Sunday, February 17, 2008
I just went to watch this short video on Youtube where some Taiwanese artistes were poking fun or discussing about the way we speak. I don't think it's the accent prob 'cos like if we do have a Singaporean accent and that's the problem about it, then I think they're the ones with some problems.. hey, it's Singapore.. What's wrong with having a Singaporean accent. Can there only exist American and British accents? And anyway, if I'm not wrong, there's 2 ways to ponouncing "dance". One is the American way and the other is the British, and we follow the latter. So we don't pronounce it like "dans".
Don't know whether to laugh or feel insulted after watching the video clip. =P I didn't realise we speak like that. Hmms.. But I think most Singaporeans generally don't speak like that, 'cos i haven't really encounter any. Either that or they are exaggerating, or I suffer from memory loss. haha.. I mean, there's bound to be some who don't speak as well but I believe they exist in every society.
I don't deny that my English is not all that fantastic, and I don't speak as eloquently as I should be. (Damn!)
(At least I'm heeding my GP teacher's advice and trying to converse in English more often.)
Took this from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_English
"According to Peter Trudgill), Standard English is that set of grammatical and lexical forms which is typically used in speech and writing by educated native speakers. It includes the use of colloquial and slang vocabulary, as well as swear words and taboo expressions." This definition is also often used by American linguists. Most linguists recognise that the notion of a standard English that covers all native speakers, educated or not, would be
very difficult to articulate.
This definition refers to grammar and vocabulary and
not to pronunciation. Trudgill claims that Standard English is only spoken by a very small part of the population of the British Isles (about 12-15%). This means it is spoken by an even smaller fraction of all native speakers. Further, Standard English speakers often speak in regional and class accents. One
might expect that Standard English speakers would use a particular pronunciation, for example Received Pronunciation (RP) in the UK, or General American in the US.
In fact, less than a third of the speakers of UK Standard English have an RP accent, with the rest of the speakers using their own regional accents, which shows that
standard dialect and regional accent do not exclude each other. In the US, regional variations in pronunciation are somewhat less than the UK; many Americans speak with a General American pronunciation. However regional dialect variations are intensifying according to the research of William Labov. Trudgill concludes in this matter, that "Standard English is a dialect that differs from the others in that it has greater prestige, does not have an associated accent and does not form part of a dialect continuum". Hence, Standard English is
purely a social dialect."
Our intonation is affected in way too, i guess.
Anw, I'm not trying to sow discord or what, but merely voicing my thoughts. Although our standard of English may not be all that good, but I think it's still better than most Taiwanese. And I can't really fathom why some artistes like to claim to know English when they don't really. To me, knowing a word or two, or even forming a few simple sentences in that language doesn't qualify one as knowing how to speak and understand that language. You must be able to converse reasonably well in that language =X
Makes me think of GP.. I need a miracle in that subject. And I need to expand my bank of vocabulary!
**amoi** XD
2:20 AM
