If you had read the papers recently, you would have noticed the big hoo-hah about Ms Ris Low's ang moh. The chairman of the Speak Good English movement spoke up for her, saying that we don't have the right to insult/reprimand her, since most Singaporeans speak like that too.
"my bigini goes boomz" "leopard preens" "i'm studying still"
The chairman says that he hear such sentences in conversations on trains/buses etc, but frankly, I wonder which trains/buses he took. I don't really hear so much of these on the streets from Singaporeans. Sure, I guess sentences such as "i'm studying still" do pop up every so often, but I must say that most of us youngsters can speak rather fluent English. If you watched the video, you would realise that her speech is choppy, and her pronunciation is flawed. Even though she was speaking Singlish, she had to think for a while before finishing her sentences. It's like she had to process the flawed language in her head first. Isn't that really bad?
The comments for the video are many, and very few spoke up for her. It's true that most of the comments made are written in Singlish themselves (after all, how many of us would put in effort to write in perfect English on forums). However I do think that their points are valid. For the few who spoke up for her, their argument are mainly similar - they all refer back to the words of the chairman. Now, if there is only one reason why I do not watch locally produced movies (mostly produced by the same person, you know who), it is because of how they all portray Singaporean's pride in our culture, one of which includes the usage of Singlish. I am totally disgusted (not just only in Singlish of course). To keep up with the world, it is only natural that we use the language in its correct form. Having our own identity is good and all, but feeling proud about how we changed someone else's language into some weird and awful sounding "thingy" is not. We can't not fault her just because she speaks like our typical Singaporean.
Fine, how about we assume that most Singaporeans do speak Singlish (and oh at least they speak confident and fluent Singlish, not that spluttering speech she gave, i can find aunties and uncles in television interviews who are more confident than her). I think we should start remembering why we started the Speak Good English Movement. Ms Low's position is one which presents her as a role model. Is it too demanding for us to want a role model who speaks good English, or at least good enough for than the masses to look up to? With such a response to support Ms Low in the mass media, Singaporean youths would think that it is okay to speak Singlish since "Ms Ris Low speaks like that and people on the papers say that we all speak like that anyway".
As Miss Singapore World, she will soon be participating in the contest in South Africa. She will be representing Singapore. With such poor command of the language and such confidence and attitude, it will not put Singapore in good light. Can't we have some expectations of someone we are sending to represent Singapore?
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