From my point of view, human beings living on the Earth should have a certain level of interaction amongst people and that is accomplished through communication.
English is used widely on a global scale, and is not only an important language, but also a tool and an important skill needed not only in education, but in our day to day life.
I feel that speaking English is equally as important as writing it. However, it has come to my attention that since the introduction to social media and mobile chat platforms such as Facebook and Whatsapp in recent years, people tend to abbreviate more often than not with notable examples being: “lol,ttyl,bb” and so on and so forth.
I believe that in recent times, we tend to speak English less frequently with each other and instead choose to use text messages, as it is, at times, a better and more efficient way to communicate. However, this makes us lose the ability to express ourselves effectively in English and we have degenerated into using short forms to get our points across.
I enjoy traveling, but I tend to feel a certain lack of confidence when conversing with foreigners, especially in western countries.Well, Perhaps I am just too used to "Singaporean Pronunciations."
As I mentioned earlier, English is considered the main language for a large majority of countries, and Singapore is of no exception as it is a globalized nation. As Singaporeans, we tend to use a lot of Singlish, which is a smattering of English, Chinese, Hokkien, Malay, and Tamil; hence the people here tend to be more laid back
about speaking proper English. This proved to be a challenge for me as I went to Hong Kong just a couple of weeks ago, and my broken English was all the people of Hong Kong could understand, and what made matters worse was the fact that my Chinese articulation was execrable. I felt rather down and out after that as no one could understand me, and it was like a kick in the bum to me.
In closing, I feel that being confident in speaking English and the way we use it all starts with making the effort to practice and having the yearning to better yourself, be it pronouncing words properly as practice, reading the newspapers everyday and watching documentaries. It all starts now!
Edited on 13/9/2015 9:03PM
Edited on 16/9/2015 9:52PM
19/09/2015 6;42pm
Hi Nicholson!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on how Singaporean's English might be mistaken as broken English as we are too used to speaking Singlish. As important as English is to us, what's the use if we don't learn to speak it properly. haha. We definitely need to brush up on our English! A little effort (like reading newspapers) goes a long way! Great post btw!
Regards;
Nurul
Nicholson
ReplyDeleteIt is very true that 'cut-short words' are being widely used on social media today. Such abbreviations have destroyed the origin of the language, for this case, the English language. Some teenagers today might even use such words without knowing the actual way to say them. I don't think that it is wrong to be using all those abbreviations or 'cut-short words', but i guess we just need to know when is the right time to use them and not to use them excessively.
Best regards,
M Fadhli
Supp Nickkk!
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you man. Singaporeans and Singlish, we're inseparable. I think we are too used to speaking 'Singlish' that sometimes we mixed up everything. Using Singlish isn't wrong especially when conversing with your friends but I think we have to learn to use it appropriately.
Its never to late to get it right bro!
Your awesome bud,
Diyanah
Thanks, Nic, for this enthusiastic response to the assignment. I appreciate the way you have -- in the words of John Dewey -- "turned over" what English means to you in this short essay. Your anecdote about traveling to Hong Kong and finding that your Singlish seems especially apt. There is indeed a time and place for its usage, and for being able to code switch to a more standard English form. It's exactly a more standard academic form of English that will be the focus of our work in this course. To that end, please take note of these areas from your post:
ReplyDelete1) ...we tend to speak lesser English with each other .... >>> (wrong word choice) ...we tend to speak English less frequently with each other ....
2) Perhaps now would be a good time to add a little snippet about me, I enjoy traveling a lot, but yet I tend to experience a certain lack of confidence as I converse with foreigners, especially in western countries. >>> (run on sentence) See https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/598/02/ for an explanation.
3) but yet I tend to experience >>> (verbose: either but or yet but not both)
4) ...I resolved that it is now or never that its time to start speaking and writing in English properly. >>> (verbose)
These are minor issues. You do a good job with this initial task. I look forward to reading more of your writing this term.
Thanks for the edit. But there is one minor issue. By now you know the problem with this run on sentence:
DeleteI enjoy traveling a lot,however I tend to experience a certain lack of confidence whenever I converse with foreigners, especially in western countries.
Or not?