by Elgin Toh
LEARNING English tops the list of advice that Shanghai-born, long-time immigrant Fang Yuan has for new arrivals in Singapore from her country of origin.
Speaking halting English when she joined her husband here in 1984 but determined to improve, she took lessons at the British Council for five years, spending six hours a week on the language.
The 62-year-old, an accomplished pianist in China, went on to teach music in English at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (Nafa) and set up its youth school.
'There is no way you can integrate into mainstream Singapore society if you don't speak English,' she said, adding that new immigrants should adopt a fresh attitude when starting work here, and be open about learning from Singaporeans.
She is among four recipients of the inaugural Outstanding New Immigrant Award announced yesterday by the Hua Yuan Association, the largest group representing new Chinese immigrants here.
The awards recognise post-1980 immigrants from China who have made significant contributions to society here. Organisers said they were looking not just for people eminent in their fields, but for those who also made an effort to integrate and give back to Singapore.
I think it should be Singlish. Got more qing qie gan.
sometimes i wonder..
i went to John Little's in Jurong Point.. i asked the 20-ish saleslady there "do you have this in dark red, like red wine"
the lady said to me in mandarin (not the PRC accented type but the Singapore accented type) "ä½ å�¯ä¸�å�¯ä»¥è®²å�Žè¯ï¼Ÿ"
i was kinda stunned...
Kudos to the PRC lady who put in the effort to learn a foreign language. Now if only more of us have her determination to learn languages. The next thing she can do is to learn how to screw up her English and Mandarin and learn these other languages called Singlish and Manglish as she would really fit right in, lol!
Singlish and Manglish are part of Singapore identity and I'm totally proud of it. But in order to be understood internationally, we put a bit more polish into our language skills.
Once she can grasp the concept and the underlying root foundation of the Singlish language, Singaporean from all walks of life would be able to communicate very efficiently with her.
Fitting into a society require more than language.
Originally posted by the Bear:sometimes i wonder..
i went to John Little's in Jurong Point.. i asked the 20-ish saleslady there "do you have this in dark red, like red wine"
the lady said to me in mandarin (not the PRC accented type but the Singapore accented type) "ä½ å�¯ä¸�å�¯ä»¥è®²å�Žè¯ï¼Ÿ"
i was kinda stunned...
Most likely Malaysian... their English not powderful...
'Learn English to fit in'
i very scared their english. 'going down' becomes 'å¤ æ·«è�¡' and 'mushroom soup' becomes '馬å�¸é¾�樹' and yesterday i heard 'appointment' becomes '阿噴門'
Originally posted by BanguIzai:i very scared their english. 'going down' becomes 'å¤ æ·«è�¡' and 'mushroom soup' becomes '馬å�¸é¾�樹' and yesterday i heard 'appointment' becomes '阿噴門'
lol nice one.
in sg, you don't need english, u need singlish
u need to learn to speak good english only when you need to communicate with the smarter americans, australians or europeans elsewhere
but in sg, singlish will be enough LAH,
u go kopitiam and order food in english you need they understand you MEH????