Should We Ban Singlish in Singapore

Go to any major American financial hub and ask a businessman, “what is Singapore famous for?” the answer would most probably be, “oh from what I heard, Singapore is famous for it’s great variety of food, and for it’s coined version of English, Singlish.” Singapore’s growth from a remote fishing village, to a booming metropolis of the 21st century, is a miracle in itself considering that we have no natural resources, and we are but a little red dot on the world map. Is the usage of Singlish what we want to be remembered by? Singaporeans’ usage of Singlish has created such a bad impression of our conversational skills to foreigners when they visit us, that we are no longer remembered by our incredible evolution from a fishing village to a leading financial hub of the world, but by the slang that we speak. Thus, I agree strongly, that Singlish should be banned altogether. This essay will be orientated around two points, firstly, how Singlish will affect the conversational skills of our future leaders, and secondly, how western superpowers will look down on us Singaporeans for not speaking proper English. Singlish has been part and parcel of the Singaporean community for many decades. Nowadays, parents communicate with their children in Singlish, as they have been thought Singlish when they were children as well. Therefore, their sentences are often peppered with Singlish. Some generic examples of such sentences would be, “oi boy, you finish your homework yet or not?”, “Boy, why your results so lousy? See? Even xxxx beat you by so much marks!” Children are like sponges, and they pick up things very quickly. Slowly, little by little, Singlish gets thought to them indirectly through daily conversations with their parents. The children of today are going to be the leaders of tomorrow. They are the ones who will be taking over the reins from the leaders of the present. In a sense, they are Singapore’s future. If our leaders are not