Singapore hosts a national movement aimed at helping its population speak better English called, appropriately enough, the Speak Good English Movement. Launched in the year 2000, it went annual in 2003, and is meant to improve the overall level of spoken English in the country. This year’s theme is “Impress, Inspire, Intoxicate”, and will yield a series called “Six Lives” that follows six ordinary Singaporeans as they navigate the difficulties of learning English.
One of the primary targets for this year’s movement is its online-enabled youth, who may feel that “good enough English” is all they need to master, given that they mostly use it to communicate with each other. Part of the “Six Lives” story will focus on social sites like Facebook and Twitter, as that’s where you’ll find the most egregious regular English errors.
It’s amazing to see a national movement based on education like this one. Honestly, it’s difficult for me to imagine America being successful at something like this. I may be used to reading ROFL and BBL and common typos like “teh” and “waht”, but I fear the accumulating degradation of the language by casual acceptance. People like to trot out the old chestnut about English being a constantly evolving language, and that this sort of change is just proof, but I feel that should only apply to new concepts and neologisms, not to established good practices. Let’s take the time to impress upon our kids that proper English is always worth mastering, because it leads to stronger communication. And hey, who knows? In ten years, we might all be part of a similar campaign for Americans to learn Mandarin!
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