Magic Tree???

In response to my last post on mangled pronunciations of English, +Lloyd Estrada    made a comment about this classic Gospel song Majesty.

The full lyrics of the song are:

Majesty
Worship His majesty
Unto Jesus, be all glory, honor and praise

Majesty
Kingdom authority
Flows from His throne, unto His own, His anthem raise

Chorus
So exalt, lift up on high the Name of Jesus
Magnify, come glorify Christ Jesus the King

Majesty, worship His majesty
Jesus who died, now glorified, King of all kings

Ending
Jesus who died, now glorified
Jesus who died, now glorified
King of all kings

(Lyrics and music by Jack W Hayford)

Here is Lloyd's comment:

A song leader in one of the language groups led his congregation in singing that song but with these words...

Magic tree, worship his magic tree
Uncle Jesus be all glory, power and praise

Incorrect hearing.
Mangled pronunciation.
Don't know whether to laugh or cry!

Be careful what you say! The consequences may lead people astray!

It does pay to check original sources before you say anything.

Have fun learning this crazy language called English!

Broken English

I'm a taxi driver who is learning English

Taxi drivers can either make or break your day. We need them to get places quickly, especially in a foreign place. We hope they speak and understand English. We hope they know where the place I need to go is, and how to get there in the shortest possible time. In some places, we hope they can read maps!

Taxi drivers in Singapore whose standard of English is not acceptable have to undergo English lessons. Many of them are older men who have been driving taxis for at least 20 years. The younger ones are usually retrenched white-collar workers who were unable to find jobs similar to their previous one or decided to change career in mid-life. The older drivers had chosen to make taxi-driving a lifelong career, at a time when tourists were far fewer.

Learning any language at an older age can be daunting, especially for someone who does not have high levels of education. English is no different. For many, English pronunciation is difficult. Either the listener does not understand what we are saying, or they laugh at us in the face. Taxi drivers were initially fearful of going to class. They had obviously tried for years to learn some simple English phrases but never seemed to remember them, or just tried to avoid lessons altogether. Running away does not solve the problem.

Enter the government with heavily subsidised fees for basic conversational English classes tailored specially for taxi drivers in Singapore. At the end of the class, all the drivers were so pleased with themselves. They can now express themselves fairly confidently, especially with non-Singaporeans. Overall, the programme has been a great success. Not only have taxi drivers learned something, service standards of taxi drivers has gone up. Tourists no longer need to be afraid of rogue taxi drivers taking them for a ride just to rack up the meter.

Are you afraid of learning a new language? It does take courage to open your mouth in a new language, especially when just starting out to learn. Once you get the hang of it, it will get to be lots of fun! A little bit of effort will go a long way to making new friends and learning about a new culture.

Enrich your life today! Learn a new language!

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Open your mouth and speak!

My business partner and I have a contract to teach local Vietnamese staff English. The German company has hired us for three levels of English: basic, intermediate and technical English for managers. Basic and Intermediate classes have just started.

Before we even started, the Human Resource (HR) Manager explained their company's needs and what the foreign bosses expected of the staff in terms of English language skills. She also told us that the staff do not want to attend class because they think their English is good enough. Why is management forcing them to get better at something they are already good at?

Having worked among Cambodians and Vietnamese for some years, I knew the root problem. No one wants to improve. They are satisfied with the status quo. They cannot accept what the bosses are saying. "I'm good enough already. Why bother?" Well, after telling my business partner what we needed to do to make the local staff improve, he sent my comments lock, stock and barrel to the HR Manager!

The HR Manager took the carrot and stick approach by telling the staff in no uncertain terms that they were all to attend class without question. Supervisors had to give staff time off to attend class. Those who did not attend class would have their annual benefits cut completely. It worked. All the staff attended class on Day 1.

Silence from the staff for the first 15 minutes. Suddenly, the barrier broke and it was noisy for the rest of the time. Even in the Basic class, everyone tried to speak English as best as they could, mistakes and all. Everyone was laughing and having a good time. They enjoy learning English! Even the Austrian boss asked the trainer, "What happened to the staff?" Clearly, our approach was correct and effective.

You will never know how much of a language you know until you are forced to speak. Too often Asians are afraid of using their newly acquired language for fear of making mistakes and thus, making a fool of themselves. You have to die to personal pride in order to learn. Once you have made a mistake and someone corrects you, you are not likely to make the same mistake again. Lesson learned for life.

I have an uphill task trying to learn Vietnamese. I know words and phrases. From a written text, I can sometimes guess the meaning but cannot pronounce the words correctly. I am determined to learn. I have wonderful friends who are going to help me in this journey. I will be able to speak fluently someday. In the meantime, I must try to speak as often as I can. The more I try, the faster I will learn. Speaking is key to learning a language. So, get out there and open your mouth!

Have fun learning a new language!

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Brandy coffee anyone?

A Malaysian coffee lover shared this real conversation he had in Seoul.

Me: what coffee is this?

Mr Korean Cafe Owner: brandy

Me: whoa! That's cool. Never had that before. (takes a sip)

Me to Sung Kim (Korean friend): I don't taste brandy...

Sung: I think he said "blending".

Me to Cafe Owner: How's business?

Cafe Owner: Thank you.

=_= end of conversation

Have fun with languages over a cup of coffee!

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"I prefer to talk to God in my own language"

Approximately every one in four residents of Singapore is a non-citizen. Non-citizens come from many parts of the world. They come here to work, many doing jobs that no citizen wants to do. Then there are those who come to offer their expertise, like the Spanish-speaking Christians featured in this article.

Most foreigners living and working in Singapore can speak English fairly well. English may not be their first language, but they can function comfortably in English on a daily basis. However, when it comes to matters of faith, they would much rather attend a place of worship that speaks their "heart language".

Churches in Singapore have responded positively by opening new services in various languages as the need arises. Trinity Christian Centre, the church featured in this article, is one of the few that have a Spanish service. The African service at Cornerstone Community Church is in English, but the style of service is typically African, to suit all the Africans from different parts of the continent.

The beauty of all this diversity is that each one is worshipping God in his own heart language and style, which gives him a brief moment of being "at home" away from home. It is a place where they can be themselves and not have to explain to anyone why they speak or behave in a certain way. Living overseas is not easy. Little touches like this help relieve homesickness.

Have you been able to overcome culture shock? Do you appreciate being with your fellow countrymen every now and then? Crossing cultures is not easy, but little touches like this make a world of difference.

Have fun crossing the cultural divide!

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Get better at English daily

Improving English is lifelong

English teachers have been lamenting the rapid decline in the quality of spoken and written English among adults. Social media, text messaging, messaging software or applications do not help the process. In an effort to squeeze everything into 140 characters or less and do it quickly, we end up typing some sort of understandable gibberish that masquerades as English.

That spills over into formal writing e.g. business letters and formal email communication. Microsoft Word provides an auto spell checker and some grammar checks. These are useful to ensure that we have at least got the basics correct, but a computer cannot check clarity, style and content. You still need a human being to help you, preferably one who is as good as or better than you are at English.

Then there are many who say, "I'm done with school." In other words, I do not need to learn anything anymore. I know it all. If a young person said this, we'd all frown at the arrogance of youth. If an older person said this, we would be more accepting of the statement. Both of them need help, regardless of age and education.

The Speak Good English Movement in Singapore works very hard to get the population improving their standard of English, whatever age you may be. For 2013, they will be launching a lifelong learning drive to make working adults improve their command of English. Tough as this may be, it is worth a try.

I have to admit that I don't always get it right. I type fairly quickly, but often I don't read my sentence again. I'm in a hurry, so I click "send" without a second thought. Wrong move. I end up realising that I could have said it better. Do my friends care? Not really. Social media doesn't bother if you write in gibberish or proper grammar. Getting the message out is the goal, not proper language use.

We are never too old to learn anything. I'm still trying to be more fluent in the languages I already know. It isn't easy when I lack practice with native speakers. It doesn't help that native speakers tend to use slang, colloquialism or slur the pronunciation of words. I have trouble enough learning the proper words, let alone the vernacular of the area. I am making progress. I make myself make progress. That's part of the fun in the learning process.

If you already speak and write English, good for you. Don't stop there. Take a tip from the Speak Good English Movement. Make it your daily goal to get better at it. One new thing a day is a step forward in the right direction.

Here's to lifelong improvement!

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Our childhood language

Japanese food ordered in English

My classmate from primary school was ordering dinner at a Japanese restaurant. Since she frequented the place, the rest of us classmates decided to leave the ordering to her. As she was talking to the waitress, my ethnically Indian, Singapore-born and raised, and educated in the UK, friend commented, "You can tell she's a convent girl because she's ordering (food) in English."

That set off a conversation about our transition from primary to secondary school. All seven of us at dinner have been classmates and schoolmates from primary to secondary school, spanning 10 years in all. In primary school, we spoke English all the time, even at home. We laughed at those who were good at Chinese, or who came from predominantly Chinese-speaking homes. We were the despair of our Chinese teachers of every class till we left school.

When we entered secondary school, we were placed in classes with girls from another convent school. As one of my classmates put it, "We were all wondering who these girls were. They were all speaking Chinese all the time. So 'cheena'." ('Cheena' is a derogatory term for Chinese-educated people who can't speak proper English.) In reality, these girls were more comfortable speaking Teochew 潮州话 to each other because that's what they spoke at home. Somehow England and China in the same school just don't mix well. To this day, we still have a bit of a divide between us, even though we may have been in school together for four years. When trying to trace former classmates, one of the questions we ask is, "Which school was she from?" Looks like the divide will continue to stay for a long time yet.

I think I've come a long way since then. Today, I am comfortable with English, Chinese, Indonesian, Cambodian, even Thai, though I may not be as fluent in it as with the other four languages. I love being around people of different cultures, who speak different languages. They enrich my life so much. I don't think I can go back to the days of being monolingual (speaking and understanding only English) again.

Do I fit in with my classmates? Of course I do! I spent many precious growing-up years with them. We share tons of good memories that still leave us in stitches today, as we recount the fun and carefree days of childhood and teenage years together. But my life has taken on a richer flavour for all the multi-cultural friends I have made since my childhood. I would not want to trade this for anything in the world. These friends are precious treasure of a lifetime.

Enrich your life today by learning a new language and opening up a whole new world!

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Does eating fat kill you?

Here's some fun facts that a friend sent me:

1. The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.
2. The Mexicans eat a lot of fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.
3. The Chinese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.
4. The Italians drink a lot of red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.
5. The Germans drink a lot of beer and eat lots of sausages and fats and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.
CONCLUSION: Eat and drink what you like. Speaking English is apparently what kills you.

I did say food unites us across the globe! Here's to eating what we enjoy!

Enjoy learning a new language today!

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