English as she is spoke -- in Singapore?

A TODAY reader, in a letter today (5 Sept), reminds us that, "Soon, the Speak Good English campaign will be upon us... It is astounding that in Singapore, where we are surrounded with material in English, many are still struggling with the language. From accent to pronunciation and grammar to vocabulary, the basics seem to have eluded a large number."

While I agree with his assessment, I feel that the advent of the Internet Age has actually empowered ordinary people to speak and write better English. But first they must know what are the pitfalls.

That is why I am less than impressed with the annual Speak Good English campaign. It exhorts but does not provide useful templates, other than issuing meaningless pointers such as telling parents to speak the language well because they are role models for their children!

I think that, in the Singapore context, the starting point is that, in speaking to each other, people do by and large understand each other. This does not mean that they are necessarily getting their pronunciation, choice of words and grammar correct. But the language campaign's people should start listing out the unambiguous dos and dont's, and the areas where there are variations such as the difference between British and American "Englishes".

Take pronunciation. There are the unambiguous ones, like tuition which should be pronounced as "tue-ee-shen". But we all know many folk say "tue-shen". They don't know better, so why not -- as part of the campaign's efforts -- draw up a list of commonly mispronounced words, in the Singapore context. There is of course the infamous Ris Low "boomz/bigini" class act, but we won't go there! (You can Google her name, if you wish.)

At the same time, make it clear that words like herb can be pronounced with or without the "h" being silent. And that many Americans (not all) pronounce "route" as "rout", which creates a problem since there is a word "rout", which commonly means "a crushing defeat" or "flight following a defeat".

As for incorrect choice of words and phrases, I think it's fairly easy to come up with such a list, from "off day" to "please revert". Lists could also be compiled for redundant coinage like "12 midnight" and ridiculous ones like "free gifts".

I'll come up with further thoughts on the uses and abuses of the English language tomorrow.