Rate Singapore English from 1-10.


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jsbn said:
Malay as 3rd language? Why not?

It never hurts, neither did anyone DIE from learning a 3rd, 4th or 5th language. Our parents grew up on a diet of dialects, English, Chinese and Malay. If u wanna include dialects as 'foreign tongues', our parents would be dead 50yrs ago dude.

If they can do it 50yrs ago, why not now? Humans are supposed to be smarter as the evolution cycle goes on, not dumber.
i see no point for you to STRESS so much in your reply. i did not say i disagree, i am just stating what the MOE had prepared for the younger generation.

Well, at least your reply is more sensible than someone.
 

Drudkh said:
i see no point for you to STRESS so much in your reply. i did not say i disagree, i am just stating what the MOE had prepared for the younger generation.

Well, at least your reply is more sensible than someone.
Chill dude.

I'd seen ppl complaining over and over again how tough it was learning Chinese... Their primary language. I'd seen ppl who are proficient in at least 6 or 7 foreign languages (including their own dialects) at one go.

It makes me wonder (and it pisses me off to a certain extent) about the mentality of ppl nowadays. Complaining so much when ppl 50yrs ago had basically 'been-there, done-that' without so much as a whimper.

My STRESS on some words is normal. Not flame fodders. Chill man, have a Tiger. :cool:
 

jsbn said:
Chill dude.

I'd seen ppl complaining over and over again how tough it was learning Chinese... Their primary language. I'd seen ppl who are proficient in at least 6 or 7 foreign languages (including their own dialects) at one go.

It makes me wonder (and it pisses me off to a certain extent) about the mentality of ppl nowadays. Complaining so much when ppl 50yrs ago had basically 'been-there, done-that' without so much as a whimper.

My STRESS on some words is normal. Not flame fodders. Chill man, have a Tiger. :cool:
No prob, I agree with you. :) This has became a norm here and its going to stay for centuries.
 

There is nothing wrong with Singapore or Malaysia English.

If we can accept and learn other nations culture, so why not ours.

What is there to complain?

Don't see us complaining about their American English, British English, or Australian English.

We love our English and absolutely will follow what was taught by our parents and teachers.
 

Pro Image said:
There is nothing wrong with Singapore or Malaysia English.

If we can accept and learn other nations culture, so why not ours.

What is there to complain?

Don't see us complaining about their American English, British English, or Australian English.

We love our English and absolutely will follow what was taught by our parents and teachers.

Ya man. Those Scottish accent are really hard to catch.

If you're an expat in UK, you just have to learn their language, accent and understand their culture. Likewise if you're in China or SG/Malaysia. If an expat refuse to learn, than stay at home and suck thumb better.
 

it's not the language... it the attitude.

typical KS (kia si/ Kia su) attitude.

This language also want to be the best.

That dialect also want to be the best.

who will gives a damm when you are able to communicate effectively? (this mean that the receiving person is able to understand you)

brought up is a rigid system...thinking too rigid liao.... the human brain is much more versatile in "error corrections" than you thought possible (else how tourist enjoy their tour trips in countries of unfamilar languages)

that being said...written language is another matter...especially if it involves transactions and legalities.... but hey...not everyone is a lawer ;)
 

Sion said:
I think the westerners tend to judge our standard of English by our accent.

Don't overlook that a lot of westerners come from non-English speaking countries and may have quite an accent themselves.

What bothers me is not the accent, but sloppiness. Sometimes it seems that people do not care to proofread significant documents, and so I end up seeing embarrassing typos and sometimes grammar errors that change the meaning of sentences in government forms, condo passes, road signs, meeting agendas (particularly embarrassing if not even the guest of honor's name is spelled right), etc.

Another thing that bothers me is that frequently only very simple sentences are understood - which makes it difficult to say things in a polite way. The result is that no one seems to bother to be polite anymore.
 

Pro Image said:
There is nothing wrong with Singapore or Malaysia English.

If we can accept and learn other nations culture, so why not ours.

What is there to complain?

Don't see us complaining about their American English, British English, or Australian English.

We love our English and absolutely will follow what was taught by our parents and teachers.

If your job or business deals with a lot of communication with Ang Moh then it might be worthwhile to pay some attention to whether it is easier for them to comprehend what you're saying. Otherwise I don't see any point in fussing over it.

If you read the English newspapers and magazines published in Singapore, the standard of English is on par with the rest of the world.

Whether it's Malaysian English or Singlish that is something makes us unique. Otherwise we would be another pseudo-Ang Moh in sound. :)
 

LittleWolf said:
What bothers me is not the accent, but sloppiness. Sometimes it seems that people do not care to proofread significant documents, and so I end up seeing embarrassing typos and sometimes grammar errors that change the meaning of sentences in government forms, condo passes, road signs, meeting agendas (particularly embarrassing if not even the guest of honor's name is spelled right), etc.

you mean like this? :eek:
 

Sion, i agree with you.

Another thing to add:

Just few days back an American friend came to Singapore for a business trip and when we met up, he commented that we usually talk 'at the back of our throat'? And it's different from the way Americans talk, as in their voices are more projected outwards.

Another German tourist i met in Bali, said he can only fully understand the English that Germans speak. All other accents (incl Americans) seems 'funny' to him.

I guess it's the same language but in different accent, and truthfully for me it's easiest to understand 'Singaporean English'. :bsmilie:
 

I think maybe our society expects too much out of us to be proficient in so many languages and dialects.

For a not so clever person like me, it's Hokkien and Mandarin at home, studied Bahasa and English at school and picked up Cantonese from classmates. Studied a year of German. Also did 4 years of Japanese in a technical college evening class.

Now what kind of language expert that makes me? Rojak lah.

I hope the westerners who are mostly monolingual could understand our situation.
 

CYRN said:

Nah... I don't mind if people don't know English ... it's more like I know they could, but they're just too lazy to put a minimal effort into it.

I attended a workshop at a local research institute recently. The agenda was full of typos (not the "I don't know English" kind of typos, but swapped characters - s.moethng like th.at), including the invited speaker's names. To an ang moh like me, this reads: "You may have invested time and effort to travel overseas and boost our reputation by giving a talk, but we do not even minimally care about you, your talk, or this workshop". If I would have been one of the speakers, I would have felt quite a bit offended.
 

Singlish.. Is singlish... There's no point comparing it to Queen's english.. Singlish is a uniquely Singaporean language.. It's a proper language with it's own syntax and semantics..
Lots of people, mostly foreigners but also including Singaporeans don't recognise that..
Just look at how many 'ang-mohs' blatantly add a 'lah' or 'lor' at the end of every sentence.. Depending on the sentence spoken, adding a 'lah' at the end doesn't automatically make it Singlish..
Even the tone with which 'lah' & 'lor' etc are spoken carry different meanings..
 

Equals to that of Japanese adding 'yo' and 'ne' behind to similar effect. As well as intonation effect that brings out the mood of the speaker.

Not uniquely Singapore I must say. Uniquely... Asian.

If the Ang Mors don't get it, den too bad for them. :D
 

I would call it, being unique.

;p
 

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