English - Doing my bit

Every generation loves to generalise about other generations. For example, Gen X-ers say that their generation is the best, and that Generation Y are all spoilt. Baby Boomers say that both X & Y generations are spoilt and don't know the value of money.

Generation Y say that the older generations are old-fashioned and stingy (the older generations describe these characteristics as conservative and money conscious - the latter undoubtedly a result of hardships suffered during the war and colonial periods).

One thing everyone seems to agree on however, is that the younger generation's English sucks. They all bemoan the fact that the "kids these days can't even string a proper sentence together." I do know of some teenagers and 20-somethings who speak and write perfect English but these are the exception rather than the norm.

There's no need to apportion blame here or highlight how important the language is, since the topic has been debated enough, even at the highest levels. What I want to say is that we bloggers can certainly do our bit to improve the level of English in the nation.

I have lapsed into Manglish all too often, since it's familiar to me and sometimes it just helps to get the message across better. However, from now on, I will try to blog at least once a week using proper English in my posts. More often than that, I can't guarantee, since lapsing into Manglish is like putting on your favourite underwear - you feel so comfortable in it that you wear it as often as you can. Hopefully other bloggers will follow suit. I know my English isn't perfect, so if I make mistakes, and you spot them, please let me know. I also want to improve :)

I remember watching ETV while I was growing up, especially the English lessons with Bing and Bong the clowns. "Learning English is lots of fun, it's so fun, for everyone", went the theme song, or something along those lines. I wonder why they discontinued it - pretty educational, in my opinion (although of course, back then there was no Astro or even TV3, so we didn't really have much choice!)

Ever notice how we allow youngsters to speak broken English to us and we never bother to correct them? Maybe it's because we think they may feel insulted if we point out their errors, or maybe we're just so used to it. Some kids actually ask me once in a while to correct their English, and I'm happy to help them whenever I can. But if they don't voice it out, I don't correct them. So, young ones, if you're really keen on improving your grasp of the language, don't be shy to ask. I'm sure people would be more than happy to guide you. Don't go and ask someone who speaks broken English too, that's like the half-blind leading the blind!

I think the standard of English in Western countries is also going down - too many times I've seen "there" instead of "their" and "it's" instead of "its" on various websites. Youngsters here will probably see such grammatical errors on the Internet and assume that the sentences are correct, since they don't know better. Very dangerous place, the Internet.

So I'm going to do my bit to try and arrest the decline of English in this country. Any other blogger with me?

Till next time, this is Kucing Gatal signing out with a non-Manglish Meow.