English or Singlish? Make up your mind.

Let's revisit an issue I have written about a lot on my blog: English vs Singlish. It seems a big part of the recent fall out the Gilbert Goh xenophobia controversy stemmed from the fact that Gilbert Goh struggles with English - many of my readers have pointed out to me just how terrible his writing is on a lot of the articles he has written for his website Transitioning.org. This begs the question - should we crucify a good man for his terrible command of the English language? The simple answer is no, we shouldn't - especially in a place like Singapore. After all, had Gilbert Goh been a lot more tactful with his language, he wouldn't have gotten himself into such trouble in the first place. Using tact with one's language is a skill, one that serves one very well in the professional world where you need to use language to build bridges and facilitate communication - not offended and alienate people. I've talked a lot about speaking many languages, now this post is all about using the language(s) that you do know effectively.

When discussing what essentially defines a Singaporean, the issue of Singlish is often raised - yet there seems to be a lack of willingness by locals to want to embrace it. I remember when I was a student in primary school, Singlish was actively discouraged in school by the teachers because it was deemed to be low-class and "not proper English". I suppose the teachers were worried that we may go on to use non-standard colloquial language during our English exams, that was why they took that rather uncompromising stance.

Do we need to save Singlish?

If a Singaporean has spent ten years abroad and returns with a British or American accent and then s/he wants to look down on Singlish, then I can understand what is going on there.  That would be a fairly straight forward situation at least. But why do people like Gilbert Goh who clearly speak in non-standard English still refuse to admit that they are speaking Singlish? Why can't they say, "I'm Singaporean, I speak Singlish and I'm sibeh proud of it." Why are Singlish speaking Singaporeans still not embracing Singlish?

I have observed in many countries where there is a far more openness and willingness to accept the local creole for what it is. Allow me to transport you to the beautiful islands of Mauritius which is a former colony of both France and Britain. Today, along with French and English as official languages, there is a local patois known as Mauritian Creole (Kreole Morisyen). I am currently working with a colleague who is from Mauritius and when she speaks in standard French, I can understand her perfectly - but when she switches to Morisyen, my level of comprehension varies but it falls to about 50%. Morisyen differs from standard French in that it contains loanwords from many languages like Spanish, Portuguese, various Indian languages (like Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Hindi), Malagasy, Swahili and English - the grammar is also different from standard French and it is by no means just 'bad French', Morisyen does have its own grammar system. Allow me to quote from wikipedia a paragraph on the birth of Morisyen:

The French created on Mauritius a plantation economy based on slave labour. Slaves became a majority of the population of Mauritius by 1730, and were 85% of the population by 1777. These forced migrants came from West Africa, East Africa, Madagascar, and India. Given the resulting linguistic fragmentation, French became the lingua franca among the slaves. However, the small size of the native French population on the island, their aloofness from most of their slaves, and the utter lack of formal education for slaves ensured that the slaves' French would develop in very different directions from the slaveowners' French. Historical documents from as early as 1773 already speak of the "creole language" that the slaves spoke.

I can actually relate first hand to this "aloofness" - as a humanities scholar in VJC, every single one of my teachers (with the exception of Chinese and PE teachers) were white. They were a mix of British and American expatriates - yet over a period of two years, none of them made any effort whatsoever to try to chance the way the students spoke, even if we were clearly using non-standard English in class. Why was this the case? Did they not care that we spoke non-standard English (humanities scholars speaking non-standard English, I despair)? Were they aloof on the issue of our abilities to speak standard English? Or were they steering clear of an emotional issue? (I can just imagine the students protesting, "what is wrong with the way I speak?!")

Years later, when I returned to VJC to give the TSD students a drama workshop (I was welcomed back as the senior who had made it big in London, LOL), I was told to take a look at one of the pieces two students were preparing for their A level exam. I was appalled. It was terrible. This duo were doing was a scene out of The Taming Of The Shrew - it was an attempt to set it in a modern Singaporean context, yet they couldn't quite figure out the language. They didn't stick strictly to the original text (as done in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet) - yet they didn't want to do it in Singlish as they were worried that the examiner (who would've been flown in from England) would not understand Singlish. Instead, I witnessed an inarticulate Petruchio and Kate struggling in bad English. Cue palm to forehead. None of Shakespeare's original wit and humour, none of the richness of Singlish that possesses - just a really bland version of text translated into bad English.

It was one of those moments when I looked at my watch and thought, "okay, how much time do I have to resolve this ridiculous mess?" I told those two, this is really going down the wrong path - you should do it in authentic Singlish, not bad English. They both said no, they didn't want to come across as stupid students who couldn't speak English properly, they told me proudly. Fine, I said, then let's stick to the original text then and they said no - that means we've not done anything imaginative by reinterpreting the script. I thought at least if they did the original script with a Singaporean accent, that could amount to some attempt at reinterpreting the script with Singaporean English - but they shot that idea down too as they felt it wasn't imaginative enough. Groan, the solution was staring them in the face: use Singlish - but they both looked down on Singlish and refused to touch it with a barge pole. I had to resist the urge to challenge the TSD teacher then (a British expatriate) - did he not see this mess before his eyes? Did he not attempt to resolve it? Or was the issue of challenging the way Singaporeans used English a taboo subject for white expatriates?

The great thing about Morisyen is that it is accepted as the local lingua franca, as something that is uniquely local to the country (unlike the two languages English and French which they have adopted from their former colonial rulers). Singlish is widely spoken but Singaporeans often default to standard English (or their best attempt at it) when writing something down - Morisyen on the other hand, has been written and there are volumes of literature written in Morisyen. When you visit the country, you can see signs in Morisyen and hear the language widely spoken by the locals. The key difference between Mauritius and Singapore on the issue is this: Mauritians don't look down on Morisyen but many Singaporeans do look down on Singlish. Morisyen is celebrated as part of their national identity, whilst in Singapore, Singlish is often treated with disdain. Ironically, Morisyen is only spoken by about 1.2 million people - yet it is cherished far more than Singlish, which is spoken by between 3 to 4 million people.

I am from Ang Mo Kio - I grew up speaking Singlish with my friends and family whilst learning English at school. Today, I am perfectly capable of differentiating the two and I still enjoy speaking Singlish given the appropriate opportunity (eg. when I call my mother). Unlike the worst fears of my primary school teachers, I have not confused the two. Now the teachers were worried that some students will only learn Singlish and not figure out standard English and this would be a problem for them when it comes to exams and when they try to use English in the work place in the future. That's completely false and looking at the issue the wrong way.

English teachers in Singapore do face a challenge with Singlish.

We should start with the assumption that most students in Singapore are going to start with Singlish in the first place and accept that. There should be no social stigma about the use of Singlish - it should be labelled correctly and not simply regarded as "bad English". English should be then introduced as "standard English" so students are then taught the difference between the two. The fact is, many people like Gilbert Goh have been through the education system and end up speaking Singlish (instead of standard English) anyway and we've seen how his attempts to write in standard English have landed him in hot water.

Why can't we simply allow Singaporeans to articulate themselves eloquently in Singlish, rather than demand that they struggle on in standard English? In the case of Gilbert Goh's writing efforts, that's just setting the poor guy up for failure. Instead of actually caring about the points he is trying to make about unemployment in Singapore, many of us failed to get over the fact that his articles were written in very bad English. Surely his points would've been just as valid if they were written in Singlish and they would have come across in a very different manner given how expressive Singlish can be. Listen to Gilbert in the video clip below, I don't want to start criticizing his English and identifying individual mistakes (take your pick, aiyoh) - but surely he should have switched to Singlish instead of making this desperate attempt (and failing) to speak in standard English?

Take this sentence for example taken from the Transitioning.org website: "This event is also not targetting against foreigners but more on the policy of the population boost." Sorry, that's not Singlish - that's just bad English.

In standard English, I would write, "The organizers of the event have nothing against foreigners, rather we want to challenge the logic of increasing the population to 6.9 million."

And in Singlish, I would write, "Dis event is not target foreigner one hor, we not xenophobic one lah - but we  lagi bueh song de government population policy, okay?" (Feel free to offer alternative Singlish translations of the same sentence in the comments section below.)

Quite frankly, I would gladly read a sentence like that in standard English or Singlish, rather than plain bad English. Standard English is neutral - it is just a means of communication. Singlish makes a statement about one's identity whilst bad English is but a distraction to the message being conveyed. Bad English is what one ends up with when people who are incapable of standard English make a desperate attempt to speak 'proper English' instead of using their usual brand of more familiar Singlish. I feel this is grossly unfair to a whole cohort of Singaporeans who are perfectly eloquent in Singlish (and other languages) but for whatever reasons are incapable of standard English.

What do you think? Should we celebrate Singlish and accept it as an official language in Singapore? What is your relationship with Singlish? Leave a comment and let me know, kum siah!