It has just been 3 weeks since the start of the term and already feeling the pinch. The pinch of workloads... Heck, its turning to be a real whack on my head. I realised how much I've piled my papers, esp 'markings' and stuffs. I tried to clear, but the more I cleared, the more I piled. Whhaaatt?? This is insane.

After 1.30pm, you'd start doing all the admin stuffs, remedial, answering to parents' endless phone-calls, not forgetting, you have a notice board to display by next week, Alfiah. You haven't done your 'research'... Yikes! Oh and this week, a lengthy workshop to attend. Uh huh, it's compulsory, babe, so you have to sit your ass there whether you like it or not.

Then comes the SGEM. You have to do something in line with this movement. It seems more like a campaign. Sometimes, I am so guilty of speaking so much Singlish. No, make it most of the time. In class, I'd prolly be the most fluent, efficient, eloquent speaker of all, but once I step outside, I turned into a vegetable-market auntie. My English, a mixture of Malay, Hokkien, Mandarin and specks of Tamil... I'd prolly go up to Ain and Laarva and go...

"Eh, how's your day? Tired anot? Sien you know, so damn hot lagi... Teruk, la... I tell you, that Mun-gen in my class ah........."

A typical conversation. Or things like calling up a friend,

"Hey, where are you? What time wanna meet? Not so late ah, I have things to do at home also....."

So much for speaking good English. Heck, its not universally understood, but definitely understood among Singaporeans. I think of it as a self-proclaimed slang. We have our own slang, due to the multi-cultural nation we live in. Rojak, we call it. I mean, how many of us are a pure race? I can't say I am... With my family being a Rojak of Javanese, Chinese, Indian... you can't possibly be communicating in an American accent, or the British accent.

Take the French, for example. One group of people who are proud of their race and heritage. Come on, they have an accent! They have a bloody accent, even when they speak English. The Scottish, they belong to the English World... They have that thick, 'rrrrr' accent as well. Listen carefully to Irish bands like U2, the Cranberries, the Corrs, Westlife... they have an accent too.... So why do we even bother. We are Singaporeans, we have an accent. Our own 'rojak' accent. Its like the Aussies greeting each other in "G'day mates", parallel to our "Woi Mat/Minah/Mun-gen/Thambi".... It's so fake if you meet a close friend of yours and decide to say, "Good morning, dear friend. How are you today?" in perfect, clean English.

I guess spoken English and written English shouldn't be placed equal emphasis. Of course, we all wanna let our kids speak English properly and fluently, but why deprive them of their native tongues? It's the way we are. Let it be. As long as they know how to write fluently, we shouldn't let them twist their native tongues to suit those of the Westerners....