Singapore's Prime Minister Urges Use Of Hip-Hop

robertteh SG

What is the point in trying to emulate the Englishmen we speak proper Queen English but the pockets have no monies.

There is no denying that English can be spoken with correct accents etc as we learn it in school. I am sure many people know the value of speaking and writing well without all the hypes and social engineering.

However, to spend the national time to promote language accents as spoken by the Englishmen or Americans or Chinese is like "much ado about nothing" . This is typical of the nanny state the government has been promoting all these time.

It will only be found that at the end of the day it is not campaign that will help citizens to speak or write better or to build a more vibrant society of the east. The correct approach lies in the willingness of government in promoting greater tolerances of various social and cultural values that belong to the people of various origins and ethnic backgrounds and adoption of proper values from young consistently promoted in schools all the ways up.

By governing the whole nation based on overwhelming pragmatism as is apparently being practised by our money-minded government, we tend to neglect considerations of needs and expectations and value systems setting itself backwards our language, cultural and social developments or the softwares of the people.

It is too obvious that the larger aspects of nation building in the context of social and cultural areas as expressed in the casino debates have been expectedly set aside leaving people largely dissatisfied and disappointed.

It is very clear that as long as government is able to achieve its targeted surpluses and comfortable lives for only the elites and the rich many of the problems concerning social and language aspects are secondary.

Under such conditions, I do not see the value in campaigns to promote any one's languages or social behaviours as government has not committed itself to upholding or promotion of root social and cultural values for all.

At best all kinds of engineering engineering, press control and brainwashing will have to be resorted to for justifications to serve narrow-minded pragmatic ends.

The more government treats everyone like kids and try to promote particular social language and ethical values through campaigns the more it will be running into contradictions with its real behaviours at works. To promote true social and correct personal behaviours and value systems, let it be done naturally through care and consistent practices at all levels of nationhood and not through artificial means.

Many problems including the teaching of values, religious and racial tolerances and respects for elderly and fellow human beings or Singaporeans should be spontaneously inculcated by setting good corporate governance standards and not artificially interceded by government campaigns.

Such aspects of national wellbeing is part of good corporate governance and the latter is only wish-washy what good is there of more artificial campaigns.
Laughing

fudgester SG

In short, broken and disjointed American slang is better than English with its own unique Singaporean flavour.

Sigh... we're looking more and more like a troupe of clowns, I tell you. I imagine that the world of English speakers is laughing at us now. Neutral

LazerLordz SG

That's fine.Having linguistic versatility is to be admired.But to pit one form of slang against another that is our fabric, smacks of stupidity.Period.

Fudgester, yes are we clowns.We have made the weird news section of many newspapers twice in a week Rolling Eyes

av98m SG

Well, on the positive side, just about all of the government's social engineering campaigns have been miserable failures so I guess the hip hop crap shouldn't be any different. Maybe they'll try banning locally produced sitcoms from using singlish in the script. But if they do that, nobody will watch. Mr. Green

Meia Gisborn SG

Singapore's Prime Minister Urges Use Of Hip-Hop
By Nolan Strong
Date: 5/13/2005 9:30 am

Singapores Prime Minister has launched a nationwide campaign utilizing Hip-Hop to stop the spread of Singlish, a mixture of English and local dialects.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said the mixing of the languages is a major issue, because it could leave Singaporeans unintelligible.

Loong urged teachers to use pop songs and Hip-Hop music to teach proper English.

Yet another example of the Singapore government being completely out of touch with reality.

Perhaps Lee Hsien Loony should spend some time touring the black ghettos of any major US city. That way, he might gain a better 'appreciation' of the socio-cultural origins of (c)rap and hip-hop.

(Assuming, of course, he doesn't get mugged and/or shot in the process.)

Loony-Boy has really lost his marbles this time. What next? The teaching of ebonics as a second language in our schools?

Fudgester, yes are we clowns.We have made the weird news section of many newspapers twice in a week

The MIW consider that a positive accomplishment.

MG

LazerLordz SG

Sigh.

Why are we Singaporeans so cursed? Rolling Eyes

fudgester SG

*shakes head in disgust*

I didn't ask to be a clown.

LazerLordz SG

Take a look at this american forum..we have been going places..

May 16, 2005
SINGAPORE: A NATION GETTING DOWN AND GETTING FUNKY
posted by Dave 11:27 AM
permanent link to this item

(Thanks to lwlaw)

Comments

That oughta work fo' shizzle ..

Posted by: Sean on May 16, 2005 11:31 AM

They should use " Louie , Louie " instead ..

Posted by: Sean on May 16, 2005 11:34 AM

I think this is what Sean was getting at, but are Hip hop and Rap really the best place to learn English? I suppose if they do learn from Hip hop and Rap, then the youth of America (and Canada) will be able to understand them, and they ARE the future after all...

Posted by: Darth Curt on May 16, 2005 11:35 AM

Wow! The guy who told him hip hop was the way to go must be laughing his a$$ off right now.

Posted by: Sondra on May 16, 2005 11:36 AM

"Yes, we will be happy to ship 10,000 squid parts to your skanky beyatch cracka ho self, and keep it real. Hello? Hello?"

Posted by: Christobol on May 16, 2005 11:38 AM

Guess it's better than using Barry Manilow.

Posted by: Reddsuss on May 16, 2005 11:39 AM

Yes and they will also be using the " Jerry Springer Show " as a visual aide in the new educational campaign..

Posted by: Sean on May 16, 2005 11:48 AM

They think RAP will teach them proper English? How about picking up a freakin' dictionary or something?

Posted by: Schadeboy on May 16, 2005 12:00 PM

... Orwellian and condescending. ...

I wonder how one might say that in Singlish ...?

Posted by: U.O on May 16, 2005 12:03 PM

All your grammar are belong to us.

Posted by: Brainy Jello on May 16, 2005 12:08 PM

This is where most top language experts, such as Mr. Language Person and myself, get our gramattcalous questionations answered.

Posted by: Federal Duck on May 16, 2005 12:26 PM

Doheth! My gramaticality is all shizzleated today. I meant, "get our gramattacalous questionations answerfied."

We regret the error.

Posted by: Federal Duck on May 16, 2005 12:31 PM

Factoid:

In Singapore you can be arrested for chewing gum.

Class dismissed.

Posted by: Eleanor on May 16, 2005 12:36 PM

They actualy think rap will lead to greater inteligibility? I think i'll let the great Stewie Griffin take it from here:

""I say, eminem and 50 cent wouldn't know a proper lyric if it crawled up their asses and brought them to orgasm through prostate stimulation. Here's a gramatical curiosity from 50 cent's "Wangsta", "We in the club doin the same old two step, gorilla unit, cuz they say we bugged out cuz we don't go nowhere without toast".

Well good luck finding the subject and predicate in that run on sentence, and what the bloody hell does it mean, "we don't go nowhere without toast", now you listen to me Mr.cent, if you want to make it in this buisness, lay off the doobie."

Posted by: Joben on May 16, 2005 12:43 PM

Didn't they just execute some guy for possession of a kilo of marijuana?

Posted by: Smithie00 on May 16, 2005 12:44 PM

They actualy think rap will lead to greater inteligibility? I think i'll let the great Stewie Griffin take it from here:

""I say, eminem and 50 cent wouldn't know a proper lyric if it crawled up their asses and brought them to orgasm through prostate stimulation. Here's a gramatical curiosity from 50 cent's "Wangsta", "We in the club doin the same old two step, gorilla unit, cuz they say we bugged out cuz we don't go nowhere without toast".

Well good luck finding the subject and predicate in that run on sentence, and what the bloody hell does it mean, "we don't go nowhere without toast", now you listen to me Mr.cent, if you want to make it in this buisness, lay off the doobie."

Posted by: Joben on May 16, 2005 12:51 PM

We sail tonight for Singapore. We're all as mad as hatters here!

Posted by: Fitting T. Waits on May 16, 2005 12:54 PM

Joben - I'm afraid I'm gonna have to take your Grammar Police badge away. Back to the Punctuation Academy for you, young man.

*sighs and shakes head*

Also, here's a closing tag you can borrow for next time.

Posted by: Hipocracy Alert Officer on May 16, 2005 01:01 PM

"...urging teachers to use hip-hop and rap music to teach proper English..."

yo yo ... you be learnin' good from where I be from. where you at?

Posted by: snif on May 16, 2005 01:06 PM

El,
arrested for Chewing gum, or spitting it
on the street?

Posted by: just askin' on May 16, 2005 01:25 PM

right. what did you say?

Posted by: queensbee on May 16, 2005 01:35 PM

They should use Flocabulary

Posted by: Sarah J on May 16, 2005 01:38 PM

"Joben - I'm afraid I'm gonna have to take your Grammar Police badge away. Back to the Punctuation Academy for you, young man.

*sighs and shakes head*

Also, here's a closing tag you can borrow for next time."

What the deuce are you talking about? I did use closing italic tags. You can check the page source if you so desire.
*rolls eyes*

troll.

Posted by: Joben on May 16, 2005 01:45 PM

Whoa, there Joben... might want to recheck that page source there, cause all i see is another opening italics tag. Twice, i might add.

Sarah J... now that i've listened to Flocabulary, please tell me how to get it out of my head...

Posted by: Darth Curt on May 16, 2005 01:57 PM

Joben... My appologies... i failed to go to the end of the line... my bad.

Posted by: Darth Curt on May 16, 2005 02:00 PM

For those who like to search the internet Snoop style you can go to www.gizoogle.com

Posted by: MzVette on May 16, 2005 02:00 PM

If they listen to the rap songs in their censored versions every other word spoken by the youth of Singapore will be " BLEEP " .

Posted by: Sean on May 16, 2005 02:05 PM

Joben - It just looks like you left it out, that's all. You gotta admit - the grammar and punctuation makes the critique pretty idiotic.

Neener, neener.

Posted by: troll on May 16, 2005 03:27 PM

Orwellian? Did Big Brother expect everybody to flush public toilets? Talk about totoiletarianism! (Sorry, I couldn't resist)

Posted by: Jason on May 16, 2005 10:00 PM

"we don't go nowhere without toast"

Is that anything like always knowing where your towel is?

Posted by: AlanBoss on May 16, 2005 10:28 PM

If they want to learn Orwellian english, they should just study the stuff coming out of Washington, DC.

Posted by: AlanBoss on May 16, 2005 10:32 PM Rolling Eyes

timothytsgsg SG

These American fellas really cracked me up! It's so funny and so true, it's true.

That's why I called LHL an idiot. He tries to act cool and pretends he knows about rap and hip-hop(just to impress his younger audience) but he ends up falling flat on his face.

His shame belongs to he, himself- that ignorant fool who pretended to be cool.

hyuuga neji SG

to be honest...
i never understood wat rappers are talking bout half the time...
except maybe 50cents' candy shop...
but i truely look forward to the day LHL addresses parliament using hip hop lingo...
that'll really make my day/week/month/year...
Laughing

waattaa! SG

If they listen to the rap songs in their censored versions every other word spoken by the youth of Singapore will be " BLEEP " .

Posted by: Sean on May 16, 2005 02:05 PM

"hey *BLEEP* i aint no walking here u *BLEEP*, whats with this english *BLEEP* thing, which we got to rap now eh? *BLEAK* it"

wrong concept on how to improve our english. Hiphop and rap aint the way to good english =)

SilverPal SG

Ha ha... really reminds me of an article in www.talkingcock.com about Emenem Lee...

In his worship of western Gods, Barry really doesn't think huh? At least Queen's english might have been a better concept than rap and hip-hop, after all we were once a Brit colony and our school system did follow Cambridge. Now our language have regressed into such a sad stage... from bad to worse...

I guess from now onwards, our newscasters will sound like this:

"Yestadae a brudder got nailed by da fuzz fer driving with da bottle, ya dig?"

Maybe our MPs might have to embrace the emperor's new language too. I can't wait to hear them speak in parliment with their new hip hop manner.

lwflee SG

Originally posted by lwflee:
[quote]Originally posted by LazerLordz:
[b]]
Singapore's Prime Minister Urges Use Of Hip-Hop
By Nolan Strong
Date: 5/13/2005 9:30 am

Singapores Prime Minister has launched a nationwide campaign utilizing Hip-Hop to stop the spread of Singlish, a mixture of English and local dialects.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said the mixing of the languages is a major issue, because it could leave Singaporeans unintelligible.

Loong urged teachers to use pop songs and Hip-Hop music to teach proper English.

"Speak in a normal Singapore tone, which is neutral and intelligible," Loong said. "But speak in full sentences, with proper sentence structure."

According to published reports, Loongs administration started their campaign against the Singlish dialect in 2000. The government blamed a popular TV character named Phua Chu Kang for the rise in bad grammar among the population.

Loong has been criticized in the past for various social engineering campaigns aimed at the Singaporean population.

-----------

He actually has a point re Singaporean's tendency to get lazy and mix languages. I've had foreign friends who speak both English and Chinese and many times, they have difficulties following when I converse with a fellow Singaporeans. I also think Singaporeans have a tendency to speak too quickly such that it becomes unintelligible to foreigners.

However, i have also noticed that people adapt mighty quickly; Singaporeans overseas will usually learn to speak more clearly and slowly. It works so i dun see why we need another campaign. After all, even the Americans and the English speak in different accents! Find something better to tinker with LHL!

Also, the new generation generally speaks with proper sentence structure anyway.

kopiosatu SG

They will be singing...

I betcha want the goodies, I betcha thought about it~

And doing the RnB dance in parliament Laughing

SilverPal SG

Good one! Laughing

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