Comments on: Turkey? Or ham? Both, methinks…

By: Gredge

Gredge — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 00:17:43 +0000

Specatcular, huh. Some comments:

- Engish is a formal equal-first language in Singapore, alongside Mandarin Chinese (and slightly above the other first-equal languages, Tamil and Bahasa Malaya). All Singaporeans of a certain age or backround are formally educated from a very early age in English. 95% of all signage is in English.

- But what you hear most often are Singlish (google it: kick-ass melange of all four of the above plus a whole bunch of vernacular colloquialisms) and Hokkien (a dialect of Mandarin?).

- Nevertheless, the English spoken by upper-class Singaporeans is a really, really odd BBC-influenced hyper-stiff language. It’s really painful to listen to, kind of like Fridge Magnet Poetry (the same words used over and over again and in orders that are technically correct but sound horribly forced.)

- Having said THAT, you should really see the video of Lee Hsien Loong (Prime Minister) delivering his 40-minute State Of The Nation speech in all four official languages, one after the other. Come on Helen, let’s have it in English, Maori, Fijian and Afrikaans!

- All of which goes some way to explaining the mysterious delivery style in this video, but NONE of which goes any way to explaining what the HELL they were thinking.

By: Jason Ryan

Jason Ryan — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 00:14:05 +0000

@Mark: thanks Marcus – and you.

@Mike: would senior public servants be able to do this? God, I hope not.

@Clifton: I have to disagree – I think that they could, but they would end up looking just as uncomfortable as the managers in this video do...

By: Clifton

Clifton — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 23:58:09 +0000

Yes Mark, the first thing that struck me was that the video was in english. It is scary on a number of levels: the out of the box thinking, and the use of a language that is not the communicator’s 1st language. The former speaks to the culture within MDA, and the latter speaks to the Singaporean education system.

In answer to Mike’s question: no, I don’t believe that senior NZ public servants could all rap in the same non-english language.

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 23:07:00 +0000

I am awe-struck with public servants attempting to communicate in a new media - well done Singapore. Would senior NZ public servants be able to do this?

By: Mark Harris

Mark Harris — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 09:35:15 +0000

Awesome vid! Interesting that it’s in english…

I once had an idea for a recruitment video like this for NZ PS using Smashmouth’s “All-Star” as the soundtrack. Lucky I’m in IT instead, eh?
Have a good break and we’ll catch you in the New Year

By: Che Tibby

Che Tibby — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 21:51:21 +0000

Turducken? Pah!

Check this out!

they’ve killed 48 birds of 12 different species. it has enough meat to serve 125 people, contains about 50,000 calories and takes more than eight hours to cook…

the toffs have *always*, always gotta go over the top.

By: Sam Farrow

Sam Farrow — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 20:09:23 +0000

Have a great festive break Jason (and Mike & Che) - thanks so much for the blog.

By: Jason Ryan

Jason Ryan — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 19:36:45 +0000

Thanks Che: I'm waiting for you to post your christmas video — how to make turducken. Mmm

Mike: like this?

By: Mike Brown

Mike Brown — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 19:31:12 +0000

Jason - I couldn’t even begin to list all the public service peeps I’d love see bustin’ rhymes in 08

By: Che Tibby

Che Tibby — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 19:27:46 +0000

happy christmas!

i’m sure you’d be unsuprised at the high amount of stuff off this blog that has worked its way into thinkpieces and documents here at [another public service agency]

and my maxim for this seasons festivities is “ham, lamb, AND chicken”