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Aug 2, 2007
China students who run down Singlish and Singaporeans
ON MONDAY, I witnessed first-hand some foreign China scholars, who
are studying in our top JC, having a field day criticising Singlish
(which, based on their conversation, appears to be believed by them
as 'the standard Singapore English').
They also mimicked and made fun of how heartland Singaporeans order
their 'kopi si' and 'char kuay teow', et cetera, and were having a
most enjoyable time making fun of Singaporean culture and
Singlish.
They tried to camouflage their intentions by making fun of 'Ah
Bian' (which I believe refers to Taiwan's famous 'Ah Bian') for a
while when they realised that I could hear what they were saying
about Singapore and Singaporeans, before returning to making fun of
and criticising Singapore again.
Obviously, this group of foreign students are here to take
advantage of Singapore's fine education system. Otherwise, why come
here when they sing praises of British and American English (I do
not doubt the superiority of British English as Singapore's
standard of English is based on it since colonial days).
I would expect such scholars to have at least the decency not to
run down and make fun of their host country's culture.
I hope that they represent only a minority of the foreign talent
that we are trying to include in our population.
Low Ah Lin (Mdm)