Soucre A:
(Taken from ST forum Online story: http://www.straitstimes.com/ST%2BForum/Online%2BStory/STIStory_202479.html)
Poor pronunciation, enunciation of the spoken English in new train announcements <!-- headline one : end --><!-- more than 7 paragraphs --><!-- story content : start -->
AS A Singaporean and frequent MRT commuter, and on behalf of the many people I know who feel the same, I would like to urge SMRT to review the new announcements of station names that are used in the trains, as well as the announcements on free bus services at certain stations, etc.
It has been a few weeks since the new announcements were put into use and, for a long time, I had thought the new announcements were recorded by internal staff and was only temporary, or that it was some tertiary students' year-end project. I had thought so simply because the pronunciation, enunciation and intonation of the spoken English was very poor and awkward.
Just to name a few of the jarring problems: Orchard was pronounced as something akin to Oooh-church. Yishun sounded something akin to Yeeee-Soon. And among many other pronunciation problems, the intonation of 'Please mind the platform gap' was awfully contorted as well.
This is totally not an issue of 'getting used to it over time'. Neither is it an issue of a local
Singaporean accent, because even the average Singaporean English does not sound like that. The issue is that the announcer sounded like she deliberately put on some bizarre accent, and added tonal acrobatics, thinking that it will sound like better English.
The English heard in the train announcements just didn't make the cut.
My peers and I are quite appalled to realise that the new change is not temporary but a deliberate 'make-over' which is meant to be used permanently. We take MRT frequently, and the in-train announcements really do make us cringe, every single time.
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Recently, I had two groups of foreign friends who were visiting Singapore from Vancouver and London respectively, and while travelling with them in the train, both groups had commented politely but bemusedly at the announcement voice. It was rather embarrassing, but I told them my then honest belief that the in-train announcements were just temporary.
I understand that SMRT may have good intentions in refreshing the announcement system and in hoping that the new announcements will sound younger and friendlier. However, the overhaul is really not very successful. The general sentiment of fellow commuters (including my visiting friends from Vancouver) is that the in-train announcements sounded strange, flirtatious and very 'low budget' (for lack of a better description) instead.
Having said that, I do find the other new announcements refreshing - one example being the announcement for reporting of suspicious articles in the station. It sounds younger and sweeter, and words were enunciated clearly and correctly. Similarly, the Mandarin announcements were all enunciated clearly and correctly, and as I do not understand Malay and Tamil I am unable to make any comments.
Nonetheless, the 'rights' do not rectify all 'the wrongs' that we hear all the time in the trains. I believe that most people do not mind a new voice for our MRT system. However, it must still adhere to a certain standard of good quality. I hope SMRT will seriously review the new announcements.
From source A, what can you infer about the new annoucements?
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It sounds weird..
Many people might confuse the C151 cars with the C751 cars on the MRT. What can you infer about this situation from source B?
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Source B:
Comparision Between Refurbished Units and C751 Units
Many people might confuse the C151 cars with the C751 cars on the MRT. The exteriors of the refurbished trains are painted in the new livery: black, red, gray. However, unlike the C751's streamlined-fronted trains, the refurbished C151 units will keep their flat front. The headlights on the C151 refurbished units will stay rectangular, while the C751's were circle from their original condition. The noises of accelerating and braking are different on the C151's and the C751's; the C751's noise is a lot more high-pitched and also a little quieter than the C151's. Inside the C751 cars, seats have a slight curved edge on the top part of the seats; the C151's do not have this feature. Also, the livery on the seats are different: the first and last cars on the C151 refurbished units have red seats, and the middle two cars have a darker shade of green. On the C751's, the seats are pink-purple on cars one and six, and are blue-green in cars three and four. The sky-blue livery stays the same in cars two and five on both sets. The darker-colored priority seats found on the refurbished C151's are not located on C751's. The rims around the windows of the doors can also be used to tell a difference. The refurbished C151's have the metal of the window rims showing, but the C751's rims are painted over (white on the inside side, black on the outside side).
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kawasaki_Heavy_Industries_C151_cars
Originally posted by Promiscuous VaL*:It sounds weird..
Its not even L1. Proper: L3
what kind of SBQ is this? LOL If you are getting this in O lvl, i chop my head sia.
talk cock one lah where got source so long one...anyway in what way is this related to history or social studies. or is this a lvl stuff?