Samples/Examples of poor English

[Ah Guan]

Cum again?

Sure.. Gimme 15 mins

 

[mercbenz]

Common among youngsters nowadays is the mannerism "like" as in:

"I was, like, 5 feet from her, and she was like smiling at me...."

Used very often in conversations here in Montreal..I have also heard it in Singapore (of course)

Imported from the US again, just like 'totally' (originated by Jennifer Aniston in Friends).

 

[Charlie9]

Pardon me for pointing this to you:
Should be all right
because I believe that there is no "alright"

Sales people are streetwise. Calling a potential customer by first name is too casual and rude; addressing someone Mr. XYZ is too formal. Therefore they improvise.

Many Indian Singaporeans have double anglicised names. Many Japanese expatriates write their family name in front. Muslim names are complicated.

Some forumers here like to drop names like "Swee Kiat" or "Boon Hui" as if the latter are their gay boyfriends.

I have seen forumers here condemning a native English teacher for writing "...that have got him into trouble". They thought "have gotten" is correct. But the writer was probably referring to a characteristic rather than an event that landed the student in hot soup. Moreover, haven't they heard of:
- I've just got to get a message to you;
- I've got money; I've got style; I've got the music in me

I have seen people explaining collective noun is always singular. But haven't they heard of:
- Asian foods (Japanese, Korean, Chinese food, etc.)
- peoples of the world (people of different race)
- fishes (different species of fish)

We have been taught not to start a sentence with "but" and "and". But English is evolving. And they are perfectly alright for emphasis.

On the other hand, I read somewhere that the following fashionable English terms/phrases are really bad English:
- at the end of the day
- my take on the issue
- mindset change
- paradigm shift

Q: when do you exercise?
A. Basically I exercise in the morning.

Q. Who do you think will win?
A. Actually I think it will be Taufik.

Basically the first person mean he exercises any time of the day but most often in the morning.
Actually the second person thinks others may have very good chances but Taufik would win if nothing went wrong.

 

[wanker10]

Red colour, blue colour, yellow colour.....

Red, yellow, blue are already a colour. Don't need to add a word colour behind. Red, yellow, blue will do or red in colour, blue in colour & etc...

 

[phouse3]

Pardon me for pointing this to you:
Should be all right
because I believe that there is no "alright"

Thanks for proving my 2 points again. The first is on English. The second is on people's habit of correcting others' English.

It is certainly OK to use "alright". (warning: trap here)

I am surprised that my humour have fallen flat on you whilst others managed to sense it.

 

[cunnosieur]

CV OF DA JI BOR


Nationality: P R China; Singapore PR
Date & Place of Birth: 15/10/1964; Lanzhou, China
Gender Female

EXPERIENCE
Jan. 2002 – Dec. 2005 Bank of China, Singapore Branch


Account Relationship Manager – Corporate Banking Department

 Liaise with arrangers on syndication loans deals;
 Information gathering, assessing and analysing of macro economy, industry, multinational corporates etc.
 Prepare and present of credit proposals;
 Prepare annual review reports for existing portfolios;
 Draft various reports to Head Office;
 Draft, edit and finalise credit manual of the department in Chinese (over 120 pages)
 Translate credit manual of the department into English.


Sep. 1998 - Dec. 2001 The Kwangtung Provincial Bank
Singapore Branch
(KPB merged with Bank of China since
1 Jan.2002)

Senior Officer – China Business Department

 to build and expand customer base;
 to minimise problem loan facilities, increased interest income by 30% within year of 1999;
 to go on business trips whenever necessary;
 handling perplexing projects which involved in legal procedures;
 to draft reports to Head Office;
 to communicate well with senior managers and junior staffs.

May 1994- Jul 1998 Robert W H Wang & Woo/ Raymond Tan & Co

China Project Supervisor cum Administrator

 to oversee the legal procedures related to China Property Projects and to provide useful and helpful information to the customers;
 to translante documents whenever necessary;
 to manage 5 supporting staffs;
 implemented on-the-job training for new staff.

Jan 1989–1992 Gansu Arts & Crafts Import & Export Corp. Lanzhou

International Trade Representative

 Attending international trading fair, travelling overseas and within territary of China to negoticate with clients and suppliers on sales and purchse terms;
 Expanded business to Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, European and Middle East market;
 Worked closely with suppliers to ensure the prompt shipment.

Sep. 1986–Dec. 1988 Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou

Assistant Lecturer

 Conducted essential English courses to 1-2nd year students and students from ethnic areas;
 Conducted training courses to secondary school teachers from rural areass.

EDUCATION
1982–1986 Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou, China
B.A., English Language & Literature.

1990–1991 Gansu International Trade Institute, Lanzhou, China

 attended training courses on International Trade, International Finance and Commercial Law, etc.
 awarded the Certificate of Merit for the Post of International Trade Representative

2001 ACCA

Attended initial stage courses of ACCA such as Financial Informaiton for Mangement and Preparing Financial Statement, etc.


INTERESTS
Reading, photography, dancing

 

[i_am_belle]

I am not an academic or professor in the English language, but i do find it amusing when i come across certain pet peeves of people around SinkieLand.

Samples/Examples of poor English ...

One glaring mistake is your very own - "but i do find it amusing when i come across certain pet peeves of people ..." :p

what is 'pet peeves of people' ? your whole sentence needs 2b re-constructed ...

 

[yinyang]

..Just observe locals being interviewed on TV. ...actually powerful terms to drive a point across and importantly saves heaps of explaining.

Also, think of what many politicians spout (and mean differently).. interesting buzz words. And not to be taken at face value. But I digress, may not be poor english... just hood wink populace:p

 

[kulgai]

Years back, I did a house-to-house survey during my school holidays for a liquor marketing company.
One question I had to ask was, "Have you drunk wine before?"
9 out of 10 times, the repondent would defensively say "No, No... never!".
I would then re-phrase my question, "You drank wine before?" & the answer became "Oh, Yes. Of course!"

 

[lubehsong]

i cook myself,i eat myself

 

[SIFU]

PAP slogan of late : upturn the downturn

 

[yansen84]

Bad English is undoubtedly imported from the US. The overuse of 'like' as a space-filler was most definitely a result of kids watching too much US tv (notice how it is less prevalent among the older generation). I for one get really irritated when people use that all the time, accompanied with a pseudo-American accent.

Another of my bete noires is when people pronounce letters in words which are supposed to be silent. Examples of these include 'debt', 'doubt', 'subtle', and the failure to pronounce the 'th-' sound in words. These are truly exclusive to Singapore English.

Some of the forummers lambasted people for using overbombastic English. I believe there has to be a balance. Be glad that there are Sinkies proficient enough to be able to be bombastic, for I reckon 90% of Sinkies are hapless to the point of not being able to even get their spelling and grammar right, not to mention write in elegant sentence structures and with profound vocabulary!

 

[Agoraphobic]

Sometimes it is slang and sometimes there is "friendspeak" where people are casual with language. We all do that when we are talking with buddies and don't give a shit about how we say it. So it's not such a big deal.

However, printed signs are what I find disturbing; after all, folks have the time to correct them. In Sg I often come across signs in stores saying "Furnitures" or "Equipments."

Isn't there someone in the organization that checks these before they are posted?

Cheers!

 

[angry_one]

To me even the english in the state papers is of poor standard, bar a few exceptions like Janadas Devan. The writing is always halting, shallow and sometimes even seems to 'scold' the reader.

Spend one day reading a top paper like New Yorks times.... and you'll see the glaring difference. As for magazines, my favs are Esquire, Smithsonian and Wired from the US. Now, those contain fabulous writing.

 

[scoopdreams]

Imported from the US again, just like 'totally' (originated by Jennifer Aniston in Friends).

Wrong on that. The term "totally" was popularized by Alicia Silverstone's classic 1995 movie Clueless. It originated from slang used extensively by upper-middle class teen girls in the San Fernando Valley.

That movie brought across America the language linguists now recognize as "Valleyspeak" (or "Valspeak", from Valley Girl, go wiki "valspeak"), and it was especially popular with teens.

Personally, I love language sub-cultures. It will be sooooo boring if everyone spoke Queen's English, or perfect English, and everyone spoke the same way. Besides, there is absolutely no such thing as perfect English. As times changes, new situations will crop up where it will require creative twisting of English. 30 years ago, who would have thought that when one says "go surf the web", it does not literally mean get your surfboard and find some spiders? We should be thankful it didn't turn out to be "go modemize your way on the digital worldwide server network"!

All of you here don't speak perfect English, and none of us here can claim to be an expert in English usage. What right do you have to be peeved at how others use their language?

Every generation seeks an identity of their own, and language is the first recognizable thing that separates one generation from the next. The objective of language is to be understood (even if it is only within its own sub-culture), and creative use should be encouraged. If a newfangled phrase is grating to most people, rest assured it will fall out of usage in no time at all.

Meanwhile, watch English grow, change, and mutate; enjoy and marvel every step of the way at how versatile it is as a medium of communications, with just 26 building blocks. Don't be a grammar or spelling nazi, don't reinforce production line thinking - because language governs thoughts, and standardized language means standardized thoughts.

 

[boundThunter]

Hey yous....a plural you ?

 

[yansen84]

All of you here don't speak perfect English, and none of us here can claim to be an expert in English usage. What right do you have to be peeved at how others use their language?

Every generation seeks an identity of their own, and language is the first recognizable thing that separates one generation from the next. The objective of language is to be understood (even if it is only within its own sub-culture), and creative use should be encouraged. If a newfangled phrase is grating to most people, rest assured it will fall out of usage in no time at all.

Meanwhile, watch English grow, change, and mutate; enjoy and marvel every step of the way at how versatile it is as a medium of communications, with just 26 building blocks. Don't be a grammar or spelling nazi, don't reinforce production line thinking - because language governs thoughts, and standardized language means standardized thoughts.

I beg to differ. It is one thing being creative in the use of the English language. It is another when the perception of being creative stems from wrongful use, as is the case among the youth of today in SG. When you are proficient in the language, by all means go and be creative about your usage (that's how we have poetry, literature, metaphors, personification etc). Telling kids what you just said will only give them the misleading impression that it is perfectly okay to not master fundamentals such as grammar and vocab.

Personally, I would actually advocate Queen's English, being the purist that I am. :p

 

[tuagu]

what about - cash money

 

[Maximilian Chua-Heng]

Is "NO OUTSIDE FOOD ALLOWED" bad English too?

What exactly is "outside food"? Pls advice.

 

[scoopdreams]

I beg to differ. It is one thing being creative in the use of the English language. It is another when the perception of being creative stems from wrongful use, as is the case among the youth of today in SG. When you are proficient in the language, by all means go and be creative about your usage (that's how we have poetry, literature, metaphors, personification etc). Telling kids what you just said will only give them the misleading impression that it is perfectly okay to not master fundamentals such as grammar and vocab.

Personally, I would actually advocate Queen's English, being the purist that I am. :p

And I wager Picasso's Cubism art works would have been labeled as bizarre and ugly by many art 'purists' at the start of the movement. Of course, the same art 'purists' now rank Cubism art pieces with Renoir's Impressionist works at the very top.

Creativity comes from daring to experiment with all forms, not just what you think will be socially acceptable. For example, the uniquely Singaporean phrase of "Bang balls, man!" in one lovely, succint phrase, encapsulates what Queen's English would need to accomplish in quite a few words, "This is so frustrating, and I will have to put up with it."

How many times did Shakespeare wrote spasm-inducing sentences, breaking all rules and structure, before he came up with the lovely prose he is famous for now? What about the line in the Merchant of Venice "between you and I"? Between you and I, that is the correct grammar, and "Between you and me" is the wrong grammar. Between you and I, I refer you to this NY Times post from way back in 1988, that was required reading given to us by our lecturer.

I am not saying we should encourage kids to continue - we should enlighten them on the correct usage of English, but not FORCE all the pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, enunciations, etc etc into their throats, and slap them silly when they do things differently.

Most importantly, what is not acceptable now, very well could be acceptable a few decades later. What is acceptable now, very well could be plain outright bizarre a few decades later too. For example, I said "That's totally lame." to the young daughter of a friend, who promptly looked me up and down a few times as if I am a weirdo, and said "It's called lay-moh now, uncle Kelvin."

I grinned, and said "Ah yes, I stand corrected. That's totally lay-moh."

It is now part of my everyday vernacular, and my friends are picking it up fast, because it's so catchy. You, dear sir, are lay-moh.

P.S Do you realize that your opening phrase "I beg to differ.", while being standard Queen's English, is very weird when you look closely at it? Why do you beg? Why not just say "I see things differently." or "I have a different point of view." Are you accepting me as your overlord? Or are you truly a beggar in profession? Do you hold your paws together? And have you given me a chance to say "No, I'm not accepting your beg." If you look at it even closer, is it grammatically sound? Shouldn't it be "I am begging to differ."? What is English, if not clay to be molded in the hands of children, so all kinds of delight can come out of it?

P.P.S Some enlightened circles recognize the term "purist", when someone uses it, as the same as saying "I am an inflexible a-hole who have nothing better to do in life but to gripe about things I am unfamiliar with."