Saturday, February 09, 2008
On the above clip:
Such atrocity! It is so wrong for them to generalize Singaporeans speaking like that. I definitely don't speak like that, nor do most people I know. Singlish is just the equivalent of Taiwanese english, so if they can't get their own information right, they have no authority whatsoever to comment in such a rude manner.
Issue 1: Accent
Everyone has his/her own accent. There is no fixed or correct accent.
Issue 2: Intonation
They must have met with the Chinese Singaporeans from the examples they brought up. So the intonation has its root in Mandarin.
Issue 3: They can't understand our English.
What? At least our English is clearer than theirs, and not limited to whatever they can make out. Blame their poor understanding of the language. I definitely can pronounce the difference between 'thanks' and 'dance'!
Issue 4: ABCs keep out.
Just because your english is learned from English-speaking countries doesn't give you a right to show off. Because it just shows how little you know about how other countries, their lingo and culture, country bumpkin!
With that settled, Singaporeans should learn how to speak more clearly. It's a bad habit to have a lazy mouth. I know there are people who pronounce 'breakfast' as 'brAckfiRst', and 'thank you' as 'tank you'. English should be spoken with an open mouth and the words will be enunciated more clearly, so that ignorant people will not think that 'thanks' is 'dance'.
what we could have been, 2/09/2008 08:58:00 PM.
