Speak Good English Policy Essay

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Dear Mr Tan, I am writing to talk to you about my views on the Speak Good English policy. I believe that this policy is not entirely beneficial to our community. In fact it may even be harmful to our society to promote such a policy. There are many hidden adverse consequences to this movement and I hope shed light onto them in the later part of this letter. As the Member of Parliament representing Tanjong Pagar Group Representation Constituency (GRC), your opinion is highly valued and as such I hope you will pay kind attention to the rest of my letter. The Speak Good English policy encourages the use of grammatically correct English and in addition, it dissuades the use of the Singaporean variation of English, Singlish. First and foremost, this policy will lead to the decline and eventual death of Singlish. The Speak Good English serves to replace the language that represents Singaporeans, Singlish, to a more standard form of English. From the time we had been colonized till now, the formation of Singlish had taken an immense of time. However, it was only after…show more content…
There are expressions which cannot be expressed in an English word. An example of such would be the Singlish word ‘Lah’. It is used at the end of a sentence to express slight exasperation. In standard English a person may say” Just do it”. However in Singlish, people may choose to add ‘lah’ at the end so as to create a tone of exasperation. There is no word in the English vocabulary that is able to replicate the effect that the word produces. Another example would be ‘sua’, this word translates to the colloquial expression of’ You only live once’. However the effect it produces cannot be replicated by any single English word, as it is unique. Simple expressions such as these are all part and parcel of Singapore’s National identity, it is what makes us uniquely Singaporean. Losing our identity as Singaporeans will be something that we will all live to
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