[Manthink]

20 years ago that remains true to its form and reality how SG remains relatively stable in an increasingly diverse world.
Your Identity, like it or not, goes beyound just your citizenship or your religion...

Will we ever become completely homogeneous, a melange of languages and cultures? No. Why did we take this route? Because we have no other choice. If we have only English and we allowed the other languages to atrophy and vanish, we face a very serious problem of identity and culture. How do I know this? Because I learnt Chinese late in life, and I rediscovered snatches of what I heard when my parents, my grandparents spoke: "Ah! yes, that was what they meant." It resonates, pulled at my heartstrings. Would I want to see it lost? Absolutely not!... - LKY in 2004



https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/i...e-identity

[Manthink]

I last heard a Bolehland politician remark claiming SGrean england no good enough.

I take that as a complement  as SGrean Singlish is JUST enough to make S$1 = +3.4 Ringgit.  

[p1acebo]

But my mother tongue is not mandarin. It is teochew

[Manthink]

But my mother tongue is not mandarin.  It is teochew

I once dated two 潮州妹...I can only say both were sweet in both  ancestral  dialect and the SG's official "Mother" tongue.

[p1acebo]

I once dated two 潮州妹...I can only say both were sweet in both  ancestral  dialect and the SG's official "Mother" tongue.

[EvertonDiehard]

Not to worry. An estimated 50% of SG households are ill equipped to support the use of Standard English.

[EvertonDiehard]

I last heard a Bolehland politician remark claiming SGrean england no good enough. I take that as a complement  as SGrean Singlish is JUST enough to make S$1 = +3.4 Ringgit. 

There is a lack of fluency in spoken English among the majority of adults, in spite of 10 years or more of instruction in an English-medium school environment. Generations of young Singaporeans enter the working world hampered by their inability to be understood globally.

[WhatDoYouThink!]

There is a lack of fluency in spoken English among the majority of adults, in spite of 10 years or more of instruction in an English-medium school environment. Generations of young Singaporeans enter the working world hampered by their inability to be understood globally.

So you're understood globally? And len what happens?

[Manthink]

There is a lack of fluency in spoken English among the majority of adults, in spite of 10 years or more of instruction in an English-medium school environment. Generations of young Singaporeans enter the working world hampered by their inability to be understood globally.

10 years? I only know for 155 years, this Island SG had attracted "Talents" or "Trash" from around the World be they fluent or "unfluent" in a language that originates from an ex-Colonial empire. That colonial era didn't prevented SG and SGreans from learning,  prosper and better traveled in last 56 years governed and dominated by multi-linguistic Asians. Did that "hampered" SGreans from going "global" ? Hardly.

Perhaps you should question those England-speaking-only Channel-5 audience their "understanding" of the REAL WORLD

[WhatDoYouThink!]

Ah kong had already told you can speak perfect or standard english like an Englishman but dun lose yr identify

[Manthink]

Not to worry. An estimated 50% of SG households are ill equipped to support the use of Standard English.

I am sure 99% of SG household don't understand WTF is "Standard English"...LKY already warned- don't pretend to be like a 红毛人 

[Manthink]

Ah kong had already told you can speak perfect or standard english like an Englishman but dun lose yr identify

LOL!.... LKY's grand father named his elderst grandson "Harry" which LKY hated, then he never had chance to learn Chinese until in his 30s.

Yes, you guessed it - LKY' grand parents were anglophiles....perhaps it was this experience shaped LKY's view about who he wanted to be in "most of his adult life".

[WhatDoYouThink!]

哎哟这些人装模作样摇头摆脑扮成洋人讲洋话，就以为真的是洋人了啊？

[Manthink]

哎哟这些人装模作样摇头摆脑扮成洋人讲洋话，就以为真的是洋人了啊？

洋人本身不是问题...而是那些假洋人的态度...

[EvertonDiehard]

10 years? I only know for 155 years, this Island SG had attracted "Talents" or "Trash" from around the World be they fluent or "unfluent" in a language that originates from an ex-Colonial empire.  That colonial era  didn't prevented SG and SGreans from learning,  prosper and better traveled in last 56 years governed and dominated by multi-linguistic  Asians. Did that "hampered" SGreans from going "global" ? Hardly.Perhaps you should question those England-speaking-only Channel-5 audience their "understanding" of the REAL WORLD 

Judging from your sub-standard written English, you must have been thoughtlessly acquiring Singlish from your parents and peers most of your life, since it is obviously saved in your long term memory as the only form of English that you are capable of speaking and writing. Your ability to speak Standard English suffers since you spend too much time interacting with others who speak a sub-standard form of the language. Birds of a feather do flock together after all; you would naturally adopt the speech that is heard most of the time around you. Even though English is considered a global language, most Singaporeans (you included) appear to have command of less than 35% of the words in the lexicon. By proudly adding Singlish into the mix, you have confused yourself and hindered your learning of Standard English. It is painfully obvious in your poor writing skills.

[moonrab]

But my mother tongue is not mandarin.  It is teochew

Me too. 😁
I used it daily with friends and in meetings 🤣🤣🤣

[Manthink]

Judging from your sub-standard written English, you must have been thoughtlessly acquiring Singlish from your parents and peers most of your life, since it is obviously saved in your long term memory as the only form of English that you are capable of speaking and writing. Your ability to speak Standard English suffers since you spend too much time interacting with others who speak a sub-standard form of the language. Birds of a feather do flock together after all; you would naturally adopt the speech that is heard most of the time around you. Even though English is considered a global language, most Singaporeans (you included) appear to have command of less than 35% of the words in the lexicon. By proudly adding Singlish into the mix, you have confused yourself and hindered your learning of Standard English. It is painfully obvious in your poor writing skills.

Speaking of the devil itself...When the devil appreciates my comment in  "sub-standard" england and yet forgets SGreans continue to do well internationally by knowing "less than 35%" the words in Oxford dictionary...

真是典型的假洋人的傲慢自大态度....

[cheekopekman]

20 years ago that remains true to its form and reality how SG remains relatively stable in an increasingly diverse world.
Your Identity, like it or not, goes beyound just your citizenship or your religion...

Will we ever become completely homogeneous, a melange of languages and cultures? No. Why did we take this route? Because we have no other choice. If we have only English and we allowed the other languages to atrophy and vanish, we face a very serious problem of identity and culture. How do I know this? Because I learnt Chinese late in life, and I rediscovered snatches of what I heard when my parents, my grandparents spoke: "Ah! yes, that was what they meant." It resonates, pulled at my heartstrings. Would I want to see it lost? Absolutely not!... - LKY in 2004



https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/i...e-identity

I only want to pass exams with the 2 languages in school lah!  Singlish and Hokkien more important lah! WahSee Hokkien Lang lah! 

[Manthink]

Me too. 😁
I used it daily with friends and in meetings 🤣🤣🤣

Good for you!

Spoken language is for the living ....as long as you use it. It took a non-Mandarin speaking LKY over 30 years of struggle during his adult life until his passing.
How did he picked up ? By speaking in Chinese to his security details & medical team who were taking care of his bed-ridden wife...

https://youtu.be/EwIn2beZp5k

[Manthink]

I only want to pass exams with the 2 languages in school lah!  Singlish and Hokkien more important lah! WahSee Hokkien Lang lah! 

Our chatty little chatbot cheekopekman has been outdated liao - When will it be up graded to generate a single sense in Chinese ?

[Oyk]

There is a lack of fluency in spoken English among the majority of adults, in spite of 10 years or more of instruction in an English-medium school environment. Generations of young Singaporeans enter the working world hampered by their inability to be understood globally.

Are you aware that we have been taking in large numbers of new citizens from Malaysia and China in order to balance our MICO?  Our Malay population grew because of births.  One Malay family, five or six children.  Our Han population did not grow in tandem, instead, it fell.  One Han family, one child or even none. Many are even single.   This would tilt the MICO with the C falling below 75% if nothing was done.

So, we had no choice but to import.  Han Malaysians are fluent in Malay and I have heard them speaking Malay as if that's their mother tongue to our Malays.  They probably felt inadequate to speak English with our Malays who are mostly fluent in English. Those from China studied English as a second language. They can read English very well but are not fluent in speaking it, that's all. If you immerse them in English-speaking countries like the US or the UK, they will speak the language very fluently within six months, I believe.  But they are in Singapore, not the US or the UK.  We are hardly a good place for the Chinese to learn English given the way we speak it.  Surely, you don't expect them to learn to say - Hey, you makan already or not?  Just now you eat what?

This is why Pritam Singh wants all foreigners, and that would include new citizens and PRs, to pass some English proficiency test...

So when you say, despite ten years of schooling, you need to find out where they were schooled for ten years.

The good thing, as I see it, is the much higher standard of Mandarin being spoken by new citizens from China.  Even those from Malaysia cannot match them.  Singaporeans have been laughed at for not being proficient and fluent in both English and Mandarin.  Now, we have Singaporeans who are proficient and fluent in Mandarin, albeit new citizens from China.  I hope that with these Chinese migrating to Singapore, the standard of Mandarin will rise across the board.

Our true mother tongues would be lost.  Mandarin would be the new mother tongue for the Hans.  But then again, we are heading toward extinction, so who is going to miss those mother tongues of ours?

[WhatDoYouThink!]

Speaking of the devil itself...When the devil appreciates my comment in  "sub-standard" england and yet forgets SGreans continue to do well internationally by knowing "less than 35%" the words in Oxford dictionary...

真是典型的假洋人的傲慢自大态度....

Lky was right on. For trade and communications, use whatever convenient and comfortable with. For identify, must try to use mandarin or dialets.

[Oyk]

When we joined Malaysia, our national language and lingua franca would be Malay. Our forefathers knew it, and most of them learned to speak some Malay.

We were kicked out in 1965, and the following year, China went into rapid decline because of the ill-conceived Cultural Revolution.

We should not be too hard on ourselves just because our Chinese language is subpar. China was not a country that could throw a lifeline to us while Malaysia had told us to eff off. We needed jobs, we needed to survive, to whom we could turn? If we didn't learn English, where would the jobs come from?

So LKY introduced English but we paid a price for it because our standard of Chinese dropped. Our upper generations, most of whom have passed away, could speak very pure Teochew, Hokkien, Cantonese. Their children attended school, learned English and Mandarin, and usually did poorly for Mandarin. The emphasis was on English as it was the way to put food on the table.

I can understand why LKY introduced English as the common language. Malay, Tamil and Chinese would not do in 1965.

[WhatDoYouThink!]

Speaking of the devil itself...When the devil appreciates my comment in  "sub-standard" england and yet forgets SGreans continue to do well internationally by knowing "less than 35%" the words in Oxford dictionary...

真是典型的假洋人的傲慢自大态度....

When you see a cat wow wow to a dog, you must be thinking what a smart cat, can wow wow fluently. But when it aso wow wow to other cats, dun you find it strange? 😲

[Oyk]

Our chatty little chatbot cheekopekman has been outdated liao - When will it be up graded to generate a single sense sentence in Chinese ?

不用谢。不用客气。 

[Oyk]

A is Cantonese. B is Hokkien

A and B were speaking to an AMDK, and said wow wow wow. Jin kiang (so smart)

After the white god had left, they started speaking to each other.

A: sek bao mei?
B; Ah buay

A: choe mut yeh zhong mei sek fan?
B: bo lui

LKY was right to introduce Mandarin which not only did away with dialects but also stopped us from saying lui

A: 吃饱了没？
B: 还没

A: 你怎么还没吃饭？
B: 没钱

[EvertonDiehard]

We are hardly a good place for the Chinese to learn English given the way we speak it.  Surely, you don't expect them to learn to say - Hey, you makan already or not?  Just now you eat what? Singaporeans have been laughed at for not being proficient and fluent in both English and Mandarin.  

I have overheard S'porean parents who are not proficient in English attempt to speak to and teach their children the language. Just last weekend, I heard a local mother tell her young son to finish his breakfast while she withdraws her money from the nearby ATM. She said: "You eat yourself. I go press money, ok?"

[cheekopekman]

Our chatty little chatbot cheekopekman has been outdated liao - When will it be up graded to generate a single sense in Chinese ?

Hokkien Lang not Tng Lang meh?

[Oyk]

I have overheard S'porean parents who are not proficient in English attempt to speak to and teach their children the language. Just last weekend, I heard a local mother tell her young son to finish his breakfast while she withdraws her money from the nearby ATM. She said: "You eat yourself. I go press money, ok?"

No wonder the Malaysian minister said our English...

Should be "You ownself eat. I go tid tid tid."

[Manthink]

When you see a cat wow wow to a dog, you must be thinking what a smart cat, can wow wow fluently. But when it aso wow wow to other cats, dun you find it strange? 😲

原因很简单: 人会自欺欺人....所以人不如狗也不是猫.

比如 CECA-minded Oyk