I speak Canadian, not English, eh....
Just happened to take a walk through the HDB improvement exhibition that is being shown here in Yishun for the next couple days. All I can say is that even though I am not qualified to own one of these places, and because my wife is not over the age of 35, she can not own one singlely herself (or so she says) I am still awed at the great expense that the gov't is going through to upgrade all these HDB flats for the people at such a low cost. I mean, upgrading the entrance door grill, doors, refuse chute, and toilets/bathrooms for a 3 room flat will only cost a person $20/month for a year to upgrade those items. Not bad. Not bad at all. Though it must be my North American/Caucasian way but that faucet spouting out of the toilet top to wash your hands (thanks to my wife for clearing up that you wouldnt brush your teeth in that sink) is something that kind of creeps me out. I mean, I know that the tank water held there would be different from the water pushed through the faucet; and even if it was sucking water from the holding tank, the water is clean and uncontaminated. Still, kind of creepy washing your hands in water coming from a toilet and then walking out. Kind of not really screams hygenic.
Also, I am starting classes tomorrow to get a TEFL certificate, though after the last 2 weeks here in Singapore I think I should be taking English classes instead of teaching English classes. I thought I spoke English well, I thought I communicated well, but after spending 2 weeks here I realize that I obviously speak Canadian but not English. How have I come to realize this? Simple logic. When I talk to people here in Singapore at either a restaurant or store to ask for an item, I pronounciate, speak clearly and in the end get confused looks. When the person asks questions to me I find myself leaning into them going "EH?" and they have to repeat what they have asked. Only then do I figure out what they say and can respond. I thought that perhaps it was my hearing that was the problem since I find that my wife, my sister in law and pretty much everyone that talks to me mumbles. The hearing loss theory was scraped because I found myself able to sit at a table and hear people conversing in different languages that I couldnt understand, or even hear what the people at the counter were ordering 5-6 feet away and yet when I was standing face to face with people, I couldn't grasp what was being said. Obviously, it is my poor grasp of the English language that causes the problem. Guess I speak fluent Canadian, just not English, since I have been turned down by a few english schools here because I dont have teaching experience and "English is spoken widely here".
I guess another thing that makes me sort of laugh is when I read a sign or hear something that is not correct English but some people say there is nothing wrong with it. There is a sign in the coffee shop that I walk past with my wife on a regular basis and there is a sign that reads "Outside food are not allowed to consume in this premises" in English under some chinese words which I assume read roughly the same thing. Now when I read that I gave a laugh, read it to my wife and she said "yeah, you arent allowed to bring outside food into this area and eat" I said that in my mind it means that outside food can not come into this premises and eat food, which I found to be really discriminatory of the people for not allowing food to come into this place to eat just because it was 'outside' food. You couldnt post a sign that read "Indians are not allowed to consume in this premises" so why are you discriminating against outside food? This got me a shake of the head and a 'you got a screwed up mind' and she went back to her tea.
The other thing I scratch my head at, and also think that I obviously speak Canadian and have a very weak grasp on the actual English language, is in the PSA about the bombs in the MRT stations played in the downtown underground sections. The lady goes to the duty officer through the intercom to report the suspicious bag and says "he said the bag was not his but I saw him putting it there". Now, for me I would say that the -ing use of put to be a present action and not a past action that he obviously did since he is no longer there. I thought she would say something like "I saw him put it there". You either are 'putting the bag under the seat' at this moment in time, you 'put the bag under the seat' or you are 'going to put the bag under the seat' in the future. Just like you 'jumped into the lake' in the past, or you are 'jumping into the lake' now or you will 'jump' or you will be jumping into the lake in the future. Perhaps this is one of those things were proper English would say 'I saw him putting the bag there' to be correct and my horrible/slangish Canadian gets in the way. The video has to be correct because if a PSA is going to be shown repeatedly on a loop every 5 minutes or so, and with the PAP push to speak proper English to the citizens of Singapore without S'inglish or slangs, wouldn't they insist that all public service announcements have perfect English? Would be sort of hypocritical for them to say "speak English properly" and then put out a video/book in under their direction with improper English.
Also, I am starting classes tomorrow to get a TEFL certificate, though after the last 2 weeks here in Singapore I think I should be taking English classes instead of teaching English classes. I thought I spoke English well, I thought I communicated well, but after spending 2 weeks here I realize that I obviously speak Canadian but not English. How have I come to realize this? Simple logic. When I talk to people here in Singapore at either a restaurant or store to ask for an item, I pronounciate, speak clearly and in the end get confused looks. When the person asks questions to me I find myself leaning into them going "EH?" and they have to repeat what they have asked. Only then do I figure out what they say and can respond. I thought that perhaps it was my hearing that was the problem since I find that my wife, my sister in law and pretty much everyone that talks to me mumbles. The hearing loss theory was scraped because I found myself able to sit at a table and hear people conversing in different languages that I couldnt understand, or even hear what the people at the counter were ordering 5-6 feet away and yet when I was standing face to face with people, I couldn't grasp what was being said. Obviously, it is my poor grasp of the English language that causes the problem. Guess I speak fluent Canadian, just not English, since I have been turned down by a few english schools here because I dont have teaching experience and "English is spoken widely here".
I guess another thing that makes me sort of laugh is when I read a sign or hear something that is not correct English but some people say there is nothing wrong with it. There is a sign in the coffee shop that I walk past with my wife on a regular basis and there is a sign that reads "Outside food are not allowed to consume in this premises" in English under some chinese words which I assume read roughly the same thing. Now when I read that I gave a laugh, read it to my wife and she said "yeah, you arent allowed to bring outside food into this area and eat" I said that in my mind it means that outside food can not come into this premises and eat food, which I found to be really discriminatory of the people for not allowing food to come into this place to eat just because it was 'outside' food. You couldnt post a sign that read "Indians are not allowed to consume in this premises" so why are you discriminating against outside food? This got me a shake of the head and a 'you got a screwed up mind' and she went back to her tea.
The other thing I scratch my head at, and also think that I obviously speak Canadian and have a very weak grasp on the actual English language, is in the PSA about the bombs in the MRT stations played in the downtown underground sections. The lady goes to the duty officer through the intercom to report the suspicious bag and says "he said the bag was not his but I saw him putting it there". Now, for me I would say that the -ing use of put to be a present action and not a past action that he obviously did since he is no longer there. I thought she would say something like "I saw him put it there". You either are 'putting the bag under the seat' at this moment in time, you 'put the bag under the seat' or you are 'going to put the bag under the seat' in the future. Just like you 'jumped into the lake' in the past, or you are 'jumping into the lake' now or you will 'jump' or you will be jumping into the lake in the future. Perhaps this is one of those things were proper English would say 'I saw him putting the bag there' to be correct and my horrible/slangish Canadian gets in the way. The video has to be correct because if a PSA is going to be shown repeatedly on a loop every 5 minutes or so, and with the PAP push to speak proper English to the citizens of Singapore without S'inglish or slangs, wouldn't they insist that all public service announcements have perfect English? Would be sort of hypocritical for them to say "speak English properly" and then put out a video/book in under their direction with improper English.
posted by Capt_Canuck at 6:36 AM
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