it should be recognised as such. Calling it broken English is snobbery, and ignorant snobbery at that.
Perhaps anti-Singlish proponents would make the argument that Singlish is barely English, given that it borrows so heavily from other languages and dialects. But these self-professed linguists forget that the English language itself has done exactly that over the centuries. Want to hazard a guess as to how many words in your vaunted "Standard English" vocabulary have a French origin? 30,000, thereabouts, and including some of the most common, such as "abnormal", "ability" or "jacket". More recently, we have "google" entering the English lexicon. It is precisely this flexibility which has made English so widespread, so successful and such a joy to learn for so many people. And you're opposed to that?
So, anti-Singlish snobs - you have no case. At least learn more about the language you so profess to love before embarrassing yourself with your ignorance.
There are even Singlish-hating groups on Facebook. I've looked there, and they're composed of a bunch of pseudo-intellectual snobs who think they're being really smart by denigrating one of the only unique aspects of a Singaporean culture. Let's have a look at some choice examples; post in proper English rendered in bold italics below.
OMFG. i went to a library and i asked a girl how do you turn this on? and she goes "you want to on it lah?" and I say NO, i would like to turn on the light! and she just looked at me and did it herself, ugh i hate how they talk here!
I went to a library and asked a girl, "How do you turn this on?" She went, "You want to on it lah?" I said no, I would like to have the light on, please, and she just looked at me and did it herself. Ugh, I hate how they talk here!
So, Singlish is poor English but a complete inability to utilise punctuation correctly is not? Intriguing thesis this winner puts forward here.
Lol that's funny. I'm actually more annoyed by the fact that speakers of Singlish/Manglish/Creole English are so unaware that the rest of the world doesn't speak a mangled version of English like they do!
Grammatically alright - but unbelievably ignorant. By her definition, Americans speak a "mangled version of English". But she's probably too much of an airhead to even remotely suspect that.
Good day to all!
Spread the word about this Group if you're an Anti-Singlish person.
This is to promote awareness that such a horrible standard of broken ENGLISH is a disgrace to Singaporeans.
Send out invites and make us known that we're for real!! :)
You are the disgrace, for trying to eradicate your own unique culture. Please, go and get American citizenship, a Southern drawl, a blond crew-cut and plastic surgery to make your eyes rounder, then at least you'll be a disgrace to America and not to Singapore.
blah blah blah~~ they keep on talking and talking with their singlish...
i just CANNOT understanding wat they're saying sometimes!
Madam, I similarly "just cannot understanding wat" you're saying here. You would think that anyone who wishes to critique someone else's standard of English would at least possess a reasonably good grasp of the language themselves. These idiots don't seem to be able to grasp that simple concept.
gaah -_-...i hate it when ppl speak singlish 2 me when i go back home and if i speak normally they say "wtf you are frm singapore why you talk like american lah" and everywhere i go ppl wanna know why i dunt tlk like im frm singapore...i've tried to teach my cousins not to tlk singlish but they r too damn used 2 it
Look, I'm not going to even fucking bother with this one. That people can be such breathtaking hypocrites is beyond my comprehension.
Judging by these fine specimens of humanity, the anti-Singlish camp has quite a lot to do. They can start by actually putting forth good reasons why Singlish is merely broken English instead of consistently insisting that it is broken English simply because it jars their ears. Hey, princess, if you don't yet know this, here it is now: the world does not revolve around you. And a reminder: you can't be an intellectual snob with a piss-poor intellect.
Singaporean traits that don't endear us to others
I was born, grew up and educated in Singapore. Now that I have moved overseas, I look back fondly on my life in Singapore and I am grateful that I was given opportunities that made me who I am.
However, in recent years, I have found it increasingly difficult to feel proud of my home country and my countrymen.
When I see posts left by Singaporeans on international forums in which they lash out at another person for asking them to refrain from using Singlish and quoting from Wikipedia to define Singlish as a 'crazy mixture of languages' but not 'improper English', or defensive blog entries by the younger generation which state that our country cannot possibly be inferior to another place because our currency unit is still stronger, it makes me feel ashamed.
I have kept the words of a very wise lecturer in junior college close to my heart all these years; she told me that if a person undergoes years of education up to university but comes out no better a person in terms of character and attitude, then the education was in vain.
The education that Singaporeans are blessed with is not to just give us book knowledge; it is also to equip us with the ability to reflect and better ourselves.
To my dismay, I noticed that many Singaporeans' reaction to any kind of criticism is to take it personally, fight back and then walk away with a 'I'm too civilised to continue the argument with you', without giving a thought to the criticism.
Our people are supposed to be well educated, well travelled, familiar with international happenings, so why are we acting so narrow-minded and provincial?
If we think of ourselves as 'knowing better', think of any criticism as a personal attack, where can we go if not down?
Let me reiterate on behalf of my Singaporean friends who are in situations similar to mine: We want to be proud of our country but it is hard to do so when our countrymen are giving the world excuses to call us 'defensive, inferior people'.
Those of us abroad are not gloating over having 'made it' in the global arena, we do not look down on those in Singapore, we are not trying to dissociate ourselves from our nationality.
We are just frustrated, and wondering what happened to the quality of our people.
It's actually a remarkably reasonable letter, and I can agree with her on most of the points she makes, except this one here:
"When I see posts left by Singaporeans on international forums in which they lash out at another person for asking them to refrain from using Singlish and quoting from Wikipedia to define Singlish as a 'crazy mixture of languages' but not 'improper English'..."
I want to make the point here and now that Singlish should by no means be equated with bad English. It should not be condemned as such and we should not intensify attempts to eradicate one of the few unique things to come out of this country.
If you hate Singlish, you are an ignorant snob, plain and simple. Why? Because your condemnation of Singlish (and some go further to condemn all dialects of English) indicates that you presume there to be a universal Holy Grail of a language known as Standard English. That is a complete misconception.
Simply put, Standard English quite simply does not exist. There are no set rules or vocabulary for something called "Standard English", because the English language lacks a governing authority to ensure these uniform standards. Singlish in itself has developed very unique grammar, vocabulary and turns of phrase, and can thus be considered a dialect. As such, saying Singlish is poor English is like saying Hokkien is poor Mandarin - which it is not, because Hokkien is one dialect and Mandarin another, wholly different one. Singlish is thus one dialect out of many within the English language, and it should be recognised as such. Calling it broken English is snobbery, and ignorant snobbery at that.
Perhaps anti-Singlish proponents would make the argument that Singlish is barely English, given that it borrows so heavily from other languages and dialects. But these self-professed linguists forget that the English language itself has done exactly that over the centuries. Want to hazard a guess as to how many words in your vaunted "Standard English" vocabulary have a French origin? 30,000, thereabouts, and including some of the most common, such as "abnormal", "ability" or "jacket". More recently, we have "google" entering the English lexicon. It is precisely this flexibility which has made English so widespread, so successful and such a joy to learn for so many people. And you're opposed to that?
So, anti-Singlish snobs - you have no case. At least learn more about the language you so profess to love before embarrassing yourself with your ignorance.
There are even Singlish-hating groups on Facebook. I've looked there, and they're composed of a bunch of pseudo-intellectual snobs who think they're being really smart by denigrating one of the only unique aspects of a Singaporean culture. Let's have a look at some choice examples; post in proper English rendered in bold italics below.
OMFG. i went to a library and i asked a girl how do you turn this on? and she goes "you want to on it lah?" and I say NO, i would like to turn on the light! and she just looked at me and did it herself, ugh i hate how they talk here!
I went to a library and asked a girl, "How do you turn this on?" She went, "You want to on it lah?" I said no, I would like to have the light on, please, and she just looked at me and did it herself. Ugh, I hate how they talk here!
So, Singlish is poor English but a complete inability to utilise punctuation correctly is not? Intriguing thesis this winner puts forward here.
Lol that's funny. I'm actually more annoyed by the fact that speakers of Singlish/Manglish/Creole English are so unaware that the rest of the world doesn't speak a mangled version of English like they do!
Grammatically alright - but unbelievably ignorant. By her definition, Americans speak a "mangled version of English". But she's probably too much of an airhead to even remotely suspect that.
Good day to all!
Spread the word about this Group if you're an Anti-Singlish person.
This is to promote awareness that such a horrible standard of broken ENGLISH is a disgrace to Singaporeans.
Send out invites and make us known that we're for real!! :)
You are the disgrace, for trying to eradicate your own unique culture. Please, go and get American citizenship, a Southern drawl, a blond crew-cut and plastic surgery to make your eyes rounder, then at least you'll be a disgrace to America and not to Singapore.
blah blah blah~~ they keep on talking and talking with their singlish...
i just CANNOT understanding wat they're saying sometimes!
Madam, I similarly "just cannot understanding wat" you're saying here. You would think that anyone who wishes to critique someone else's standard of English would at least possess a reasonably good grasp of the language themselves. These idiots don't seem to be able to grasp that simple concept.
gaah -_-...i hate it when ppl speak singlish 2 me when i go back home and if i speak normally they say "wtf you are frm singapore why you talk like american lah" and everywhere i go ppl wanna know why i dunt tlk like im frm singapore...i've tried to teach my cousins not to tlk singlish but they r too damn used 2 it
Look, I'm not going to even fucking bother with this one. That people can be such breathtaking hypocrites is beyond my comprehension.
Judging by these fine specimens of humanity, the anti-Singlish camp has quite a lot to do. They can start by actually putting forth good reasons why Singlish is merely broken English instead of consistently insisting that it is broken English simply because it jars their ears. Hey, princess, if you don't yet know this, here it is now: the world does not revolve around you. And a reminder: you can't be an intellectual snob with a piss-poor intellect.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Been inactive, I know; on A Wrong Turn as well. It's a busy period, what with exams next week and all. Just letting everyone who still bothers to visit here know that neither place is dead, and will be brimming with activity (probably largely mine) very soon.
Till then.
Till then.
Monday, November 05, 2007
Remember, remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason why gunpowder, treason
Should ever be forgot.
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason why gunpowder, treason
Should ever be forgot.
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