The Straits Times

Tuesday, July 27, 1999

Please speak English

That Singapore’s mother tongues are well-entrenched is a sign of this country’s security. For Chinese, Malay and Tamil to have been on the retreat would have constituted an unacceptable breach in its cultural defenses. Instead, the vitality of those languages - including Chinese, which has benefited immeasurably from the Speak Mandarin Campaign - attests to the resilience of the multi-lingual basis of the multi-racial Singapore. This achievement should not be underestimated. But even success comes at a price. The price may well be the lower standards of English that Singapore is witnessing. Admittedly, it is difficult to demonstrate a causal link between the "rise" of the mother-tongues and the "fall" of English, to exaggerate on both fronts, but given the finite capacity of most brains to absorb linguistics and literary skills, it stands to reason that higher expectations in one sphere will exact a toll in the other. That is what seems to be happening. That the problem of lower standards of English is a genuine one (even though its causes might be disputed) is proved by the Education Ministry’s plans to send 8,000 teachers for English language courses to raise standards among students. This is welcome because the ministry has recognised that a point of decision has arrived, and has acted on realisation.

A roundtable discussion on the state of English here, carried in The Sunday Times, fleshed out many linguistic, cultural and economic aspects of the issue. An essential dimension is the prevalence of Singlish in Singapore. Like the durian, Singlish is an astringent fact of life. It is a kind of "dialect" in which many people express themselves best, with effortless ease. Given that it is natural, its reality needs to be acknowledged; in any case, it cannot be unlearned by those who know it. But it exercises an insidious influence on standards of grammatical and internationally-understood English that needs to be resisted. True, whether people around the globe are obliged to adhere to standard English—and, indeed, even what constitutes that standard—is open to debate. (After all, it has been observed that the English and the Americans are divided by a common language.) But it is undeniable that Singlish is not the most obvious of choices at a forum where diverse peoples speaking in English need to actually understand each other. Its disregard for grammar is particularly dangerous, since short cuts in speech end up predictably on pages of exercise books, where they cost marks, and then later in life, where they become an obstacle to advancement. The importance of English needs to be reaffirmed, both on its own account and because of Singapore’s need not to stray too far from the speech of the world which its economy serves.

In one of those curious expressions of cultural politics, Singaporeans fluent in English find it fashionable sometimes to speak Singlish in order to affirm their solidarity with the linguistic working class. However, this fraternity plays upon, but does not resolve, the real problems faced by those who are stuck with Singlish. That is why, just as the Education Ministry is addressing part of the problem by sharpening its focus on English, the media need to prevent Singlish from being legitimised as an acceptable alternative to English. Television bears an essential responsibility in this regard. The popularity of Singlish is incontestable, but what Singapore needs is a generation of citizens proficient in English, both spoken and written. It is a challenge that has to be met.