Word: singlish
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...THINK PINK An Asia-wide gay site, it has an extremely informative section on Singapore's gay bars, clubs, organizations, publications, bookshops and even cabarets (there's a daily show at the Actor, for instance, featuring Singlish gay humor and transvestite acts...
...government is not amused. It doesn't like Singlish because it thinks it is bad language and bad for Singapore's sober image as a commercial and financial center. For more than two years now, it has been waging a war of words spearheaded by the Speak Good English Movement (SGEM), which organizes everything from creative writing to Scrabble contests in order to encourage standard English. "Poor English reflects badly on us," said Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong at sgem's launch, "and makes us seem less intelligent or competent...
...past, the government would impose strict rules and hefty fines to shape social behavior?don't spit, don't litter, don't sell gum. But this time, because it knows Singlish is trendy, it's using the soft sell. Naturally, much of this has to do with semantics. Says SGEM head David Wong: "SGEM is not a campaign, it's a movement. In Singapore, you associate campaigns with the message that if you trespass, we're going to punish you. A movement is different. We want to adopt a more lighthearted approach." This lighthearted approach spawned the recent SGEM Festival...
...Blur as sotong responses like mine won't dampen Wong's zeal for promoting good English. He dislikes Singlish because he thinks it's crude. "If my son came back from school and told my wife that she was talking cock," he says, "I would slap him." He would have to. Otherwise, how would Cambridge-educated Wong's son learn to jiat gentang...
...Singlish is crude precisely because it's rooted in Singapore's unglamorous past. This is a nation built from the sweat of uncultured immigrants who arrived 100 years ago to bust their asses in the boisterous port. Our language grew out of the hardships of these ancestors. And Singlish is a key ingredient in the unique melting pot that is Singapore. This is a city where skyscraping banks tower over junk boats; a city where vendors hawk steaming pig intestines next to bistros that serve haute cuisine. The SGEM's brand of good English is as bland as boiled potatoes...