Saturday, March 07, 2009

The Importance of Speaking Good English


Example 1

Angeline was literally tickled by one of her children last Tuesday.

It happened during her Circle Time in school. She was engaged in a discussion about their favourite toy with the children when she suddenly heard a "NO LA". As Ms Angeline is strongly against the children using Singlish in her class, she immediately responded, "NO 'LA'."

Just at that instance, another child called out, "Ms Angeline, you said 'LA'. Ms Angeline did not know whether to laugh or to cry at that child's enthusiasm of speaking good English. Thus, Ms Angeline tried to explain that she was trying to tell the friend not to use the 'LA'. However, that child did not look very convinced. Maybe Ms Angeline should have said, "Please don't use 'LA' in my class." Oh well!


Example 2

The children were engaged in Guess and Share with Ms Angeline last Thursday. As the children were taking turns to raise their hands to guess the object in the Guess and Share Bag, one child was called upon to ask a question, "You got it from where?" Ms Angeline rephrased the question and said, "Where did you get the Guess and Share from?" Once again, Ms Angeline reminded the children not to place the word 'where' at the end of the question.

After which, it was time for dismissal. Ms Angeline brought the children to the canteen and waited for the parents to pick up their child. As Ms Angeline waved good bye to the children, their parents would ask their child to say good bye to her. Naturally, the child said, "Bye, Bye!". And the parents would then ask, "Bye, Bye, WHO?" Ms Angeline nearly fainted on the spot. Need she say more?


P/S: Ms Angeline uses SINGLISH with ONLY her friends and family.
P/P/S: Ms Angeline is super duper happy this weekend!

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