I don’t understand how the Prime Minister himself can dissuade Singaporeans from speaking Singlish, and his press secretary even finding it necessary to write to a foreign publication to disabuse a fellow Singaporean poet for being supportive of Singlish – and at the same time, the government have its Tourism Board spend taxpayers’ money to create a slick 3-minute video using that same Singlish to attract tourists.
And in your “Little Black Book” publication, a guide for tourists, you describe Singlish as “Singapore’s unique gift to the English-speaking world.”
A gift to the world but Singaporeans themselves should not speak or support it?
How does that work?
I hate to say this but this is really hypocritical.
You tell Singaporeans not to speak the language but you glamourise it on a national stage at the National Day Parade 2015, and you also use it to attract tourists, and your MPs and ministers use Singlish during election rallies to portray themselves as ordinary citizens like the rest of us.
But Singaporeans should not use Singlish because not all of us have PhDs and are thus unable to “code switch”?
What lousy double standards you have.
Source: Andrew Loh
