Are English standards slipping?
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Apr 12, 2010 - The Straits Times
Are English standards slipping?
By Shawn Lee Miller, Multimedia Journalist
WHAT DO ex-beauty queen Ris Low and video game character Bolo Santosi have in common? They have both put Singlish in the spotlight in recent times.
That led us to question how far the English language has evolved in Singapore. With the Speak Good English Movement into its tenth year, has our standard of English taken a step back?
Dr KK Seet, Senior Lecturer at the Department of English Language and Literature at the National University of Singapore, offered his theory.
'The standard of English here has been deteriorating in the twenty years that I've been teaching. In the early years, the students spoke better. I attribute it to the fact that it's an MTV generation, people have shorter attention spans and they don't read enough,' he surmised.
Are Singaporeans getting so accustomed to speaking in Singlish that proper English has taken a backseat?
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Depending on who im conversing with thn i speak which type english . Singlish is sgporean language , even th angmohs come they think isit their eng standard drop not . rofl .
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You mean singlish is still unpopular in singapore ?
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i think the standard of english is slipping all around the world. Think about it. During the Victorian era, people spoke so much better. when i used to read shakespeare in highschool, i didn't understand what they were talking about. So its just not Singapore. I think Singlish is kinda unique and it represents a really multicultural city. I know my Canadian friends here all think Singlish is a new language, it's kinda funny when i tell them its just really broken english.
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yes i agree woh this is thn singapore no singlish mean no singapore alr loh airything oso copy uk ltr ppl sia we copycat sia >.< haha
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yes i agree woh this is thn singapore no singlish mean no singapore alr loh airything oso copy uk ltr ppl sia we copycat sia >.< haha
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my point exactly. I have no idea what you just attempted to say Kevin.
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yes i agree woh this is thn singapore no singlish mean no singapore alr loh airything oso copy uk ltr ppl sia we copycat sia >.< haha
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speak proper and standard english please
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pretty much....
if you see some of the posts these days, their content betray the age or maybe mentality of the author, and most of the time, they're barely coherent..
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sometimes i speak so much singlish, i have difficulty differentiating between english and singlish lol. can't be helped, it's a stamp in our culture, cannot be removed no matter what. take it away and you take away what little identity we have left.
this forum is a gd example of the slipping english standards hehehe.
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Originally posted by Kevin(::
yes i agree woh this is thn singapore no singlish mean no singapore alr loh airything oso copy uk ltr ppl sia we copycat sia >.< haha
dude, are you playing jizsaw puzzle with words?... -
Well I think singlish is fine... It's like a unique part of singapore... Our culture...
It's wrong to say just becoz others in US or England couldn't understand us, we shld change ourself to suit them... The other country must inturn learn how to respect our culture...
It's just like malay between Malaysia and Indonesia... They are both speaking malay but slightly different...
Just like we dun study chinese just to accomodate the PRC, they shld study english to communicate with us... Communication isn't abt how "Correct" u speak, but how well U convay the information... I'm sure even speaking in broken english, some american also will understand wat u mean...
Another look is US... Their street also got slangs, rappers etc etc... Some are also not proper english...
Human change with time... I think if u go out speaking like "Thou art fine" now, ppl will most likely laugh at u... English has evolve... ... ...
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i will always speak singlish as long as i'm with singaporeans but i dun think it is a respectable language in the eyes of outsiders.
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Why so ? Singlish is MIS leh not any mic thing u know , should be honoured ?
@da good trying to promote singlish >.<
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Originally posted by Kevin(::
Why so ? Singlish is MIS leh not any mic thing u know , should be honoured ?
@da good trying to promote singlish >.<
Your English is slipping.
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Slipping like a banana fell into a banana shake ? :P
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Sipping on a banana shake and slips on a banana peel.
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U are making mime mind thinking of banana :D HL banana nice :D
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Originally posted by Kevin(::
U are making mime mind thinking of banana :D HL banana nice :D
Your English is going bananas.
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Hahaha making me crave for goreng pisang :D
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Bananas on the double.
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Bananas on th split :P
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our english is bad because we were not taught the basics properly like grammar and phonetics. our teachers were also not taught these also during their time. all we were taught were doing the silly comprehension and composition all the time.
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Wah i got learn in mime tuiton class in th past and forced to buy a book on this verbs grammers etc -.-