The Speak Good English Movement has begun again, aiming to help Singaporeans "be more confident in using proper English so that they can be better understood".

PM Lee launched the campaign, encouraging Singaporeans to "consciously use full sentences, with proper sentence structure, at home, work and social gatherings".

I cringed while reading the report in Straits Times, not because I disagree with the need for Singaporeans to have a sound grasp of good English, but because I found the exclusive dichotomy set up between Standard English and Colloquial Singapore English (CSE) extremely objectionable.

Before going into that, these are the points in the article which I found objectionable:

a) "It is useful to speak proper English all the time than to speak sloppily most of the time and then switch to proper English on formal occasions."

There should not be a judgement call ("speak sloppily") associated to CSE. Show me a non-local who says all it requires is to master CSE in everyday speech is to speak sloppily, and I'll show you his knowledge of CSE is incomplete. This is probably a thinly-veiled attempt at elevating Standard English at the expense of CSE, which is underhanded if you ask me.

Furthermore, such switching between tongues is not very much different from switching from Mandarin to English since both languages have their own lexis and grammar. If bilinguals can switch between both with ease, then so can we switch between Standard English and CSE. Suggesting otherwise implies that everyone in the world should speak in one language only, since by that logic, it's far easier than having different languages getting in the fray. Yet this form of language nazism is clearly ludicrous.

b) PM Lee suggested that pop songs, hip hop or rap can be used as a medium for teaching English.

Many English hip hop or rap songs do not use Standard English, assuming we are using either standard American or British English as the standard. Many of such songs, if I am not wrong, are popularized by African Americans, who use their own brand of English. As an example, sample the lyrics from the song Do It Like Me by 50 cents:

You can walk like I do, and talk like me too

But nobody gon' rock with you

Cuz you can't do it like me, nah you can't do it like me

(Hold on a second homie, let's get this clear)

You can walk like I do, and talk like me too

But nobody gon' rock with you

Cuz you can't do it like me, cuz you can't do it like me

(Hold on a second homie, let's get this clear)

I don't quite think this was the sort of English PM Lee meant. On the other hand, altering these songs so that they contain purified English will mean they are no longer rap or hip hop. In attempting to teach proper English, it is an affrontery to others if we high-handedly whitewash their language and culture. I may be using an extreme example, but my point is that pop, hip hop and rap have their own forms of English, which may not be what PM Lee considers Standard English. Purist as this campaign is, it is therefore remarkably ironical if we destroy the original sense of rap and hop hop only to use them as vehicles of Standard English.

c) Singapore is not alone in pushing for the use of good English, he said. China, Korea and Thailand have launched ambitious plans to do so.

It should also be noted that the official working languages in China, Korea and Thailand are not English. Their plans to drive proper English usage therefore should be distinguished from Singapore's case. These countries do not have a strong incumbent English variant which they use as a daily tool of communication. Their plans to push for using good English may not involve elimination of a rich colloquial variant.

d) Foreigners find it difficult to understand Singlish. A Melbourne youth said Singaporeans in his school spoke "a strange type of English among themselves". It sounded like English, but he could not make out the meaning at all.

It may sound shocking to PM Lee and the Melbourne youth, but Australian English can similarly be hard on Singaporean ears: source

A banana bender, who was an ockish and lamb-brained larrikin, severely narked me when he threw a pervy wobbly and asked if I was a poofter. Strewth! I had the hoon's knackers a flaming kick and the alf didn't even put up a barney!

[translated to CSE]

This stupid and tih nao (pig brain) Queensland chao ah beng ah! KNNB say I ah gua you know? Really! I k him and dunno who ah gua! He run away, machiam dog like that!

[translated]

This Queensland resident, a boorish and stupid hoodlum, irritated me when he asked me if I was a homosexual. It's the truth! I kicked his testicles and he didn't fight back.

Does this mean that Australians should speaker "proper" English then? Obviously not.

Rather, it can be constructive for foreigners to try to adapt to the local surroundings. The Melbourne youth for example, could learn to pick up Singlish. It is not easy (in a way proving that CSE is not sloppy by any means), but it is not impossible. I don't expect people to speak a language I understand when I visit their countries- why should they expect us to speak in an English they are comfortable with? The whole point of traveling is to experience different cultures is it not? If one expects a foreign country to be totally similar to his own country, then one can bloody well stay at home.

e) American sitcoms could easily be broadcast and understood here. But local hits like PCK and Police and Thief are not exported as easily.

PLEASE LAH! PCK and Police and Thiefs are hits?! Speak proper English! They are misses! Anyway, if Singapore becomes the world power one day, I'm sure others will begin to understand PCK and Police and Thief. In the meantime, someone should make sure we become a world power with a film industry as glamorous as Hollywood, so that our "hits" can be exported.

Put succinctly, local TV productions are not exported easily because they mostly suck, not because they employ CSE. Remember Masters of the Seas? I'd like to see some one try to export that, proper English and all.

f) Singapore made an effort to use Hanyu Pinyin to ensure precise pronunciation for Chinese characters. The same could be done for teaching English.

It should be noted that Chinese is a logographic language. Without hanyu pinyin, there is no way to pronounce individual words. English is a phonographic language, and pronunciation operates differently from Chinese. Whereas Chinese words are tied with their hanyu pinyin representations, English words are not. Pronunciation is different even in UK and US, two stalwart standards of the English language. A "precise pronunciation" scheme for English therefore has a totally different set of problems when compared to hanyu pinyin.

Furthermore, even with the hanyu pinyin, Singapore Chinese pronunciation is still different from standard Chinese pronunciation. For example, the qing sheng (neutral tone) is often missing in Singaporean Chinese. This gives rise to ma1 ma1 instead of the proper ma1 ma. Having a precise pronunciation scheme hence neither guarantees that pronunciation is proper nor does it account for prosody.

In general, I am puzzled by PM Lee's insinuations that Standard Singapore English and Singlish cannot co-exist. I admit that Standard English has its pragmatic values when it comes to international communication. However, it is entirely possible for us to be proficient in both versions and switch them at will. As I've said, it is no different from learning two languages in school.

Rather than aiming at eradicating CSE, which in my opinion is a fruitless exercise, we could instead grant the fact that CSE and proper English can exist together, and start off from there. Standard English has little status in our markets ("Auntie, may I know how much 1kg of this type of fish costs?" vs "Ku Lui?" or "How Much?". Which is more efficient? The choice is clear.), hawker centers and void decks and will likely remain so. Instead of nuking CSE like house pests, perhaps policies makers could see how the CSE can work hand in hand with Standard English to generate synergy and generally raise awareness of the intricacies of Standard English.

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