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Saturday, June 24, 2006

It has become more apparent that Singaporeans are poor in their English. The latest evidence comes from the announcement that more “native-speakers” may be roped in to teach the students, in an attempt to salvage the situation. This move seems to carry a hidden meaning that Singaporean teachers are second-class in their English command, and that it would only serve better to have native tongues to educate us.

Honestly, I do welcome it. Not because I agree with the hidden notion, as it is totally untrue. Native speakers aren’t synonymous with professional English speakers, as there are no lack of cases that show otherwise, and also, their command of the language may be largely affected by their unique cultures, habits and lifestyles. Just like the way Singaporeans speak singlish, which is a disgraceful subset of the language. But on the other hand, we must also knowledge the fact that being native speakers, these foreigners have a much higher-level of exposure to the language, compared to the typical bilingual Singaporean. Being well-versed in both our own mother-tongue and English, the reduced exposure we have in both languages have made us just “half-past-six” in both. Hence we see “Speak Good English Movement” (SGEM) and “Speak Mandarin Campaign” ongoing simultaneously. This month also marks the “Malay language month”, and malay language is encouraged to be used in sms-es and blogs. Look at how multilingualism has affected the general standard of the English Language. Hence, having more native-speakers to teach English may increase the depth of the knowledge being passed to the students, thereby making them more competent speakers and writers.

Since I’m on this topic, let me just relate an experience that affected my class (Navy course) this week.

It was a Wednesday, and we requested for a nights-out for the day, since our class had performed relatively well, and we’ve been doing loads of saigang. The nights-out was approved by our course-commander (similar to a form teacher). Then, just an hour before we book out, we got the news that the OC (similar to a principal) had cancelled our nights-out, because he overheard some of us speaking in Mandarin.

That was pretty infuriating. Firstly, we speak Mandarin during private conversations with our closer-bonded friends, not during formal sessions. Don’t we even have that freedom? Secondly, isn’t it human nature to converse more often in your mother tongue, or rather, your native language, since that has been the norm for so many years? Thirdly, the OC himself isn’t doing what he preaches about having an English-environment so that other non-Chinese friends can understand. He openly speaks Hokkien (even in front of us), and worse, he even displayed a racist side of him once this week, perhaps even unknowingly to himself. To me, he has never set a good example and will never gain my respect.

And, to reiterate his “passion” about an English environment, he came to our classroom and wrote “ENGLISH ENVIROMENT”. Look carefully, he spelt “environment” as “enviroment”. That’s not the only mistake. Somewhere else on the whiteboard, there was “arguement” instead of “argument”.

Get him a native-writing teacher perhaps?

人生是黑白的.
6:26 PM <3

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Sunday, June 18, 2006

im booking in by 730am on a sunday morning, again. Though its gonna be depressing, but i've learnt to look on the brighter side. Cos to be rather honest, doing guard duties at my camp is one of the best among all the camps. Best life for a guard duty, in my opinion. Right, I shan't elaborate more.

It has been a tiring week, undergoing 3 days of fire-fighting and 2 days of damage control. Believe me, now i really really look up to firefighters. Its really NOT an easy task to fight a fire, as it not only requires speed and physical strength, it is also a test of one's mental ability, determination and endurance. My experience in the 300+++ degrees celsius room of fire for 5 minutes was already hell. Imagine them in a much hotter and confined area for a longer time. Then there was this maze that we had to go through. Remember those playground mazes in shopping centres where you have thousands of small coloured balls around? THis dark maze is similar, just that its much longer and much tougher, with the 13.5kg breathing apparatus and the very thick and tight jacket, with zero visibility and smoke around. Hell again.

Then, i was the class i/c for the entire 5.5-day week. Stressful sia, especially the first 2 days when I hadn't got the momentum right. But gradually, i got more and more comfortable with the appointment and was very much used to it by the end of the week. In fact, some people even made passing remarks, saying that i've been a good i/c and asks me to continue for another week. But thats really siao la. And don't think I dunno what's on their cunning minds, they are asking me to continue my term, so they won't have to take up the role. Blah.

The new week's starting. On a Sunday, in fact. Thanks to the guard duty. But im hoping my book-out on monday night is approved. Remember the pilot test that i was saying a few weeks ago? Yea, its coming on tuesday. But apparently its no-guarantee that i can book-out. But see how la, im feeling lucky.

bye.

人生是黑白的.
12:48 AM <3

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