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 BOOMZ, rad, begeeni and ze-bra preens... Singaporeans and the media alike have been having a field day criticising the verbal shortcomings of Ris Low, ex-Singapore World 2009. Throw in her brushes with the law and the ongoing "who will take over as Miss Singapore World" saga, and she's sure to be in the news for a few more weeks at least.
However, the past month has seen an overload of her, to put it kindly, language 'gems'. From Twitter and Facebook to ST commentaries and Singapore Idol trailers, its been a real BOOMZ time. And it doesn't just end in cyberspace - I've heard my fair share of Blackeyed Peas fans going 'boomz boomz pow' at the bus stop and kopitiam, and giggly teens discussing the latest trends in leopard skin begeenis.
But I say, ENOUGH already. It is one thing to make fun of a person's poor diction and pronunciation, its another when we find these words creeping oh-so-slyly into our daily usage, out of sheer convenience and verbal laziness (if not ours, then that of our schoolchildren or that grinning next-door neighbour). If there's one good thing that has come out of the whole Ris Low saga, the spotlight has been cast yet again on the deterioration of Singapore's standard of English.
For every netizen who has been quick to slam her, another has jumped onto the bandwagon to point out that hey, a lot of Singaporeans speak that way. To give her some credit (and to give food for thought to those who think she couldn't get any worse), at least her infamous RazorTV fashionista interview that started it all was not peppered with 'mah', 'leh' or other Singlish terms. She did use actual English words, the only problem was that they came out sounding like words you would NOT find in the dictionary.
Rather than start a fresh round of blamestorming (yep, blame the schools/parents/Internet/ local TV programmes/fill_in_the_blanks) to identify those responsible for the so-called degenerating standards of spoken English, we should just get a move on or better still, turn these dubious examples into teachable moments. A teacher friend of mine did this with her Primary 6 class - tired of the umpteenth BOOMZ popping up in classroom conversation, she challenged the students to think of at least 3 alternative words to describe what they meant, and they actually had fun with this exercise.
Throw in a sharp eye and a healthy dose of humour, and you'll find that examples abound nearly everywhere. Visit a foodcourt and you'll be hard-pressed to encounter one that doesn't say 'No Outside Food Here'. And don't be too shocked if you pass by a construction site along the way and are duly warned of 'men in progress'. The Speak Good English Movement website and the ever-popular English as it is Broken section on the STOMP website are also good stopovers for more examples of mangled English.
And while we're at it, perhaps we could send the organisers of future Singapore pageants a few language weblinks for the benefit of their contestants as well 
What are your thoughts on the Ris Low episode? How can we steer our children towards better English? Do share your thoughts below, we would love to hear from you.
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