EPTAlthough I definitely think they should have incorporated some discrete math in Singapore education system. Our entire math education is just about crunching numbers and punching calculators really fast. Which is not useful in University.
Damn it Singaporean education! - Page 6
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gzealot
Singapore238 Posts
Although I definitely think they should have incorporated some discrete math in Singapore education system. Our entire math education is just about crunching numbers and punching calculators really fast. Which is not useful in University. | ||
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Dfgj
Singapore5922 Posts
But seriously, I didn't find secondary school or JC (IB) that stressful. On January 31 2012 21:44 Azera wrote: I think that Singlish is a disgusting abomination and should be treated as such. I have no idea why I have such an irrational hate of Singlish. Because slurring our 'yah lorrr' literally sounds like you're saying things like hurrr durrrrrrr and is difficult to respect. | ||
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caradoc
Canada3022 Posts
On January 31 2012 21:44 Azera wrote: I think that Singlish is a disgusting abomination and should be treated as such. I have no idea why I have such an irrational hate of Singlish. I'll tell you why. It's because the government has a very long lasting campaign to eradicate Singlish and as such it's derided in all the state-produced media, censored from tv/radio so as to not give it any prestige, and subject to an endless stream of prescriptive material, pigeonholed and purposely portrayed as the language of the uneducated. The strategy is to lower people's perception of it until they don't use it. (i.e. reduce people's perception of its socio-economic prestige as a code) Your irrational hatred of it comes from internalizing the bizarre, broken, paranoid, patriarchal worldview that resides within the thinking behind that campaign. Glad I could help. But celebrate the language man. Singlish is fucking AWESOME Stick it to the man, speak singlish. (an example of some campaign material) ![[image loading]](http://yjblog.stupidchicken.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/08/speakgood.png) See? government just wants you to be white, mobile, global citizen so you can go work for some Temasek-owned company, maybe travel, but never leave singapore, contribute to your CPF, buy an HDB, and vote PAP (*puke*). | ||
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Dfgj
Singapore5922 Posts
On February 01 2012 12:37 caradoc wrote: Stick it to the man, speak singlish. Yeah fuck the system man, schools suck too, trying to teach you to use the English language coherently yo. You're acting like it's some grand government conspiracy to have people not abuse the language. And sure, typing in text-speak is cultural too, but I don't have to be impressed by that either. | ||
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caradoc
Canada3022 Posts
On February 01 2012 12:44 Dfgj wrote: Yeah fuck the system man, schools suck too, trying to teach you to use the English language coherently yo. You're acting like it's some grand government conspiracy to have people not abuse the language. And sure, typing in text-speak is cultural too, but I don't have to be impressed by that either. Competence in one dialect does not imply lack of competence in another one. You can speak Singlish and speak another variety of English and still be good at both I'm not deriding capability to speak more than one code, I'm deriding the belief that you need to give up a cultural identity in order to do so. That's the white man's burden all over again. I talk like an academic when I give a talk, I speak Singlish-like in a hawker centre, I speak like neither to my mother, and I speak like none of those to my wife. I speak Tokyo-ben when I'm in Tokyo or with Japanese people I don't know, and I speak Okayama-ben when I'm in Okayama or with people from there (or when drunk, but thats a whole other thing)... no problem. If someone told me I had to always speak like an academic or I was a failure, I'd think he was an asshole. same thing. and it IS a campaign to get people to not speak the language. I don't know if I'd call it a conspiracy, it's pretty much out in the open. I personally know the previous director of the SGEM. If you like, I can also point you to papers, both academic and policy, that specifically outline the attempts to eradicate the language. | ||
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Dfgj
Singapore5922 Posts
On February 01 2012 12:46 caradoc wrote: Competence in one dialect does not imply lack of competence in another one. You can speak Singlish and speak another variety of English at the same time. I'm not deriding capability to speak more than one code, I'm deriding the belief that you need to give up a cultural identity in order to do so. That's the white man's burden all over again. I'll never understand people who think that using a language normally is some sort of cultural surrender. Your former point is valid*, but also irrelevant, because your competence in another variety of English doesn't matter if you're slurring words in the conversation right now. Just like if my English is flawless but I type like 'lol sup kk u nub roflflflf' on the internet, that's something valid to comment on, despite it being practically cultural as well, because it impacts the discussion at hand. No, I do not enjoy deciphering what people say (or type). You're welcome to use Singlish where other people are using it, you're right it would be assholish to suggest otherwise. Unfortunately, there's a large amount of people for whom Singlish time = all the time. And now we come to the *: not everyone is both fully capable of clear English and also comfortable slipping into slang - for some it's only the latter, and that can be obnoxious. As for 'conspiracy', I was referring to this: See? government just wants you to be white, mobile, global citizen so you can go work for some Temasek-owned company, maybe travel, but never leave singapore, contribute to your CPF, buy an HDB, and vote PAP (*puke*). which just makes you sound like a bitter teenager. | ||
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caradoc
Canada3022 Posts
On February 01 2012 12:50 Dfgj wrote: I'll never understand people who think that using a language normally is some sort of cultural surrender. Your former point is valid*, but also irrelevant, because your competence in another variety of English doesn't matter if you're slurring words in the conversation right now. Just like if my English is flawless but I type like 'lol sup kk u nub roflflflf' on the internet, that's something valid to comment on, despite it being practically cultural as well, because it impacts the discussion at hand. No, I do not enjoy deciphering what people say (or type). You're welcome to use Singlish where other people are using it, you're right it would be assholish to suggest otherwise. Unfortunately, there's a large amount of people for whom Singlish time = all the time. And now we come to the *: not everyone is both fully capable of clear English and also comfortable slipping into slang - for some it's only the latter, and that can be obnoxious. your construal of singlish as 'abnormal' and some form of american english as 'normal' is what I'm talking about. You can teach people new varieties of a language as a form of education, no problem. That's a positive thing, but that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the previous poster's irrational hatred of the language, and pointed out that its a result of a government policy to eradicate the language through deriding it publicly and portraying it as the language of the unemployed/uneducated etc etc. As I said in my previous point, if you have a hard time believing the policy exists, I can point you to policy papers or academic papers that outline it explicitly. EDIT: As for 'conspiracy', I was referring to this: which just makes you sound like a bitter teenager. oh, haha, I was more poking fun at the image. but sure. no prob. | ||
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Dfgj
Singapore5922 Posts
On February 01 2012 12:55 caradoc wrote: As I said in my previous point, if you have a hard time believing the policy exists, I can point you to policy papers or academic papers that outline it explicitly. I've never suggested that government policies do not exist. I'm suggesting your irrational hatred for anything against Singlish, as I quoted in my last post, is equally ridiculous (if not moreso) than the poster you originally quoted. Personally, I haven't much paid attention to government programs. My opinion is based on the fact that the accent on the slang is exactly the same as my objection to texting language - I can generally understand it, but I find it obnoxious. oh, haha, I was more poking fun at the image. but sure. no prob. I honestly couldn't tell :o | ||
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caradoc
Canada3022 Posts
On February 01 2012 12:58 Dfgj wrote: I've never suggested that government policies do not exist. I'm suggesting your irrational hatred for anything against Singlish, as I quoted in my last post, is equally ridiculous (if not moreso) than the poster you originally quoted. My dislike for what essentially amounts to a policy of cultural genocide (linguicide counts as cultural genocide, make no mistake) is a pretty valid dislike imo. The reason I called the previous posters hate irrational is because he himself called it an irrational hate. So I re-used his own term. I'm not sure why you think I hate anything against Singlish, as I said, the campaign is paranoid/patriarchal/broken but I'm not sure where the rest of your thoughts are coming from. EDIT: Personally, I haven't much paid attention to government programs. My opinion is based on the fact that the accent on the slang is exactly the same as my objection to texting language - I can generally understand it, but I find it obnoxious. Fair enough, you're allowed. But at least part of your feeling that it is obnoxious is based on the feeling that it is 'corrupted' or 'broken' in some way-- which stems from the government policy I'm talking about. If anything you should be annoyed at the policy too-- if the policy didn't exist, you'd have nothing to be annoyed at since you wouldnt see Singlish as broken in the first place, but as a valid form of communication, and a beautiful linguistic system in its own right that codifies and expresses everyday life in a way that no other language can. | ||
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Dfgj
Singapore5922 Posts
On February 01 2012 13:01 caradoc wrote: I'm not sure why you think I hate anything against Singlish, as I said, the campaign is paranoid/patriarchal/broken but I'm not sure where the rest of your thoughts are coming from. I was building it of what you've now said was joking - I assumed you were being literal and were just raging that hard against the government and linking promoting good english to everything else. If that's not the case we can just move along I guess. | ||
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caradoc
Canada3022 Posts
On February 01 2012 13:03 Dfgj wrote: I was building it of what you've now said was joking - I assumed you were being literal and were just raging that hard against the government and linking promoting good english to everything else. If that's not the case we can just move along I guess. I'll leave you to deconstruct the image above on your own time. It's an interesting study. | ||
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haduken
Australia8267 Posts
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pdd
Australia9933 Posts
On February 02 2012 15:28 haduken wrote: My mate from high school had Singaporean/Malaysian Chinese parents and he would switch to Singalish mid sentence when talking to me. Freaks the fuck out of me. Singaporean/Malaysians who fake an Aussie accent | ||
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endy
Switzerland8970 Posts
On January 31 2012 21:44 Azera wrote: I think that Singlish is a disgusting abomination and should be treated as such. I have no idea why I have such an irrational hate of Singlish. Hahaha just wanted to say I'm so glad to hear that from you. Every time I go to Singapore, the way people talk drives me crazy ! Good luck with your studies, I guess you don't have other choice than fitting in the system, so suck it up and succeed ! | ||
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targ
Malaysia445 Posts
It does seem rather hardcode at your age though I must say. | ||
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haduken
Australia8267 Posts
On February 02 2012 15:46 pdd wrote: Singaporean/Malaysians who fake an Aussie accent ... except i'm not from Singapore, a few years ago while I was still @ uni, these dudes will just come up to me and run off some singa and when I don't respond they must think i'm dumb or something rofl In 2006 I think it was, every fucking azn in the city was doing the lah thing. It's fucking everywhere, it got so bad if one of us wasn't doing it in msn, we would finish off his sentence with a lah for him... | ||
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Azera
3800 Posts
On February 02 2012 17:14 endy wrote: Hahaha just wanted to say I'm so glad to hear that from you. Every time I go to Singapore, the way people talk drives me crazy ! Good luck with your studies, I guess you don't have other choice than fitting in the system, so suck it up and succeed ! Haha! Thanks! On February 02 2012 18:06 haduken wrote: ... except i'm not from Singapore, a few years ago while I was still @ uni, these dudes will just come up to me and run off some singa and when I don't respond they must think i'm dumb or something rofl In 2006 I think it was, every fucking azn in the city was doing the lah thing. It's fucking everywhere, it got so bad if one of us wasn't doing it in msn, we would finish off his sentence with a lah for him... "Lah" really drives me insane. | ||
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Azzur
Australia6260 Posts
End of the day, the education system is designed to work for the country that it's in. For instance, in Asia, it's useful to have hard working people who can carry instructions well. However, note that the creative industries (R&D) is more often than not done in the West (or by Westerners) because they are more equipped to do so. For my opinion, I believe the Asian education system is actually pretty good because the majority of people fall in this category. The risk is that creativity is stifled for better grades (hard work + follow instructions) so there is a risk that stagnation will occur. In the end, a balance is needed but it's very hard achieving it. | ||
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