Letter
Asia Sentinel, 21 Aug 2009
I have just ended a one- year stopover in Singapore. Having worked there and personally witnessed the Lion City's prosperity, I ended up feeling a need to find a missing piece to the puzzle of the place, wondering, as the turn of-the (20th) century American poet Gertrude Stein said of her native Oakland, California, where the there is. Like its invented Merlion, it is neither one thing nor another.
English is the working language and the first language in all schools in Singapore. I personally have no objection regarding the importance of English and I am very fond of the language. When I was working there, I had been struggling to speak good English when everybody was speaking the clipped, fast-paced, slangy version, called Singlish.
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