A tribute to Earnest Lau

Tributes continue to pour in on the Facebook page that past ACS students had set up in honour of their history teacher, discipline master and headmaster Earnest Lau, 82, who died last Saturday of heart failure in his sleep.

I got to know him as a fellow worshipper at Kampong Kapor Methodist Church. We would sometimes discuss the uses and abuses of the English language, especially here in Singapore. His insistence on correct usage was legendary, I am told, but imparted in such a way that mistakes were learnt by the boys with just the right amount of "embarrassment" without their being put down.

This classic example was told to me:

Boy: Sir, can I be excused (to go to the toilet, or whatever)?
Earnest: Can you? I don't know... can you walk?
Boy (recovers quickly): Sir, may I be excused?

Given the care with which he handled the English language, it is a pity that today's Straits Times report on him ("Remembering their ACS Sir with love", page B4) had two sloppily written passages that the checkers failed to correct.

Part of one passage was: "While Mr Lau did not have any children with his late wife..."

To avert any unintended slur on Earnest in this phrasing, it should have been crafted as "While Mr Lau and his wife did not have any children..." [incidentally, the article had earlier said he was a widower, so it was unnecessary to say "late wife"].

The other badly done passage was: "The wake will last until tomorrow, and the funeral service will be at 2pm that day..."

This could have been more simply written as "The wake is until tomorrow, with the funeral service scheduled at 2pm...".

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I had this running "thread" on the supposed boorish behaviour of our youths on the trains. I'll wrap it up with this letter in today's Straits Times by Ms Jacqueline See, which gives me hope:

"I agree there are young people who do not give up their seats on trains to the elderly or disabled ('Train courtesy'; Feb 24). But most Singaporeans are now more considerate. I am a teenager and I always give up my seat for those who need it more than me. More people now wait for passengers to alight rather than barge in. There is still hope for our generation."

Touche!