Wind In My Head: Bad English Part Deux
Wind In My Head
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Bad English Part Deux
Many years ago, I got into trouble for writing this post. It was seen as my being an educator and mocking students who didn't speak/write well. Actually, I was just channeling kids and not copying verbatim what they had wrote, listed their names, ages and addresses on it to identify them. But we all know how a local tabloid loves to spin stories and get people into trouble. Of course, she got her come-uppance when she requested to interview me a few years later, had plain forgotten who I was but I hadn't and was absolutely uncooperative in granting her an interview.And recently, there's been all this talk about leaving English teachers to teach English while parents concentrate on speaking Mandarin to their kids at home. The latter apparently is so important that dialects and everything culturally valuable is cast by the wayside. All in the name of progress. Packrat and I bemoan such a move. We struggle so much in school with substandard English as well as a general mentality that everything that comes out of a particular Old Man's mouth is right and is gold. It annoys us to no end because we and the rest of the English language teachers in Singapore are left to pick up the pieces, pieces that will increase exponentially because of Old Man and His Big Mouth. Of course, Packrat faces it more than I do now because I'm on leave. But I still have to resist the urge to correct my children's teachers when they write in the present tense in the children's communication books. "Evan finishes his lunch today" and "Jordan cries only for a while after you left."
So, we don't suffer Bad English lightly. And imagine my horror and amusement when I buy Baby J a toy pram to play and the words on the box make absolutely no sense. I suspect it was put through Babblefish or something because it looks like English, sounds like English but makes no sense whatsoever.
Caption 1
"It is the best gift for the children! Amazing visual convulsion."
- Visual Convulsions!??? Sounds like my kid will get seizures just playing with the pram! Or something that happens when you watch too much tv!
Caption 2
"Toys series with strong sense for playing!"
"Great arrangement, grand show!" Show? What show?
Even the name of the toy- "Doll Carrier" is misleading.
But then again, it costs $6 so I guess you get what you pay for.
Technorati Tags: Singapore, bad English
Ondine tossed this thought in at 14:38
3 thoughts...
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At 10:57 am
Kylee said... Hahaha... visual convulsion. That's pretty funny.
I like your blog, and I'd like to follow it... but I can't seem to find the button for it! :( Comment me back and let me know how I can follow your blog.
All the best :)-
At 11:08 am
Ondine said...
I think you just need to add my blog address on your Blogger dashboard page. I think that's how you follow it.
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At 10:19 am
seriously! said...
I think you just need to add my blog address on your Blogger dashboard page. I think that's how you follow it.
goodness! this is funny! sorry but wicked me finds this funny. hahahahahahahaahhahaahha