19 Sep 2009
I think the way Ms Low speaks is adorable. She really 'shouts me'. It is Singlish of the highest order and I lurve it.
Yes, we can make fun of Singlish for its peculiar pronunciation and queer sentence structure but it is our own self-evolved lingua franca.
The Speak Good English Movement chairman Goh Eck Keng is right. When we laugh at Ms Low, we are laughing at half of Singapore (maybe more).
I used to lament that we had no sense of language identity. Travelling around Asia, I have observed that every country has its unifying patois. The Thais speak Thai, Malaysians speak Malay tinged with English pronouns, the Indonesians have Bahasa and Filipinos have Tagalog.
We had nothing until Singlish came along.
Let's rejoice. Just as the Chinese have Chingrish and the Japanese have Japlish, we can take great pride in having our own Singlish.
And like any other language, it will evolve. You cannot stop it because this is the language of comfort and convenience.
We feel good when we hear it. It is warm, witty, humorous and musical. And it has such wonderful words.
Just the other day, I heard a Singapore Airlines stewardess say: 'Thankchew for frying with Sinkapor Allies, a member of Style Lions.'
What on earth was that? I had to think for a few seconds before connecting the dots. 'Style Lions' is 'Star Alliance'. But what a great name - Style Lions!
As for Ms Low, she is just gorgeous and 'Boomz', whether or not she wears a 'piss of rad bigini' or 'duck gins with leopard and zibbra preens'.
If she needs a dress that 'shouts' her for the big occasion, I offer to buy her one and I will get my cousin Tina Tan-Leo (the owner of The Link boutique) to style her, too.
Go for it, Ms Low. Do us proud.
Dr Woffles Wu
[This letter made me feel happy for Ris Low. It made me think about what this opportunity means to her. We are not all born beautiful, and we don't all have the same skills and abilities. This is perhaps a chance of a lifetime for her. Let's not rain on her parade. I hope she has a good time at the final show.]
I think the way Ms Low speaks is adorable. She really 'shouts me'. It is Singlish of the highest order and I lurve it.
Yes, we can make fun of Singlish for its peculiar pronunciation and queer sentence structure but it is our own self-evolved lingua franca.
The Speak Good English Movement chairman Goh Eck Keng is right. When we laugh at Ms Low, we are laughing at half of Singapore (maybe more).
I used to lament that we had no sense of language identity. Travelling around Asia, I have observed that every country has its unifying patois. The Thais speak Thai, Malaysians speak Malay tinged with English pronouns, the Indonesians have Bahasa and Filipinos have Tagalog.
We had nothing until Singlish came along.
Let's rejoice. Just as the Chinese have Chingrish and the Japanese have Japlish, we can take great pride in having our own Singlish.
And like any other language, it will evolve. You cannot stop it because this is the language of comfort and convenience.
We feel good when we hear it. It is warm, witty, humorous and musical. And it has such wonderful words.
Just the other day, I heard a Singapore Airlines stewardess say: 'Thankchew for frying with Sinkapor Allies, a member of Style Lions.'
What on earth was that? I had to think for a few seconds before connecting the dots. 'Style Lions' is 'Star Alliance'. But what a great name - Style Lions!
As for Ms Low, she is just gorgeous and 'Boomz', whether or not she wears a 'piss of rad bigini' or 'duck gins with leopard and zibbra preens'.
If she needs a dress that 'shouts' her for the big occasion, I offer to buy her one and I will get my cousin Tina Tan-Leo (the owner of The Link boutique) to style her, too.
Go for it, Ms Low. Do us proud.
Dr Woffles Wu
[This letter made me feel happy for Ris Low. It made me think about what this opportunity means to her. We are not all born beautiful, and we don't all have the same skills and abilities. This is perhaps a chance of a lifetime for her. Let's not rain on her parade. I hope she has a good time at the final show.]
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