Blog 3

Speaking and expressing one clearly is definitely extremely important. Singapore is visited by thousands of tourists daily. The standard of English we speak directly affects the image we portray to the outside world or even the entire globe. First impressions count. If we go to another country and they begin the conversation with "Oi, you there", we would naturally be put off. Our country depends on avenues such as tourism and overseas investors for revenue and ricebowls, if we put them off through a simple conversation, we would no longer attract anymore investors.

Launching a campaign is definitely an effective way to help this trend of bad english otherwise known as 'Singlish' rampant among teenagers and us nowadays. Even I myself speak singlish in non-formal occasions among my friends however, I switch to proper English when addressing higher authorities like teachers or people more senior than me. As long as one manages this 'switch' properly, I think it would be fine to speak Singlish.

However, the problem now is getting people to 'switch' properly. In other words, if we have to eliminate Singlish, we would. Impressions may appear superficial but people from other countries definitely would look forward to high-class service being offered by our citizens after all, we although small have made a pretty huge statement and impact on the rest of the globe. Winning an olympic medal, diplomatic trips to various countries overseas, hosting the grand youth olympics, we have definitely asserted our prowess despite being small in numbers.

If we were to be put down by such a simple task such as speaking fluent English, we would definitely be laughed at. In fact, in my opinion, we should brush up the standard of English taught in every single secondary school. We should start younger and faster. This would definitely aid the coming generations and let us even be able to impress other countries with a wide range of vocabulary and elimination of all forms of Singlish in our speech.

I am sure with all the upcoming campaigns that are going to be implemented, we would definitely benefit from them. My main point in this commentary on the article is to start bringing up the emphasis and importance of speaking good English. Thankfully, not all fellow Singaporeans lack the essential communication skills.

Let's look forward to a Singapore that would continue to make impact on the globe and showcase our capabilities and not be handicapped by our English standard, a mere fault that can be easily corrected. Kudos to all English teachers, keep it up. Singapore, this huge melting pot of multi ethnic groups, we shall work together to bring across the best impression to other countries.

For now, let's put pen to paper, paper to action. Let all the campaigns kickstart our plan to a brighter future and a flourishing red dot.

Blog 3 Article

S'poreans speak better English but... 10 min-->
Spoken English of service staff is still poor.
By Derrick Ho

SINGAPOREANS are generally speaking better English but they find the standard of spoken English among service staff poor, a survey has shown.
Two-thirds of the respondents in the survey, which polled 1,200 Singaporeans between 15 and 39 years, said their standard of spoken English has improved in the last two years.

Key findings in survey
60 per cent of people interviewed said they were aware of the Speak Good English Movement.
The top 3 factors preventing respondents from speaking good English are:

1) Their non-English speaking environment

2) Family and friends do not speak good English

3)Their poor command of English.

The top leisure activities that would encourage people to learn and speak good English:

1) Reading

2) Watching television or videos

3) Listening to radioMany gave wanting to express better and be better understood as the main motivation for speaking better.

The findings of the survey, conducted by the Singapore Polytechnic School of Business, were released at the launch of this year's Speak Good English Movement.
The respondents gave the lowest ratings to the standard of English spoken by service staff, who will be the target of this year's campaign.
'They are the people we meet and interact with everyday. Being able to speak good English is important for service staff to communicate
effectively with customers. They are aware of this,' said Mr Lim Boon Heng, minister at the Prime Minister's office, at the launch of the Speak Good English Movement at Metro department store, in the Paragon on Tuesday.
"As they say, iron sharpens iron. We either learn the best or the worst from people we work, live and interact with. Therefore, it is important that we raise the standard of speaking and using good English as a nation, starting with our workplaces and our homes."
Mr Lim said organisers will work with the Singapore Workforce Development Agency to improve the standard of spoken English among those who communicate frequently with Singapore residents and visitors.
The Singapore Retailers Association is also launching a training programme 'Service English for Retail Professionals'.
'They are our front-runners when Singapore hosts international events. The experience they give to our international visitors is very important,' Mr Lim said.

Link: http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_272077.html?vgnmr=1

English Commentary on "Democracy creates stability in societies"

I would define stability in this commentary of mine as minimal discontent among citizens in a society and a place that is suitable for further development and does not suffer from internal strife or conflict. This would be the definition I would be working with.

For stability to take place, there must not be political unrest amongst the country and its citizens. It is the most damaging factor that prevents stability within a country as political stability is the foundation for others to pile on like economical and social stability. Looking at third world countries that are constantly at dispute and having struggles with neighbouring countries, they are in such a state due to the political struggles they are experiencing. Only by settling the political disputes, then economical and social stablity would follow suit. Otherwise, seeking to achieve overall stability is near to impossible.

We shall be looking at whether democracy can help achieve this political stability in order for the country. Democracy advocates freedom of expression and lets everyone have an equal say from the lowest status to the highest status amidst the citizens. This is why this form of government is particularly valued and commonly employed. Criticism can be in turn used to improve the government's policies and enables continuous development and not stagnant growth. If for example, dictatorship is used, the government has the final say and criticism would fall on deaf ears. Democracy in fact is one the best methods to ensure fairness as the majority's decision is adopted which means at least more than half the population would be satisfied.

Being able to express one's own views and opinions is important and through democracy, it is effectively achieved. After all, a country and society is made up of its people and if the people are discontent, naturally the society would fall apart gradually resulting in disputes and war. Knowing that one's views are expressed and being able to play a part in changing the direction of the country's politics, smaller ethnic groups or the minority would not lose out to the majority and this would ensure stability within a country's four walls.

Another form of democracy known as representative democracy is also extremely useful ensuring different groups or communities to have their respective says in the government. Looking at countries, sweden for example adopted democracy and is currently peaceful and also politically stable. However, during Adolf Hitler's 'reign', germany denied its citizens of their rights to vote, look at what happened to their country. It fell into ruins after Adolf Hitler's campaign.

Democracy is indeed proven to be effective through these examples and 'unites' the society. The environment created as a result is much less susceptible to internal revolt or internal strife. The society is united in the policy that each one of them chipped in to form. Thus, the society can be labelled as stable.

Another good point about democracy is the presence of opposition parties. They serve as a 'benchmark' for the government and continually aid and push development by giving endless criticism and work to serve the masses and garner their support in a bid to change the government's policies. They aid the government in this area and serve as a platform and medium to convey the masses' opinions to the government. In this way, the change would most probably be brought about and in turn, the citizens benefit from it. This would also result in a never-ending cycle of continual development. This is extremely positive and would definitely aid a society's path to achieve stability.

However, we cannot fail to look at the negative end of democracy. The fact that every citizen aged above 21 or so is entitled to a voting right, we have to consider the implications as well. Uneducated people may exist amongst this group of voters and as a result, they may make decisions that only benefit themselves and not consider the country's benefits. Therefore, these people may hinder the development of the country in the future as their decisions may serve as an impeding force. Thus, the need for education is extremely vital so as to allow the votes to be for our country's benefits.

Taking into account various voting scenarios, like in a classroom when the teacher asks for the opinions of the students for the teaching syllabus, they would most likely suggest interactive learning as most of us are hyperactive people and require activities to sustain our attention span. Another voting scenario can be the school asking the students for facilities to be implemented, I am sure that majority would suggest sporting facilities instead of learning facilities to aid our learning. These decisions are influenced by a lack of maturity and thus, lack foresight and may serve as a opposing force to our school's academic developement.

There may also be cases whereby democracy is 'mis-used' by the government for their own benefits. In the case of the Sinhalese and Tamils, re-settlement was introduced by the government to ensure that there would not be any Tamil-dominated regions and it helps to dilute their voting rights in that particular region. This in turn ensures that the policies are always for the good of the Sinhalese and neglect the Tamils. This can be solved by representative democracy whereby smaller ethnic groups have equal says in deciding the politics of a country. This can then ensure that there is a fair distribution of rights in a country and aid the stability of a country.

However, democracy is not 'bad' rather it is the inappropriate manipulation of it in order to keep the majority in power that is bad. Thus, democracy is still beneficial as we can see.

The most important factor is for the government to look into the rights of the minority and not neglect them otherwise, everyone has a limit and tension would inevitably build up amidst the minority if they are neglected till suppresion is futile and riots would just break loose. Innocent lives would be lost. Thus, democracy must be used adequately and appropriately and not misused by the government. Mis-using it would in turn have disastrous results.

Back to voting, we have to take in mind the fact that all men after all, are not perfect. Even the government is not. However, we must do our best to minimize the effect of this imperfection that exists that would hinder democracy's usage. No government policy would be able to completely eliminate the negative effects that imperfection poses in voting outcomes.

Most importantly, the process of voting should be worked on. Probably campaigns can be used and talks aired on television would also serve to be useful to educate most of us Singaporeans about political matters, something sensitive and rarely touched on. Do not neglect the minority and always put the country first during voting and I don't think anyone can go wrong with their voting decisions anymore.

I believe that as long as the ideals of democracy and that it is used appropriately, it would definitely serve as an excellent governing policy to adopt in a country. Therefore, I believe that democracy does indeed creates stability in a society so long as most the above 'silent' rules are adhered to. Let's look forward to better nations and stable societies in the years and generations to come. Let democracy be this unifying factor among the minority and majority, let it breach this gap and I believe it would very soon be one of the most common political ideology that every country adopts.

Thursday, March 6, 2008

"Angst or put-on?"

Commentary:

In this article, the writer touches on varying degrees of teenage angst each of different severity and gives short, witty descriptions of each 'stage'. Some reasons as to why teenagers resort to extreme means to cope with stress are also stated in the article. An example is self-mutilation, using physical pain to divert mental pain like when in the midst of facing study and relationship problems.

I find the actions of teenagers nowadays disturbing. I find it bizarre that so much of Singapore's population, people who are not much older than me are actually dumb enough in a certain sense to carry out such disturbing acts.

I feel that they should be sane enough to seek professional help when facing any problems that they find it hard to cope with instead of resorting to means that are devoid of reason and cooping oneself up. They sever all relations with the outside human world. As the time period of their actions drag on, teenagers find their actions becoming a habit, eventually becoming their only method to vent their frustration.

They would be so reliant on it that it becomes almost impossible to extricate oneself from the bottomless abyss that one has so willingly plunged into himself. Thus, teenage angst is a very 'real' problem that teenagers face nowadays that the writer has kindly hightlighted for us through the article.

The writer also says it is hard to differentiate teenagers facing emotional problems and those who are not as both sides tend to continue to exhibit a normal self in front of others. However, for the one facing emotional problems, it is a false side of him to deceive others. At the end of the day, he would retire back to his abode and continue 'emo-ing'.

So the problem now is HOW? How do we help this portion of teenagers that have difficulty with their own emotional self? One can rattle off many solutions: parents, teachers, peers, counsellors etc. But do they really help the teenagers? I guess they just need one thing, a listening ear, someone who just listens to their problems and keeps quiet.

It is pretty amazing how awesome one can feel by just sharing his problems. It is as if someone has just lifted a gigantic load off your shoulders, sounds cliche but it still holds till today. I guess teenagers are just like 'bigger' babies, they still need care and attention despite going through maturity into adulthood. By the end of the process, it is your turn to provide the care and attention.

The writer has made use of such a short article to leave a gigantic impact in readers' minds. I believe that all an 'emo' teenager needs is a good listening ear and I am sure the role of a parent suits the role of a listener just fine. Life would always be filled with obstacles, what matters is not the obstacles but how we take it in our stride.

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Article about Teenage Angst

"Angst or put-on?"

Section: Think

Publication: The Straits Times 25/03/2007

Page: 42

No. of words: 313

Content:

EVERYBODY has heard about teen angst, but what does it mean? Is it just a growing-up phase marked by copycat faddishness in choice of music, dress, speech and group behaviour? Parents needn't worry overmuch if this were the extent of it. More troublesome would be pre-pubescent sex. But one is being jostled awake to something called "emo fashion'' and rituals associated with it. In its extreme form, teenage adherents of emo hurt themselves with superficial cuts to their arms. They want to feel the psychic pain, whatever that means. They write notes to themselves exposing their tortured inner selves. Suicidal thoughts allegedly have found expression in the sillier missives. No-one has died, thankfully. But how seriously should one take the apparent frivolity? These are the same well-adjusted kids who make the most noise in front of the TV on Premiership night. Do they "emote'' darkly if they also are passionate about pursuits common among their sensible peers? Schools may want to relook their CCA and pastoral-care programmes to see if they could re-direct the energies of angst-filled children too young to understand that matters considered vaguely "tribal'' are not play-play.Parents certainly would want to take a keener interest in what their children are up to. But wasn't body-piercing a fetish among nutty Western kids until recently? There's comfort to be had in that Japan, the most well-behaved of Asian societies, has its tribal sub-culture of hikikomori. These are teenagers and young adults who withdraw from the threatening world by barricading themselves in their rooms for years, unseen for long periods even by their parents. Meals are left at their bedroom door. Emo would seem pale in comparison. It may be useful for schools here to blast emo kids' hearing with an hour each week of Shostakovich, the emo master in dead composers' music. A sure-fire cure for kiddie angst.