ES1102 Reader Response Essay Draft 2

Can English be a Singaporean mother tongue?

Lu (2013) discussed that there has been an increasing prevalence of English being recognised as their mother tongue in Singaporeans over the years. He also observed that there are efforts to encourage Mandarin, Melayu or Tamil learning but English is still regarded as their sense of identity. Sadly, he noted that such identity did not gain consensus from our local government and the international crowd. He highlighted that Singaporeans proved to be of a better calibre by outdoing most nations in international tests in English proficiency and literacy. In conclusion, he asserted that the acceptance of English language as our mother tongue would only be feasible with government’s recognition and the alteration of our language policies and stances to match our sociolinguistic entities. 

Growing up in a Chinese speaking family, I always pondered about the possibility of speaking or performing better in my English language if I was born into an English speaking family. I have friends who speak and write proficiently in English, and interestingly most of them are from English speaking families. There are also friends who do not have any English speaking background yet they are adept in their English. I believed that some point in their lives they must have came across a certain English-speaking influence which help molded their English speaking and writing skills. This also brings me to a particular point highlighted in the article by Lu (2013) – “The notion “native speaker of English” is tied to particular nationalities and ethnicities — that is, Anglo-Saxons — and this is still prevalent throughout the world.”

Personally, I feel that such association is incoherent and it deviates from what I have always believed. I believed that English is a very complex art and anyone can master English and called it their first language. However, once you put a definition into it, it can be controversial and sensitive.

Quoted from Lu (2013), “Those who argue that Singaporeans lack intelligibility in spoken English must not have heard the British in their “Cockney”, “Geordie” or “Brummie” dialects.”, I presume that there are thorns among the roses and yet they represent the native speakers of English. On the contrary, Singaporeans who proved to be better are condemned for their inadequateness. I feel that such statements made on Singaporeans are biased and unfair. Is there a definite circumference to determining who belongs to this pool and who does not, and who defines these circumferences? Who has the rights to define such circumferences as well? The English language is universal and should not be used to classify people into groups based on their demographics. 

I feel that as Singapore became more globalized and recognized on the world map, she has well integrated into Singapore the diverse social practices, cultures and linguistic influences different countries bring about. In resonance with Lu (2013), I agree that Singapore should quickly establish a firm stand on our sociolinguistic reality in order to make known our local English standards and to gain recognition for it across the globe. 

Being cosmopolitan, Singapore has a pool of different languages and therefore it can be perplexing to determine which language represents her mother tongue. However, it is clear that Mandarin, Melayu, Tamil is representative of the Chinese, Malays and Indians respectively. I recalled asking my friends over leisure talk which language was representative of Singapore and the answers I got were obvious. I had answers like Singlish and Chinese. In light of this, Singlish is actually a term created due to the warp English many Singaporeans speak today. Therefore, is it not understandable and reasonable that English be representative of Singapore? 


Reference:
Lu, L. (2013, July 15) Can English be a Singaporean mother tongue? Today Online. Retrieved from http://www.todayonline.com/commentary/can-english-be-singaporean-mother-tongue?singlepage=true