Unless you've been living under a rock, you would have come across the flurry of criticism following Ris Low's infamous post-pageant interview. It's one of those videos we share on Youtube and Facebook just for laughs, like we did for the other great Youtube funnies - Dramatic Gopher or Chinese Backstreet Boys or Leave Britney Alone. Simply because her command of the English language was comical..to us. When I first watched the video, I was appalled. Not at her diction (lack of, rather), but at the fact that the judges let her win. My criticism was directed at the judges. How could they let someone with such substandard English represent the nation at a world class pageant. Just compare her to Ms Singapore Universe 2009 - Rachel Kum. The differences are glaring. Is one more appealing than the other? To me, yes. No prizes for guessing who (especially with her scandalous pictures floating around). But is one necessarily better than the other? That wholly depends on the standards we're using.If we are basing it merely on linguistic competency, then we are fools. Because unless you speak Queen's English (ie. Received Pronunciation) with that pompous accent, we're going to sound just as foreign and incomprehensible to non-Singaporeans as the French or Yorkshire accents are to us at first. I can't tell you how many times I've been exasperated when people here in London respond to me with a 'sorry?' or 'what was that again?' despite me speaking perfectly good English most of the time.
But I digress. My point of all this is not that speaking good English isn't/shouldn't be the criteria for judgment. At the end of the day, when we have crowned the winner, we should be able to look at her and say, "Hmm. Yep, that's definitely Singaporean". And I think Ris Low definitely fits the bill - discounting her credit card fraud cases, of course. We need to face the facts. Not everyone in Singapore speaks good English. We have Singlish, and we have Engrish. And for now, at least, that's who we are; that's what we speak. There are so many families that use Mandarin, Malay or Tamil as their primary mode of communication. Consequently, their English may not be as polished. And there's nothing really wrong with that. It doesn't happen just in the heartlands (and I hate that term, by the way). Considerable volume of local business transactions occur between the Mandarin-speaking wealthy. Even in premier schools (once again, a term I don't exactly like because of the scorn it generates), Engrish is spoken by a decent number. Although the numbers could be more pronounced at "neighborhood" schools, the point is that it is widespread. Singaporean subcultures exist. And my take is that we shouldn't be ashamed of who we are - weird as it is for me to say.
Of course, that doesn't mean we don't improve on our English. Or that we don't grimace when someone butchers the language. We're entitled to be put off by people. It isn't discrimination, it's preference. Be gracious about it. But we aren't entitled to portray Singapore as something that she isn't.
So the pageant judges were sort of justified afterall.
PS: Oh, and while we're on the topic of linguistic capabilities. I think it works both ways. Typical conversation -
Person: You speak Tamil?
Me: I think I do. Er.. yes.
Person: Oh really? let me hear!
Me:
Person: Ok, you really should stop talking. And your mom's a Tamil teacher!
Sure, most of the time it's harmless fun. Sometimes it's funny. But it sure as hell infuriates me when the critics aren't able to speak proper English, and I'm gentlemanly enough to overlook all that.
Or maybe being ignorantly critical is a Singaporean thing too...
