For the past few weeks, a video of the interview with the newly emerged Miss Singapore World 2009, Miss Ris Low has been widely discussed on online networks such as Youtube, Facebook and various online forums. It has been so controversial that the number of hits soared up to more than 70,000 within a short time span of 2weeks. I believe you’ve watched this before, no? The video has been put on repeat since I decided to discuss about the debate and I can’t help but admit that I had to mute my laptop since it was so unbearable.
Many commented that the 19 year old Management Development Institute Of Singapore Diploma student has brought disgrace to the nation due to her poor enunciation of English and that her win in the pageant was undeserving. The girl stumbled upon words in every sentence which she spoke, but yet did not seem to realise that her speech was unbearable to viewers. Being crowned the Miss Singapore World Community Ambassador 2009, it makes us wonder if she’s fit to be labelled with the title “Ambassador”, which is defined as a representative or promoter of an activity by the Oxford Concised Dictionary.
This video has indeed placed us Singaporeans in a bad light. Being widely publicised on Youtube, there is no doubt that many foreigners from all around the world has met this “community ambassador” of ours. We have always been identified as the country with a unique language, Singlish and books have even been published for foreigners to understand our lingo to serve as a survival kit in our country. We have already given others the perception that every Singaporean is unable to speak proper English, haven’t we? The National Library Board has been engaged in the organisation of the Speak Good English Movement year after year since 2000 till today. Events and competitions have been held in order t bring awareness to the people. The most recent competition, School Digital Media Awards 2009 was catered to the youths whereby contestants were to submit a video as to how Singlish has caused miscommunication among people. However, it makes us wonder how effective this campaign has been that even our icon does not practice good English but yet could be crowned the winner of the pageant. How did she manage to do it? Does that mean that the rest of the contestants were ousted by this girl with a bad command of English? Was the judging panel oblivious during the Question and Answer segment of the competition or did they decide to close one eye? Or was this segment so insignificant that little weightage has been put onto it?
Hot on the press, the debate on whether she deserves the title goes on on Page 4 of The Sunday Times on 13 September 2009. Many dissed her, but some, even the chairman and the head secretariat of the Speak Good English Movement, defended her by claiming that “lots of Singaporeans speak in that manner and she isn’t unusual.” Well, the word here is “lots” which means a handful but not the entire population. Is this fair to the other handful who puts in effort to speak fluent and flawless English? A Singaporean teacher who has been teaching for over 20 years also declared that, “It’s good she has become Miss Singapore World. Her language abilities are representative of the population.” I can’t deny that even I myself may not be perfect in my speech, but then again, I totally agree with what Mr Kelvin Koh, a sponsor of the Miss World Singapore 2009 pageant, said- that the winner should be able to hold her command of English well. She’s our representative after all! Wouldn’t presenting her with the opportunity to be the ambassador of our country allow others to stereotype us Singaporeans as people who can’t speak proper English?
I still hang on to the opinion that she doesn’t deserve this title unless she improves on English (enunciation at least) although the criticisms may be tad too harsh for her. Watch this and tell me your opinion! 
Credits: The Sunday Times 13 Sept 2009 Lifestyle Page 4
I respect the judges’ decision but i believe they can do a better job. If she can win, i believe a special group of people can win as long as they do not speak(check them out at Changi). Tall, beauty and body, surely she has them. Lacking of brains is unforgivable.
No bimbos to represent our country please.
Prestige, grace and beauty…doesn’t look like she has them….if we want a representative of our country, shouldnt we pick the best one?
Critics today are merciless once they find a flaw in someone. They take this flaw and throw in some absurd reasons, then bring you down as a whole. I don’t encourage the mass attack against her on Youtube.. and whats with the increasing no. of parodies of the original video? These people have unknowingly become the true disgrace of Singapore.
Stefanie
I do agree that she should improve on her enunciation, as like you said, she is after all representing our country. The thing is that she can go for stuff like speech lessons to improve on it! Instead of waning and wailing and criticising, we should be finding measures to help improve her flaws. No one is perfect. Furthermore, there is no need to shoot down what she does fine.I see beauty, grace and poise when she walks down the aisle in the video.
Li Rong
Yeah, her speak really can’t make it to the national standards. Though she have beauty and body, but she doesnt have the chrisma and she isn’t popular among singaporean. Why not choose someone more appropriate or make the criteria of the pageant even better in the next round of it which is next year? Since she had been choosen just let it be. If she has no substance she would be going far and her glory will only last a short period of time. Next year’s better be DROP DEAD GORGEOUS AND ARTY-SMARTY WITH FULL OF CHRISMA AND POPULARITY!
I mean wouldn’t be gg far. opps
This is hilarious as i believe as a spokesman, one should be able to speak with fluency and well composed, together with knowledge then last comes the look. This 3 areas should be critical for the selection. I strongly believe that there are surely more women in Singapore who can excel in this 3 areas than compared to the number of people who viewed this video.
I am speechless. Can u imagine if our president or prime minister can’t speak proper english, which is a total disgrace for singaporeans! She being crowned a Miss Singapore which represent S+US should at least able to pronouce zebra properly. not ZIP-BRA!
i do agree that majority of us do not speak in perfect English but our representative ought to outdo the rest and be more outstanding in order to be crowned Miss Singapore World isn’t it? I believe that it’s not just about looks in the society today. Previous winner Miss Faraliza Tan and the ones before her had a good command of English, so what’s happening now? We’re not looking for someone with a special accent, but proper English is definitely needed!
With her representing Singapore will be a total disgrace to our country. But what is done is done I will still respect the judges’ descision that they make and i believe they will do a better job next year.
Well, firstly i think she really need to brush up her pronunciation and how she present her speech. She even have to think what course is she from and the way she pronunce hospitality is weird. To me, to be a Miss Singapore, one would need to be presentatble outwardly and also have to be able to speak fluently. That should be the criteria one will be looking for. Same for Miss Universe and all. However, decision has been made and nothing can change now. It is just fate. Ris Low is being crowned the Miss Singapore 2009 and it is final. However i feel this might put Singapore down and people might think that our standard is low being it now shown on youtube.
I think communication is the most important thing in life. So if u cant even speak properly, why do you deemed fit to be an ambassador?
If this is what selections and standards are going to be like, maybe Singapore should just drop the whole idea of Miss World and not participate at all. Would save some grace.
Well said Jex! I think the utmost basic criteria a pageant winner should possess is a good command of english . Many may think that your perceptions are debatable solely because they sympathize her, however, I understand why you do not think that she deserves her crown. Most young girls I personally perceive would dream about being a pageant winner , percepting a pageant winner as demure, intelligent and well presentable. I am sure that they would be disgusted if they were to know that someone who cant even speak proper english won the miss world singapore title. I get your point and i think that it is a good one!.keep it up!
The fact that the judges had crowned her the winner proves that she is best candidate to represent for us.
Advocates from the opposite camp will argue that having someone of such bad command to represent our Establishment is a total disgrace. However we fail to realise why was she crowned the winner? I have faith in the integrity of the contest and with that I strongly believe that she had won the contest by her own merits. Therefore should that be any criticism, it should be reserve to those who fail to depose her as the winner.
Having a bad command of english is not an irremediable flaw. It could be patch up, improve on, unlike beauty, poise and body ( I do not advocate plastic surgery). Therefore, what is with the vile criticism? It is just plain nutpicking. Furthermore, with her flaw being over expose in the media, she will be the best representative for us especially so if she is able to improve on her flaw. With that it will be a constrast that allows everyone to see Singaporeans in a different light.
Constructive criticism is good. It allows one to be self conscious. However, I feel that the media should have a softer approach to it. The vile commentary on the videos and newspaper should be moderated. It is just a flaw and yet they seems to examine it under the microscope. This sort of behaviour will only put ourselves in a bad light and disgrace has become an understatement. We, Singaporeans, are also ambassador of our countries, so are we flawless as well? Ms Ris is just a more iconic ambassador than us. So spare her with all the vile criticism. I am sure that she has taken note of her shortcomings and that we should not be jumping the gun so quickly.
The judges must have been blind to allow her to take the title to represent Singapore in an international pageant. How can someone who cannot articulate properly be an ambassador of Singapore. Moreover, what will the international audience think of Singaporeans. As laughable brainless people..
I could not agree more with Dez.
Im not a big fan of Beauty Pageants per se, more so for Miss Singapore World because its not even aired on Channel5 live anymore. However Im sure Miss Ris Low definitely gained an insight on the good, the bad and the ugly side of the power of media & the trashings of Singaporeans.
No doubt her command of English is not what I would call presentable, yet the amount of cyber-bullying on the Net and all this hype might just be worst than watching her say she likes “Africa bcos she loves animal prints, zebra prints”. *shudders*
Just go easy on the poor girl! She’s just a 19year old girl from MDIS. She most probably lacks experience and the ability to further “package” her English in front of the cameras. Its definitely not easy to think of things to say when you have all the cameras pointing on you. Most of us would DEFINITELY stutter and go, uh.. uh.. well, erm.. I think that…
Sounds familiar eh.
Its pure irony that all the cyber-bullying on Youtubes, chat forums trying to bring her down are in fact written by people with poor command of English. Whats up with the vulgarities, Singlish and personal attacks? Its distasteful imho. What a bad impression others would have on Singaporeans when waste so much time and effort trying to bring our pageant winner down, rather than do something constructive like, improving OUR own English.
For all I know, the Speak Good English Movement has not been very effective. Which explains the low-class comments on youtube by fellow Singaporeans. -____-
Again, it is unfair in the arguement that the effectiveness of the SGE Movement is based on Miss Ris Low’s standard of English(or the lack of it). By doing so, we have indirectly think of her as our representation of how good our standard of English is. It is not like she’s the SPE movement ambassador right?
It all boils down to what we think the Miss Singapore World title serves to represent. Is it good looks? Hour-glass figures? Or the ability to speak proper English? At the end of the day, a beauty pageant is just a beauty pageant. It IS supposed to be based on good looks, big boobs yada yada. Its not like we’re running for President.
I dont know about you but if you’re looking for a well-spoken or eloquent speaker than why not watch the national Day Rally?
Hi,
I do agree that Singaporeans speaking in english is, let’s just say not good. And she is a very good example of that. I hope some people would pick up the idea that their english need to improve too. I am just happy the she came out and got critized by many people who we don’t know whether they can speak well english or not.
Hope one day she tries to influence others to speak well. If she ever improves that is.
Namka
http://lifestoolong.wordpress.com
I personally believe that her command of english can be improved. However, since the decision of her winning the title of Miss Singapore World 2009 has been made, there is nothing anyone can do about it. In my view, i feel that she can give a little more effort to brush up her english so as to prove that she is worthy of winning the title.
Well.. i think this matter could be a lessons learn for the judges and the organization of this fabulous event.. Being smart and beauty works in both ways.. but doing something after winning the event, well is there a insult or well can’t rich people like what they have and enjoy what they can afford..