You Calling Me a Potato?
Quote of the Day: You jiak gan dan one lah!
What on earth does that mean anyway?! Gan Dan in Hokkien is potato. Why call someone that? Because he sits in front of the tele all day, or eats a lot? Nope, you're called that if you're kinda westernized in thinking. Being the gastronomiacs that Singaporeans are, they measure people by their food. Thus to always eat potatoes (or be accused of that) means to say you're westernized (slightly derogatory too). Well, this colloquial (take that you ignorant xenophobic pigs) label has been thrown at me a few times.
Normally, i would deny it but nowadays, i can't be stuffed. So what if i prefer speaking English instead of Mandarin and other Chinese dialects? Yup, i love steaks and spaggies too. That doesn't mean i dislike "local" food like roast duck rice, wanton mee, ice kachang, cheng tng etc. And neither does it mean i don't believe in other "Asian Values".
If being a "potato" means that i'm more open in my thinking and prefer English as a medium for communication then so be it. Those that want to hide under an overturned rice bowl can carry on doing so.
Apart from feeling that my national identity has been somehow compromised, the underlying culture in Singapore that has allowed such terms to flourish or even exist is of much greater concern. I've come across so many Singaporeans who can't write properly that it is scary. I don't mean mispellings (fix it with spellcheck, big deal) but just general grammar and expressiveness. I'm not asking for literary giants but basic decent English in report writing!
Sure, our government has been pushing the message of proper English rigourouly with the censuring of a character like Phua Chu Kang for using/promoting Singlish. But I reckon it is not his fault, in fact, we keep looking for national identity and uniqueness, we should allow him to act and speak as he pleases on tele, we ALL know that his accent is exaggerated.
What really needs to be done to help our English is a broader approach in schools. From my secondary school experience, good written English is only required for the English and English Literature subjects. This requirement should extend to Geography, History, Chemistry, Biology....everything thing except other language subjects! Just because the points, quotes, dates etc for scoring purposes are in a student's answer should not be rewarded with the full mark! There should be a proper English component inherent in all these assignments and tests. If not all we're encouraging is memorized points with no meaningful structure.
I tutored a Singaporean high school student in Perth and he was having tremendous difficulties across all the subjects that required essay writing. No doubt he had most of the points but the written English he had was so poor that he was just struggling to pass. His papers would come back full of red "X"s here and there to point out grammar mistakes. It was discouraging for everyone.
If we want our people to go out into the world and get a good education, we need to provide the skills needed. And we can do so without compromising on local flavour like PCK! :P
Credit CL for reporting the following exchange.
oh yah..speaking of bad english, forgot to tell u
the salesgirl pronounced 'bag' as 'bat''..i almost wanted to lauugh.
conversation:
SG: "we will allow u to claim the BAT"
me: "you mean BAG"
SG (gives me this look as if i'm hard of hearing): "Yes, BAT"
What on earth does that mean anyway?! Gan Dan in Hokkien is potato. Why call someone that? Because he sits in front of the tele all day, or eats a lot? Nope, you're called that if you're kinda westernized in thinking. Being the gastronomiacs that Singaporeans are, they measure people by their food. Thus to always eat potatoes (or be accused of that) means to say you're westernized (slightly derogatory too). Well, this colloquial (take that you ignorant xenophobic pigs) label has been thrown at me a few times.
Normally, i would deny it but nowadays, i can't be stuffed. So what if i prefer speaking English instead of Mandarin and other Chinese dialects? Yup, i love steaks and spaggies too. That doesn't mean i dislike "local" food like roast duck rice, wanton mee, ice kachang, cheng tng etc. And neither does it mean i don't believe in other "Asian Values".
If being a "potato" means that i'm more open in my thinking and prefer English as a medium for communication then so be it. Those that want to hide under an overturned rice bowl can carry on doing so.
Apart from feeling that my national identity has been somehow compromised, the underlying culture in Singapore that has allowed such terms to flourish or even exist is of much greater concern. I've come across so many Singaporeans who can't write properly that it is scary. I don't mean mispellings (fix it with spellcheck, big deal) but just general grammar and expressiveness. I'm not asking for literary giants but basic decent English in report writing!
Sure, our government has been pushing the message of proper English rigourouly with the censuring of a character like Phua Chu Kang for using/promoting Singlish. But I reckon it is not his fault, in fact, we keep looking for national identity and uniqueness, we should allow him to act and speak as he pleases on tele, we ALL know that his accent is exaggerated.
What really needs to be done to help our English is a broader approach in schools. From my secondary school experience, good written English is only required for the English and English Literature subjects. This requirement should extend to Geography, History, Chemistry, Biology....everything thing except other language subjects! Just because the points, quotes, dates etc for scoring purposes are in a student's answer should not be rewarded with the full mark! There should be a proper English component inherent in all these assignments and tests. If not all we're encouraging is memorized points with no meaningful structure.
I tutored a Singaporean high school student in Perth and he was having tremendous difficulties across all the subjects that required essay writing. No doubt he had most of the points but the written English he had was so poor that he was just struggling to pass. His papers would come back full of red "X"s here and there to point out grammar mistakes. It was discouraging for everyone.
If we want our people to go out into the world and get a good education, we need to provide the skills needed. And we can do so without compromising on local flavour like PCK! :P
Credit CL for reporting the following exchange.
oh yah..speaking of bad english, forgot to tell u
the salesgirl pronounced 'bag' as 'bat''..i almost wanted to lauugh.
conversation:
SG: "we will allow u to claim the BAT"
me: "you mean BAG"
SG (gives me this look as if i'm hard of hearing): "Yes, BAT"
posted by cokecat at 8:07 am
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