Singlish should not be banned in Singapore

Singlish, being one local feature of Singapore, is a special English-based language mixed with Chinese dialects as well was a few Malay. It has unmistakably brought some negative impacts on the process of speaking Standard English in this state, however, I do not think banning it is necessary now.

First, we ought to understand the difficulties in case we aim to forbid it. Being an endemic language that has developed for decades, Singlish has deeply rooted in Singapore. Nowadays, not only students, but also workers from every class widely speak it and write in it, including a big amount of teachers. For such a high proportion of citizens has got used to this language, it will not be a piece of cake to restrict them from using it. Force through an unwelcome policy will only bring disasters.

We must also have a look at where Singlish derived from. This process took a long time as the major Chinese and Malay people in this country were learning English under its dominant trend. During that time, those English learners were recommended to communicate in a unaccustomed language that they rarely used at home, so they could not stop adding words belonging to their parent language to it. As time went by, those words tended to gain their specific meanings, being mingled with the elemental English words to form this regional language of Singapore.

Then it will not be difficult to find out a fact: Singlish is the inexorable product of the English popularisation course in this heterogeneous nation. People have been using and mixing different languages ever since they were leaning to speak. Even if the government declare that the present Singlish cannot be used any more, a new one would inextricably boom out on its own rather than directly fade away.

Therefore, it is better not to ban Singlish now. Carrying out the government order may be costly, but inefficient after all. In other words, this will not fit in the working rules of the country. However, in turn we can have a meditation upon the origin of the dispute, about which why some people are trying to forbid this language. Often enough, they claim that Singlish makes it difficult for people from other countries to understand Singaporean, and that will finally harm the future development of this country. How shall we solve this problem in case it can not banned? There are certainly other ways out.

Here is a good instance from China. There have been hundreds of distinct dialects, which made it almost impossible for people from different provinces to hold a conversation properly. In order to solve this problem, the government of the Qing Dynasty had referred to Mandarin as the only official language, which hundreds of millions of Chinese should all be able to use. However, none of the vernaculars were banned at the same time, citizens still speak their indigenous language at home while using mandarin on public occasions.

It is impeccable for the Singapore government to carry out the Speaking Standard English Movement, while we do not have to sacrifice one thing for the other. Singlish is not yet transformed very far away from English, so that there are still opportunities to redress it gradually. The main difference between Singlish and English is nothing more than grammatical errors. We can refer to Singlish as the very informal form of English, with many inappropriate abbreviations, queer sentence structures and so on. This problem can be prevented by enhancing English lessons in the school. Adults also have to attend courses to be a good model, reducing children¡¯s dependence on the more convenient but less reliable way in which they communicate.

In reality Singlish cannot be regarded as an independent language other than an immature dialect, which is now on its way approaching the pure English. Banning this temporary talk may make some people find life harder, even losing confidence and enthusiasm in mastering English finally. What we should prefer to do at present is to endeavour to raise the general level of education in the whole nation, and English learning in particular. Hence, Singlish would disappear by itself in the near future. Isn't that better than banning it passively?