Pub Date: 06/06/2005 Pub: Straits Times
Page: H7By: Rachel Chang
Page Heading: YouthInk
GROWING PAINS
It makes Singaporeans appear crass and uneducated, say some, while others laud it for helping to define the nation's identity. 'LANGUAGES are the pedigrees of nations,' said 18th-century writer Samuel Johnson. My kick-boxing instructor told an exhausted class: 'I was in Bangkok recently and I saw a woman with her two sons. I knew immediately from four words she said to her son that she was Singaporean.'The words were: Why you like that?' Both men make the same point, albeit in different ways. Language gives identity. A people's common language is their pedigree - their line of ancestry. That is perhaps why Singlish is so important to Singaporeans. In a country with few defining cultural characteristics beyond Zouk and laksa, Singlish stands out as something uniquely Singaporean. The beauty of Singlish lies in it being so succinct. Its ability to convey meaning so economically makes it too practical a tool to eradicate. Can you think of another language that conveys the urgency, futility and resignation of a situation as well as the words 'how now?' or the outrage, disgust, even admiration of a well-put 'siao!'? Speaking Singlish is a proclamation of who we are and where we feel we belong. Should the day come when the 'lehs' and 'mehs' finally disappear from our speech, I wonder if Singapore can be said to exist.
The writer is about to begin a degree in philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford University.
Above is an interesting article on Singlish. “Why am I interested in this topic?” You may ask. It all started with a newspaper article reporting possible efforts to ‘import’ Native English Teachers to attempt to improve our English Standards in Singapore (in other words, to get rid of Singlish).
After much pondering and discussions with friends, I must disagree of this idea of ‘importing’ foreign teachers to teach us Singaporeans. Although these foreign teachers may help add diversity to our Education System and also bring along new teaching methods from their homelands, they may not necessarily be BETTER (notice the emphasis on this) teachers than the local teachers we have now. Attached to the idea of ‘importing’ foreign teachers is the assumption that they are good teachers and will help improve our English standards. Yet what evidence do they have of this? I believe that the many English teachers who have taught me so far have done a fairly well job, and our current English standard is also fairly good, so why waste the efforts of importing Native English Teachers then?
When it comes to choosing the right people for the teaching job, other factors also come in place, such as attitude, passion, education background. We should not have this wrong mindset that British will speak perfect English and the Chinese will speak beautiful Chinese. You will be amazed that some Chinese can speak English perfectly well (and maybe even better!) as compared to the British.
Instead of looking at the teachers, I think the problem (if there ever was one in the first place) lies in our Education System. Right now, our way of teaching is very simple, all the tools that our English teachers need is just a blackboard, markers, worksheets, test papers, and more worksheets. All our lessons are confined into a small 4mx4m room. Yet, how much can you learn inside a small little tiny classroom, when the rest of the world is just right outside your door! All you need to do is open it, and greeting you will be new adventures, places to explore, new people to meet. I believe that the world is knowledge! This should be the education we students should be receiving, not just worksheets all day.
Another important factor that may contribute to our supposedly low standard of English is our Environment. As we all know, Singapore is a multi-racial society. We have people from all walks of life speaking so many different languages. It is hard for us to focus all our energies and efforts to work on our English Standard. Moreover, we are still currently in the process of improving our Mandarin-speaking abilities. At least we should be thankful that although we may not be very good at one language, at least we are fairly good at two different languages. A Jack of All trades I suppose.
Now I shall talk about Singlish. Yes, Singlish is not exactly a beautiful language, it’s name is not very attractive either. But we must admit, Singlish has become part of our lives and is part of our identity. Singlish is our very own language! Something that we can proudly call our own! Imagine if all of us decide to get rid of Singlish and take lessons from our imported Native English Teachers, we would be Singapore no more. Instead, we would be a mini-Britain and we shall all speak with that royal British accent. What’s so special and fun about that? We must also realise that Singlish is only a part of our casual conversations, and do not appear in our written work or reports. Thus, I do not see how Singlish would make such a drastic effect on our standard of English.
To conclude probably my longest entry ever, I believe that Singlish should stay and ‘imported goods’ should return to where they belong. Singlish is a mark of Singapore’s diverse and multi-racial society. It is our language, our way of being UNIQUELY SINGAPORE.
posted by eileen @ 7:43 AM
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