Blog 3

Speaking and expressing one clearly is definitely extremely important. Singapore is visited by thousands of tourists daily. The standard of English we speak directly affects the image we portray to the outside world or even the entire globe. First impressions count. If we go to another country and they begin the conversation with "Oi, you there", we would naturally be put off. Our country depends on avenues such as tourism and overseas investors for revenue and ricebowls, if we put them off through a simple conversation, we would no longer attract anymore investors.

Launching a campaign is definitely an effective way to help this trend of bad english otherwise known as 'Singlish' rampant among teenagers and us nowadays. Even I myself speak singlish in non-formal occasions among my friends however, I switch to proper English when addressing higher authorities like teachers or people more senior than me. As long as one manages this 'switch' properly, I think it would be fine to speak Singlish.

However, the problem now is getting people to 'switch' properly. In other words, if we have to eliminate Singlish, we would. Impressions may appear superficial but people from other countries definitely would look forward to high-class service being offered by our citizens after all, we although small have made a pretty huge statement and impact on the rest of the globe. Winning an olympic medal, diplomatic trips to various countries overseas, hosting the grand youth olympics, we have definitely asserted our prowess despite being small in numbers.

If we were to be put down by such a simple task such as speaking fluent English, we would definitely be laughed at. In fact, in my opinion, we should brush up the standard of English taught in every single secondary school. We should start younger and faster. This would definitely aid the coming generations and let us even be able to impress other countries with a wide range of vocabulary and elimination of all forms of Singlish in our speech.

I am sure with all the upcoming campaigns that are going to be implemented, we would definitely benefit from them. My main point in this commentary on the article is to start bringing up the emphasis and importance of speaking good English. Thankfully, not all fellow Singaporeans lack the essential communication skills.

Let's look forward to a Singapore that would continue to make impact on the globe and showcase our capabilities and not be handicapped by our English standard, a mere fault that can be easily corrected. Kudos to all English teachers, keep it up. Singapore, this huge melting pot of multi ethnic groups, we shall work together to bring across the best impression to other countries.

For now, let's put pen to paper, paper to action. Let all the campaigns kickstart our plan to a brighter future and a flourishing red dot.