Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Speak Singlish

Occasionally Singapore would go into a “Speak Proper English” campaign. Usually I ignored these campaigns as an absolute waste of time and money. I mean in Malaysia, I’m expecting the locals to speak Malay; in China, I’m expecting the locals to Mandarin; in Japan, I’m expecting the locals to speak Japanese; in Singapore, I’m expected to speak not only English but “proper English”.

It’s stupid but not my problem because I ignored these stupid campaigns. However the nit-picking of these “Speak Proper English” people has went to another level this year. Just yesterday there was an article in the newspaper which shows some wrong signs in Singapore. One of them is a “Wash Hand” sign at a sink and the sign was wrong because…the sign never said which hand to wash? The sign should read “Wash Hands” and without the “S”, the sign is wrong because it is not proper English.

I don’t know if I should laugh or cry at the stupidity of it all. You want to spend a few hundred dollars just to paint a “S” at all the signs in Singapore? I have a better suggestion; this is Singapore, so let everyone in Singapore speak the Singapore language: Singlish.

No comments: