In my interview with blogtv.sg, I made a regrettable mistake in my language, which may be misconstrued as me saying that people speak bad English because of their ethnicity. I sincerely apologise to all Singaporeans, who have been offended by this error.
Singaporeans of all ethnicities and backgrounds speak varying standards of English. My own Chinese-educated background gives me a special empathy for the non-English-speaking sections of our society. We should all be tolerant of people of different standards of linguistic ability.
The point I was trying to make is that this should not prevent people from trying to communicate, especially in times of emergency.
The remark was made in the context of a larger discussion about how we could better and faster improve the current problems we’re facing with our mass rapid transport system. Let us once again focus our minds and our public discussion on this issue.
Watch MP Seng Han Thong on blogtv interview, him singling out the Malays and Indians on poor English proficiency.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Do provide your constructive comment. I appreciate that.