Saturday, September 09, 2006

Is our English Language deteriorating?

Some years back I came across an interesting article in the Straits Times. The writer mentioned that SIA (Singapore Airlines) was seriously thinking of re-training their air stewards and stewardess in the area of speech. After these two incidents, you will understand why.

A stewardess was serving dinner. One of the American passengers in the SIA asked her, "What were you doing before you became an air stewardess?" "Study lor", she replied.

"Wow! You are clever to study law. You have both beauty and brains".

"Cannot meh?" she asked.

Another stewardess asked her British passenger with a voice loud and clear for all to hear, "Sir, do you want chilli on your balls?"

Now with handphones in vogue, many people sms using short forms. Our government is trying so hard to ensure that the standard of speaking and writing in English does not deteriorate.

Gan Chau

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