Singapore's Prime Minister Urges Use Of Hip-Hop
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Singapore's Prime Minister Urges Use Of Hip-Hop
By Nolan Strong
Date: 5/13/2005 9:30 am
Singapore’s Prime Minister has launched a nationwide campaign utilizing Hip-Hop to stop the spread of “Singlish,” a mixture of English and local dialects.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said the mixing of the languages is a major issue, because it could leave Singaporeans unintelligible.
Loong urged teachers to use pop songs and Hip-Hop music to teach proper English.
"Speak in a normal Singapore tone, which is neutral and intelligible," Loong said. "But speak in full sentences, with proper sentence structure."
According to published reports, Loong’s administration started their campaign against the “Singlish” dialect in 2000. The government blamed a popular TV character named Phua Chu Kang for the rise in bad grammar among the population.
Loong has been criticized in the past for various social engineering campaigns aimed at the Singaporean population.
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As if hip-hop is the pinnacle of good diction..
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duplicated.
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Yep..we've made it to the oddities page of California's news.
check this out too..http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2005/05/13/1038156-ap.html
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cp oddities news
Friday, May 13, 2005
Singapore begins social engineering plan, targeting local version of English
SINGAPORE (AP) - Singapore's prime minister launched the country's latest behaviour modification campaign on Friday, urging teachers to use hip-hop and rap music to teach proper English and warning that continued use of the mutated local form of the language could make Singaporeans unintelligible.
"Speak in a normal Singapore tone, which is neutral and intelligible," Lee Hsien Loong said. "But speak in full sentences, with proper sentence structure and cutting out all the 'lahs' and 'lors' at the end of each sentence."
Lee was referring to two words commonly added to the end of sentences in "Singlish" - a mishmash of English and local dialects.
"Can or not? I think can," he said, using another commonly used phrase in Singlish.
The city-state is well known for its numerous social engineering campaigns, most of which are government-backed. Singapore in the past has urged its citizens to wave at fellow motorists, flush public toilets, be more romantic and arrive at wedding receptions on time.
Lee urged teachers to use "pop songs, hip-hop and rap as mediums for teaching good English."
"If our English becomes too mutated, then we become unintelligible to others," he said. "If we speak in a dialect which only some Singaporeans can understand, then we are handicapping ourselves and cutting ourselves off from the rest of the world."
The administration began waging war on Singlish in 2000 and attacked the country's most popular TV character, Phua Chu Kang, blaming his use of Singlish for a rise in bad grammar among citizens.
Critics have denounced the numerous behavioural campaigns as Orwellian and condescending. -
He wants us to " yo yo....check it out..yo yo" instead of "lah"
I thought hip hop also broken english? -
He wants us to " yo yo....check it out..yo yo" instead of "lah"
I thought hip hop also broken english? -
hip hop.....hahaa......
play games, play yahoo pager, push-mail.
i c...PM is helping Strahub in promoting their product. -
Precisely.Does everyone understand the shizz coming out from Detroit?No.But it's their culture right?Originally posted by zorro82:He wants us to " yo yo....check it out..yo yo" instead of "lah"
I thought hip hop also broken english?
Singlish is our heritage.He should have presented it in an angle that promotes good English in the commercial and literary scene without degrading something that binds all Singaporeans together.
We have a natural unity with Singlish, why break it and spend millions trying to forge an alternative artificial bond?Singlish is the example of our melting pot..the rojak that binds us.
Jeez... 
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muahahahhaa. what can i say?
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The ruling party has been trying very hard to destroy singaporean culture and diversity for a very long time now, nevermind the fact that in other countries, both western and asian, people speak with their own regional/local accents/colloqualisms within the same country. China and the United States, countries that the MIW are bending over backwars to suck up to, are good examples. Using hip-hop and rap? WTF? They are no more grammatical or correct as Singlish. Is LHL high on drugs?
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Yo. Shizzle my dizzle yah?
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u should pass him some nitrix on the way downunder.Originally posted by av98m:The ruling party has been trying very hard to destroy singaporean culture and diversity for a very long time now, nevermind the fact that in other countries, both western and asian, people speak with their own regional/local accents/colloqualisms within the same country. China and the United States, countries that the MIW are bending over backwars to suck up to, are good examples. Using hip-hop and rap? WTF? They are no more grammatical or correct as Singlish. Is LHL high on drugs? 
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how does Hip-Hop english sounds like?
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Listen to Dr Dre and his ilk..Death Row Records etc..Originally posted by SnowFlag:how does Hip-Hop english sounds like?
Someone's clearly high on something and its worse than pot. -
Divide and rule huh..deny the people common ground so that they can't be a cohesive force to reckon with in the future eh.Classic tactic of driving a wedge between demographics..but plans like these are bound to fail..Originally posted by av98m:The ruling party has been trying very hard to destroy singaporean culture and diversity for a very long time now, nevermind the fact that in other countries, both western and asian, people speak with their own regional/local accents/colloqualisms within the same country. China and the United States, countries that the MIW are bending over backwars to suck up to, are good examples. Using hip-hop and rap? WTF? They are no more grammatical or correct as Singlish. Is LHL high on drugs?
This is 2005..any more campaigns like these are just bound to elicit remarks deeming it lame, childish and a disgrace to our weird international standing. -
I sometimes wonder if LHL even knows the ghetto origins of rap and hip hop.
The govt seems to be still caught in the SPG mindset that anything western must be good (except for freedom of speech and democracy of course). Singlish, or what the stuff profs at the English Lang Dept at NUS call SCE(Singapore Colloquial English), borrows heavily from dialects and words from our respective languages (English, Malay, Mandarin, Hokkien, etc).It is part of the glue holding together the social fabric in Singapore. Singlish is part of our culture and national identity contributing to racial harmony (its very refreshing to see chinese using malay words and malays using hokkien etc). It helps people from the different races in Singapore bond, and this is the most apparent(for me at least) during national service, where we mix with people from different ethnic groups and backgrounds. Are our MIW ashamed of their own local culture? With all the emphasis on racial harmony day and racial harmony activities in schools today, why is LHL bent on destroying the one thing in common we have, besides citizenship? -
LHL defines a whole new meaning to the words 'idiot', 'idiotic' and the phrase 'what a complete idiot he is'.
Do you get the drift by now? -
Argh..LHL and GWB can do the Bongo Dance together..
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yo yo +1 v
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totally lame.
+1 yo yo -
Kong gai sui ah.Originally posted by av98m:I sometimes wonder if LHL even knows the ghetto origins of rap and hip hop.
The govt seems to be still caught in the SPG mindset that anything western must be good (except for freedom of speech and democracy of course). Singlish, or what the stuff profs at the English Lang Dept at NUS call SCE(Singapore Colloquial English), borrows heavily from dialects and words from our respective languages (English, Malay, Mandarin, Hokkien, etc).It is part of the glue holding together the social fabric in Singapore. Singlish is part of our culture and national identity contributing to racial harmony (its very refreshing to see chinese using malay words and malays using hokkien etc). It helps people from the different races in Singapore bond, and this is the most apparent(for me at least) during national service, where we mix with people from different ethnic groups and backgrounds. Are our MIW ashamed of their own local culture? With all the emphasis on racial harmony day and racial harmony activities in schools today, why is LHL bent on destroying the one thing in common we have, besides citizenship?
WTF, singlish is one of the genuine product of the SGP mixing pot. At the end of the day, the other party that we are communicating to need to understand us. If I am in England, will speak with a english twain... and if an ang moh is in town, they bloody hell need to understand lim pei kong simi -
What is the point in trying to emulate the Englishmen we speak proper Queen English but the pockets have no monies.Originally posted by LazerLordz:Singapore's Prime Minister Urges Use Of Hip-Hop
By Nolan Strong
Date: 5/13/2005 9:30 am
Singapore’s Prime Minister has launched a nationwide campaign utilizing Hip-Hop to stop the spread of “Singlish,” a mixture of English and local dialects.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said the mixing of the languages is a major issue, because it could leave Singaporeans unintelligible.
Loong urged teachers to use pop songs and Hip-Hop music to teach proper English.
"Speak in a normal Singapore tone, which is neutral and intelligible," Loong said. "But speak in full sentences, with proper sentence structure."
According to published reports, Loong’s administration started their campaign against the “Singlish” dialect in 2000. The government blamed a popular TV character named Phua Chu Kang for the rise in bad grammar among the population.
Loong has been criticized in the past for various social engineering campaigns aimed at the Singaporean population.
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As if hip-hop is the pinnacle of good diction..
There is no denying that English can be spoken with correct accents etc as we learn it in school. I am sure many people know the value of speaking and writing well without all the hypes and social engineering.
However, to spend the national time to promote language accents as spoken by the Englishmen or Americans or Chinese is like "much ado about nothing" . This is typical of the nanny state the government has been promoting all these time.
It will only be found that at the end of the day it is not campaign that will help citizens to speak or write better or to build a more vibrant society of the east. The correct approach lies in the willingness of government in promoting greater tolerances of various social and cultural values that belong to the people of various origins and ethnic backgrounds and adoption of proper values from young consistently promoted in schools all the ways up.
By governing the whole nation based on overwhelming pragmatism as is apparently being practised by our money-minded government, we tend to neglect considerations of needs and expectations and value systems setting itself backwards our language, cultural and social developments or the softwares of the people.
It is too obvious that the larger aspects of nation building in the context of social and cultural areas as expressed in the casino debates have been expectedly set aside leaving people largely dissatisfied and disappointed.
It is very clear that as long as government is able to achieve its targeted surpluses and comfortable lives for only the elites and the rich many of the problems concerning social and language aspects are secondary.
Under such conditions, I do not see the value in campaigns to promote any one's languages or social behaviours as government has not committed itself to upholding or promotion of root social and cultural values for all.
At best all kinds of engineering engineering, press control and brainwashing will have to be resorted to for justifications to serve narrow-minded pragmatic ends.
The more government treats everyone like kids and try to promote particular social language and ethical values through campaigns the more it will be running into contradictions with its real behaviours at works. To promote true social and correct personal behaviours and value systems, let it be done naturally through care and consistent practices at all levels of nationhood and not through artificial means.
Many problems including the teaching of values, religious and racial tolerances and respects for elderly and fellow human beings or Singaporeans should be spontaneously inculcated by setting good corporate governance standards and not artificially interceded by government campaigns.
Such aspects of national wellbeing is part of good corporate governance and the latter is only wish-washy what good is there of more artificial campaigns. -
In short, broken and disjointed American slang is better than English with its own unique Singaporean flavour.
Sigh... we're looking more and more like a troupe of clowns, I tell you. I imagine that the world of English speakers is laughing at us now.
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That's fine.Having linguistic versatility is to be admired.But to pit one form of slang against another that is our fabric, smacks of stupidity.Period.Originally posted by diggo:Kong gai sui ah.
WTF, singlish is one of the genuine product of the SGP mixing pot. At the end of the day, the other party that we are communicating to need to understand us. If I am in England, will speak with a english twain... and if an ang moh is in town, they bloody hell need to understand lim pei kong simi
Fudgester, yes are we clowns.We have made the weird news section of many newspapers twice in a week -
Well, on the positive side, just about all of the government's social engineering campaigns have been miserable failures so I guess the hip hop crap shouldn't be any different. Maybe they'll try banning locally produced sitcoms from using singlish in the script. But if they do that, nobody will watch.
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Singapore's Prime Minister Urges Use Of Hip-Hop
Yet another example of the Singapore government being completely out of touch with reality.
By Nolan Strong
Date: 5/13/2005 9:30 am
Singapore’s Prime Minister has launched a nationwide campaign utilizing Hip-Hop to stop the spread of “Singlish,” a mixture of English and local dialects.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said the mixing of the languages is a major issue, because it could leave Singaporeans unintelligible.
Loong urged teachers to use pop songs and Hip-Hop music to teach proper English.
Perhaps Lee Hsien Loony should spend some time touring the black ghettos of any major US city. That way, he might gain a better 'appreciation' of the socio-cultural origins of (c)rap and hip-hop.
(Assuming, of course, he doesn't get mugged and/or shot in the process.)
Loony-Boy has really lost his marbles this time. What next? The teaching of ebonics as a second language in our schools?Fudgester, yes are we clowns.We have made the weird news section of many newspapers twice in a week
The MIW consider that a positive accomplishment.
MG