Saturday, September 27, 2008
I used to think that the Communications module was one of the more useful modules we are currently doing as it teaches us to use phonemes to get the actual pronunciation of words. It also made me realise how badly "off" our local English is.
However, subsequent sessions started to make me feel that it's getting kind of pointless because the so-called correct pronunciation would simply change our accent into a pretentious ang moh accent because it requires a switch in the intonation all the time. It's just not natural to us. Our tutor told us that it's not that they require us to change our manner of speaking, rather they wanted us to know the CORRECT pronunciation. However, I don't think that ang mohs have difficulties understanding us so long as we don't insert the lah, lor, leh at the end of our sentences. Did you know that there's actually a difference in pronunciation when a word is used as a verb or a noun? That's a bit of a killer because while reading a sentence, as a Singaporean, we don't differ in our pronunciation. Therefore, we have to put in twice the amount of conscious effort, which makes us read slowly (super slowly) and think before we read. Do we really need this when teaching at a primary school? I don't even remember my Eng teachers at sec sch or JC speaking in a weird way. There are many "CORRECT" things to learn in this world. At the end of the day, people have to consider whether the so-called CORRECT thing is applicable to the real world especially when time is of the essence.
Worst is that he gets mad at us when we don't get it but when it comes to the couple of students who already have western accent, he's more patient. So far, I haven't been a target of his bluntness and I hope it will stay that way because he can get very impatient and direct "-_-
Serendipity believed today at 11:09 AM
