Fish and chips loved here, as are french fries

Geraint Wong
The Straits Times
Publication Date : 19-09-2011


Mr Lee Kuan Yew's pronouncement this month that the American version of English would probably prevail over other forms must have jarred with some.

He was, after all, addressing an audience made up largely of local English language teachers, who were attending the launch of the English Language Institute of Singapore.

Also, this country, in keeping with its colonial past, has an education system that teaches British English and discourages the American variety.

Yet what Mr Lee said was not new. The Oxford Guide To World English, published in 2003, made a similar observation: "American English has a global role at the beginning of the 21st century comparable to that of British English at the start of the 20th."

This development was inevitable, given the global success of Hollywood and the fact that Silicon Valley is located in California in the United States, not England.

And with the political and economic might of the US, it is not surprising that the variety of English being learnt in countries such as China and Japan is often the American one.

Moreover, while both systems of spelling continue to exist side by side, the British form for some words has given way to the American one in all regions. Such is the case with "computer programs" and "hard disks", as well as "sulfur" and "fetus" among the respective international scientific communities.

Not everyone is happy, of course. Understandably, many people in Britain are indignant - as is evident from blog posts and newspaper columns.

In a BBC Radio 4 broadcast in July, British journalist and author Matthew Engel shared his alarm at the extent to which American usages - which are swimming to British shores "in battalions" - have affected the quality of British English.

Mr Engel clarified that he was "all for a living, breathing language that evolves with the times". He also accepted that "sometimes American phrases have a vigour and vivacity".

But he added: "What I hate is the sloppy loss of our own distinctive phraseology through sheer idleness, lack of self-awareness and our attitude of cultural cringe."

If the people in the land where English was born can be guilty of these faults, Singaporeans stand no chance of being acquitted.

No doubt the education system here insists on British English and public institutions use it quite faithfully. Yet the brand of English used daily by Singaporeans is really a mishmash of styles from both sides of the Atlantic - with local concoctions added into the mix for good measure.

For instance, the Americanisms "movie", "elevator" and "truck" are increasingly used here, alongside their British equivalents "film", "lift" and "lorry".

Local office-talk regularly features nouns such as "leverage", "pressure" and "transition" used as verbs - quite the American penchant. But it also includes British idioms such as "a new lease of life", "on the cards" and "teething problems".

Fish and chips is well loved here, but so are french fries.

Then of course there is the issue of spelling. It is widely held that about 65 per cent of all people are visual learners. Singaporeans are exposed to American spelling on their computers and mobile phones day in and day out. So guess which spelling style is looking increasingly right and "normal" to them?

Add to that the fact that many probably don't bother (or don't know how) to change the default language of their word processing software to British English - and end up obediently complying when asked to "correct" their spellings to the American forms.

Why, the very venue at which Mr Lee was giving his speech is named the Sands Expo and Convention Center (not Centre). So much for doing as the Romans do.

This combination of factors means that spelling is probably the area in which American English has its greatest influence here. In my years as an English teacher, I often had to remind students to be consistent in the way they spell words - examiners do not penalise Americanisms, provided there is consistency in their usage.

Does all this mean that American English will "prevail over other forms", as Mr Lee said? Not quite.

One reason: the Commonwealth of Nations accounts for almost a third of the world's population. In these countries, a lexicon comprising British terms and indigenous additions would have taken root over decades and centuries and won't be easy to change. For instance, no Singaporean would be likely to refer to his car as an automobile any time soon, if ever.

True, more American terms will make their way into vocabularies everywhere. But English has always been very accommodating of new words from a wide range of sources - to the extent of being "anarchic, even", as Mr Engel put it.

This is a happy situation, really, for it means we have a greater variety of expressions at our disposal. After all, how many of us actually consider the origin of a word when we use it? We use it if it's a good word - just because it's there.

So, as Speak Good English Movement chairman Goh Eck Kheng advises: "Let's keep what Mr Lee said in perspective."

We don't need to start building our American vocabulary or pronouncing our post-vocalic Rs.

But what teachers need to do is expose students to a wide range of English usage from all over the world to broaden their linguistic repertoire, and train them to communicate in an internationally intelligible variety of English (some call it Globish).

The tension should not be between the two sides of the Atlantic, but between what can be understood in a global context (good English) and what cannot (Singlish).

As for spelling, well, it will continue to be a thorn in the flesh, but then again it has been an issue plaguing the English language all through its history.