Der Wince-y Code

(Der = 'the' pronounced by the majority of Singaporeans)

From yesterday's The Sunday Times ('What if we're understood only in S'pore, Malaysia and Batam?'), stories to make you wince:

Story 1 Singaporean interviewed for job by international panel 'impresses' them with his 'colloquial, non-standard' English. 'Panel members are flummoxed.' (Wow, I just love that sentence!) Singaporean member of panel has to 'translate' for his peers.

Story 2 Singaporean teacher studying in Australia does donkey work for his group presentation but not 'sufficiently confident' of his English to present. Australian group member does outstanding presentation and grabs 'lion's share of the credits'. (Who asked him to do all the donkey work? Being a doormat, bullied by his peers! Anyway, thumbs down for the lecturer who gave so much credit to the person who spoke well. Donno know how to set and assess group project!!)

Further down in the (very long) article, RADM Lui Tuck Yew said that 'the percentage of Singaporeans able to code-switch effectively is very, very small.'

I am flummoxed, I tell you. How did this happen? Presumably, the job applicant and the teacher went through their education here in Singapore, as did the many Singaporeans who are unable to 'code-switch effectively'. Does this mean that throughout their school years, teachers spoke to them in Singlish? Somehow, I find that hard to believe. Surely, through all those years, there must have been more formal occasions where the more formal code was used, such as in lessons, assembly talks, seminars, lectures, teacher training, what have you? Didn't these people ever listen to the radio or watch TV? Listen to football commentaries, National Day parade commentaries, etc?

I do feel sorry for the job applicant and the teacher. But I wonder how their lives turned out this way. Did the job applicant speak Singlish in his workplace all the time? To his clients, peers and bosses? Did his workplace carry out meetings in Singlish? And what about the teacher? Was he teaching in Singlish (unless a MT teacher)? So these two are both victims and perpetrators of poor English?

Very worrying, indeed. And our poly and uni undergrads dare to laugh at/criticise their foreign lecturers for their 'poor' use of English. Believe it or not, I've even heard criticisms of native speakers of English...

RADM Lui also talked about the PCK effect. I'm tired of hearing about the PCK effect. PCK is NOT the cause of the lousy standard of English. PCK is a manifestation of the Singaporean way of life, which happens to comprise a good measure of Singlish. It's not as if people only started speaking Singlish when the show was aired. In fact, I'd say that many people who speak Singlish (code-switchers and non-code-switchers) didn't even watch the series. And it's also not as if PCK was the only English Language show people were watching.

Frankly, I think there's nothing wrong with Singlish in itself. We all know that in any community of speakers of a language it is natural for a non-standard version (or even versions) to emerge. I thought that code-switching between standard and non-standard versions was natural, too. But there I have been deluded, obviously. On top of everything, our teachers now have to teach children to code-switch as well.