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LoginSpeak good English? 4 in 10 S'poreans say 'no need lah'
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Speak good English? 4 in 10 S'poreans say 'no need lah'
By Tessa Wong
SPEAK proper English? Forty-one per cent of Singaporeans polled in a recent Speak Good English Movement survey do not see any need.
This is despite an eight-year effort by the movement to raise standards through advertising campaigns and classes.
The survey of 1,243 Singaporeans aged 15 to 39, released yesterday at the launch of this year's language drive, found that this blase attitude was especially rampant among those in their late 20s. Nearly half of those aged 25 to 29 said they felt their English was already up to scratch, and that there was no need for improvement.
This sentiment was prevalent among many others too - about 65 per cent of all respondents claimed their standard of spoken English has risen in the last two years.Such people will be among three groups that the movement will target this year. The others are Singaporeans who want to speak good English but cannot, and those who can speak the language well.
This approach of focusing efforts on a few groups marks a change for the movement, which targeted all in the past.
One of the key thrusts of this year's campaign is building confidence and providing resources for those who want to improve their English, and those who think there is no need to do so.
The campaign's motto, 'I Can', alludes to this, and classes and proficiency tests will be lined up to help the public.
For those who speak English well, the main aim is to get them to avoid lapsing into Singlish when communicating with those who speak the language badly. This, the movement hopes, will encourage the latter to practise and improve their English.
More information can be found at www.goodenglish.org.sg
Besides people who see no reason to improve their English, another area of concern is service staff. The survey compared the standard of English spoken by service staff, superiors, business associates, family members, colleagues and peers, and retail and service workers fared the worst.
To improve the standard of English, the movement has launched a course on the language together with the Singapore Retailers Association.
The guest of honour at yesterday's launch, Mr Lim Boon Heng, Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, urged Singaporeans to heed the example of China.
Referring to the recently released documentary Mad About English, which is about the Chinese fervour to learn the language, he said: 'If we do not admit that we do not know, we will never learn. It will always be difficult in the beginning and people will laugh...(but) the embarrassment should not stop us from improving ourselves.'
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Like Beijing preparing for Olympics,... we are preparing this for YOG 2010?
Edited by d3rF 28 Aug `08, 4:53PM
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Originally posted by d3rF:Speak good English? 4 in 10 S'poreans say 'no need lah'
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<!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->SPEAK proper English? Forty-one per cent of Singaporeans polled in a recent Speak Good English Movement survey do not see any need.This is despite an eight-year effort by the movement to raise standards through advertising campaigns and classes.
The survey of 1,243 Singaporeans aged 15 to 39, released yesterday at the launch of this year's language drive, found that this blase attitude was especially rampant among those in their late 20s. Nearly half of those aged 25 to 29 said they felt their English was already up to scratch, and that there was no need for improvement.
This sentiment was prevalent among many others too - about 65 per cent of all respondents claimed their standard of spoken English has risen in the last two years.Such people will be among three groups that the movement will target this year. The others are Singaporeans who want to speak good English but cannot, and those who can speak the language well.
This approach of focusing efforts on a few groups marks a change for the movement, which targeted all in the past.
One of the key thrusts of this year's campaign is building confidence and providing resources for those who want to improve their English, and those who think there is no need to do so.
The campaign's motto, 'I Can', alludes to this, and classes and proficiency tests will be lined up to help the public.
For those who speak English well, the main aim is to get them to avoid lapsing into Singlish when communicating with those who speak the language badly. This, the movement hopes, will encourage the latter to practise and improve their English.
More information can be found at www.goodenglish.org.sg
Besides people who see no reason to improve their English, another area of concern is service staff. The survey compared the standard of English spoken by service staff, superiors, business associates, family members, colleagues and peers, and retail and service workers fared the worst.
To improve the standard of English, the movement has launched a course on the language together with the Singapore Retailers Association.
The guest of honour at yesterday's launch, Mr Lim Boon Heng, Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, urged Singaporeans to heed the example of China.
Referring to the recently released documentary Mad About English, which is about the Chinese fervour to learn the language, he said: 'If we do not admit that we do not know, we will never learn. It will always be difficult in the beginning and people will laugh...(but) the embarrassment should not stop us from improving ourselves.'
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Like Beijing preparing for Olympics,... we are preparing this for YOG 2010?
we r better oredi...
taiwan news showed that virgin chicken 'tong zi ji' in a beijing restaurant is called 'chicken without sexual life'...
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speaking what fucking good english?
Mother tongue also cannot express properly, want to speak fucking english for fuck?
Want to be ang moh huh?
Or like Lee Kuan Yew, only know english only?
Chinese don't know.
Speak to my lan jiao lah.
You think I will follow you Lee Kuan Yew?
Ang moh kan tan bastard?
You go and fuck off lah.
Edited by Poh Ah Pak 28 Aug `08, 5:11PM
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What is good english? Singlish, with grammatical proficiency, is good english?
Do we have to have British or American accents to consider as good english? Ang-mohs (those that I deal with) think that we have good command of english, esp written... they said that we have good grammar... but we speak too fast for them to understand.
Maybe good english is achieved when we speak slower to the ang-mohs...
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Originally posted by Poh Ah Pak:
Lee Kuan Yew, can you learn to speak chinese or not?
No need fucking good chinese, just chinese enough oredi.
You fucking chinese only know english, don't know chinese, now tell us speak fucking "good" english.
You really set a bad example for people.
he got speak chinese lah...
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Originally posted by d3rF:
What is good english? Singlish, with grammatical proficiency, is good english?
Do we have to have British or American accents to consider as good english? Ang-mohs (those that I deal with) think that we have good command of english, esp written... they said that we have good grammar... but we speak too fast for them to understand.
Maybe good english is achieved when we speak slower to the ang-mohs...
ya, try to speak like angmoh Singaporean will find you guai guai, angmoh still won't understand.
avoid missing english with dialects, malays and speak slowly, most angmoh will understand us.
Many angmohs are actually non native english speaking, more so we need to speak slowly.
But a friend of mine always remind me, angmoh is surprised when we could speak such good english, but they are more surprised when they realised many of us couldn't speak our mother tongue. You chinese can't speak chinese, what about cantonese? alamah....why like that?
Language is only part of communication, the other part is your body language, sincere? smiling? act to help? this is more important now when they outsource all telephone answering to India.
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Originally posted by sgdiehard:
ya, try to speak like angmoh Singaporean will find you guai guai, angmoh still won't understand.
avoid missing english with dialects, malays and speak slowly, most angmoh will understand us.
Many angmohs are actually non native english speaking, more so we need to speak slowly.
But a friend of mine always remind me, angmoh is surprised when we could speak such good english, but they are more surprised when they realised many of us couldn't speak our mother tongue. You chinese can't speak chinese, what about cantonese? alamah....why like that?
Language is only part of communication, the other part is your body language, sincere? smiling? act to help? this is more important now when they outsource all telephone answering to India.
Agree...
It's just cultural difference I guess. E.g. I can't really understand Scots, Irish & South African english even if they speak slow. But it doesn't mean that they speak bad english.
My ang-moh business partners always like to deal with Singaporeans because we can be their best friends when we wanna go and do business with China.
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Originally posted by Poh Ah Pak:
Why he broadcast his political bullshit on TV never in chinese?
UMNO melayu fellow against Anwar also can speak better chinese than him.
He should be ashamed of himself, Lee Kuan Yew.
I no LKY supporter, but he speaks mandarin, not so good. He got one to one tuition under 冯仲汉. Don't know if he speak dialect or not.I always think that Chinese language education in Singapore almost died in his hand, but then he sent his children all to Chinese Schools, LHL, LHY to Catholic High and his daughter to Nanyang. I guess every day he looked at the mirror and that reminded him that he is still a Chinese.
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Originally posted by d3rF:
Agree...
It's just cultural difference I guess. E.g. I can't really understand Scots, Irish & South African english even if they speak slow. But it doesn't mean that they speak bad english.
My ang-moh business partners always like to deal with Singaporeans because we can be their best friends when we wanna go and do business with China.
ya.. I got problem understanding when the irish speak among themselves; I enjoy Englishmen speaking slowly among themselves, very polite and gentleman like; I hate it when american speak among themselves, worse than the taiwanese, loud and as if they own the whole place.
It is always a good experience when you accompanied angmoh to China. You decide when you are chinese to the angmoh, and you are foreigner to the chinese.
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I always think that Chinese language education in Singapore almost died in his hand,
I think that chinese language and chinese culture in Singapore collapsed under his rule.
Don't know will take how long to repair his damage.
I really despise his language policies, that british dog Lee Kuan Yew.
Mess up everything.
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Originally posted by d3rF:
I believe that language skills shouldn't be something that we depend on govt to tell what to improve / learn.
Language should be something personal... something to put in the CV to make one more marketable in the industry.
Think we are too dependent on what the govt says...
speak what language to connect internationally with the world then?
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Never forget that the purpose of a language is only for communication. If one can communicate one's expression across without misunderstanding despite spelling errors, syntax errors, etc, then that lingo used would have served its purpose.
The beauty of that language is only used for artistic expression - literary works, some songs, etc. I sincerly doubt if an engineer talking to another engineer would appreciate such beautitude expressions! :-P
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Originally posted by xtreyier:
Never forget that the purpose of a language is only for communication. If one can communicate one's expression across without misunderstanding despite spelling errors, syntax errors, etc, then that lingo used would have served its purpose.
The beauty of that language is only used for artistic expression - literary works, some songs, etc. I sincerly doubt if an engineer talking to another engineer would appreciate such beautitude expressions! :-P
then u need an interpreter or linguistic to speak to another friend liao
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