Mind Your Language

One day while driving, the daughter was relating excitingly to me "Mummy, my Chinese teacher was so funny. She said [Please eray (erase) this and put your nime (name) here]" to which I laughed uproariously.

But what raises my ire (at the back of my mind) is the fact that the Chinese teacher was obviously trying to speak what she felt was good English. After the giggles died down, finger-pointing ensued.

I was sharing with the hubby - we speak too much Singlish, we live in a sms world full of short forms that make sense to only some. Who are the English teachers? Does the education system focusing too much on maths and science and hence neglecting the good old English?

And the daughter continued with "please fee-nis (finish) this air-zahm-per (example)..."

If the quality of the language we hear is poor, then our reproduction of it will also be poor. So much for laughing at the teacher, I had to 'educate' the daughter that speaking well is all about achieving effective communication. Taking pride in Singlish is one thing, being understood and articulate is another.

And as much as the mother loves fashion and wanting to set a good example to the daughter, I had better learnt how to pronounce some of my favourite brand names and to include a few of the mis-pronounced words used in our everyday environment.

Chopard / sho-par (no, we are not fighting!)

Calendar /KAL-uhn-der/

Colleague / KOL-eeg/ n. (not "ker-lick")

Debt / det/ n.

Foie gras / fwah-grah / n.

Gesture / jest-ture / n.&v.

Grasp / grahs-p / v. (not "graps")

Hermes / air-mez / n.

Jaeger LeCoultre / yay-ger-le-coot / n.

Lacroix / lah-quah / n.

Lettuce / let-us / n. (not "let-tioose")

Liaise / lee-ayz / v.

Loewe / loh-way-vay / n. (not "loh-wee")

Moet & Chandon / moh-ett and shan-dawn / n.

Niche / neesh / n.&v.

Pinot Noir / pee-noh-nuar / n.

Sword / sawrd / n.

Theirs / thairs / (not "they-arse")

Three / th-ree / n.&adj. (not "tree")

Wednesday / wenz-day / n. (not 'wed-nes-day")

Being witty, the daughter suddenly blurted out "careful mum, there are people at the zib-bra crossing!"