Teach students to recognise American English: Lee Kuan Yew

Heard of the saying, "if it is not broken, to not tinker with it"
Senior Lee is really obsess with the English language and how it should be spoken.

Actually for those who are very hungry such trivial is not that important. What we NEED is just a certain language media to make ourselves understood and be understood/ So Singlish is just perfect!!
We don"t WANT fanciful American or Standard England English to complicate our already complicating life.

For us it is "when to eat" (when is our next meal) not " How to speak" (I have just eaten, now can Americano you")

From Singapore, know how English keeps them ahead.

Not necessary at all. Current Queen's english is good enough. No need for additional stress that we can't communicate with Americans, just send those who need to America for a few years and Walah!!! Converted to American's English. Simple..

Learn for what!!! to work for you???? We listen to you but u greedy Li take advantage on us

language us or brits english does not matter. use broken english can carry your meaning to opposite side and he understands is good english. wei, towkay, one ba chok mee, no dowkay dry.... the guy who cooked will understand your english.

language us or brits english does not matter. use broken english can carry your meaning to opposite side and he understands is good english. wei, towkay, one ba chok mee, no towkay dry.... the guy who cooked will understand your english.

With recession over the horizon and since there are a significant number of Pinoys in white collar jobs,it makes more sense to learn Pinoy English, that way we can fool employers to retrench real Pinoys first instead of Singaporeans with Singlish or Queen's or Amwrcan English.LOL.

we dun speak british english nor american english. we only speak singlish

I think we must learn "translatable" English...something like google translate sort of....Hahaaa. in my opinion only....

Does it make a difference?? Since Sin-gar-pour-rans are speaking Singlish...

DearvYahoo, Another topic with comment section deleted is " PAP's party split "
Are you having server problems or freedom problems? We need to know.

Speaks mandarin he say to all singaporean, while folks in china are learning ENGLISH, now American english, WTF go smoke pot,

Lee Kuan Yew is talking nonsense again. With foreigners absorbed as permanent residents,unable to speak a word of English,what the old man expects.

Being from a foreign country that is strong english speaking, but does not use english as their mother tongue and a means for day to day communications I was always educated to speak British English including the "Queens English Accent". I'm not particulary good in pronouncing or writting 100% proper British English mostly due to it not being my mother tongue and American, and now Singaporean influence. (I am doing a concience effort not to resort to Singapore slang though I have been cought doing exactly that on occasions).

Reason why I am doing a coincience effort to speak proper english is that I am a teacher in Singapore and therefore feel I should speak to the students in proper english. Why I agree with some of the things that Lee Kuan Yew is saying is because I noticed many of my students, who are majority locals, have difficulty in writting properly formulated english sentences.

A few weeks back I spend a whole afternoon painstackingly correcting draft presentations created by my students. (Which I don't mind since its my job to help students get better) During actual presentation I often had to point out to students to try and present in proper english and mind articulation specially when answering audience questions. Using poor gramar and talking in Singlish street slang, in my opinion, almost instantly descreases the perceived credibility of the presenter. (Regardless of his story being good, and the presenter being a intelligent person).

Unlike Lee Kuan Yew, to me it doesn't matter if Singaporeans adopt a British, American or keep their own accent. What does matter is clear articulation and use of proper gramar in speaking and writting. (At least on formal occasions, it doesn't matter so much in the Coffeeshop). In noticed Philippine society has a strong focus on writting and speaking proper english (specially among educated people), and they still have their own accent and culture. So I see no reason why Singaporean cannot improve their English towards a similar situation.

He added, "We are the only country in the region that uses English as our working language...." I sometimes wonder how true/not true this is and the reason is that every advertisement for jobs that I come across is requesting candidates to know Mandarin and the reason stated here is they need to communicate with colleagues!! So I have wondered if English or Mandarin is important in Singapore. I found a job in an american firm and expect everyone to speak English to each other but all my Chinese colleagues at my level speak Mandarin at work and make me feel as if I am in China and not in Singapore. They have also become so insensitive to non-Chinese around them speaking only Mandarin and I strongly think that too much emphasis on speaking Mandarin has brought the standard of English in Singapore to a low standard!!

Let's be objective. It does help to know the difference. It's knowledge and awareness. I remember we used to subscribe to kids magazines and they have small sections that illustrate the difference. Eg. One says lift, the other says elevator.

One moment stress in mother tongue, now need to focus on English language. In the end, most Singaporean can only speak Singlish. In my personal view, bilingualism is not for everyone. We should learn our own mother tongue before we learn other languages. See Korean for an example, speak Korean and yet can master good English language.

Since we are not native English speakers, English should be our second language. As for whether it should be in American way or the British way, it is not that important. I think English should be introduce slowly to young children and not to confuse them with their mother tongue. Like the Chinese students here, they have no problem at all with their mother tongue, and they can really focus on learning the English language. They are the one could probably able to master bilingual than any of the Chinese Singaporean students, who often have to struggle with their own mother tongue.

Language learning is a long learning process. Take it easy and speak confidently whichever language you prefer.

Yahoo, why have comments sections on some topics completely disappeared? Eg Why Aljunied lost....I see nothing.

its non-sense to divide english to american or british . In fact british speaks in a more formal way than americans do . Whatever you say , English language is originally evolved in Britain. British colonized North america and promoted english there, its a reality . Just americans started using slangs and uttered differently.

then why watch 'Sesame Street' all these years...?