Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Folks, they're back!!!

Remember Singapore's infamous Speak Good English Movement which published a book on English as it is broken by them? For a while, their website was under construction but they're now back with their spanking new website.

I've just glanced through the site and I'm pleased to say that they haven't changed one bit. They're still as entertaining as ever in their ignorance of the English language. And they still go round butchering the language of Shakespeare and Milton. I haven't the time to go through the site more carefully but in the short time that I spent there, I was able to pick up quite a few laughable chunks of bad grammar that only they can come up with.

On 4 March this year, I published this post in which I showed that the English "experts" from the Speak Good English Movement could not even answer a simple question on grammar. Someone had asked if he should say "subject to" or "subjected to" and the "experts" were so clueless of English grammar that they confused both the active and passive voices which is why I facetiously titled my article MOE's Language Experts Need Voice Training.

One would have thought they would by now have got their act together and made amends for their disgraceful ignorance of such a basic point of English grammar and so when I saw on their website the heading "SUBJECT TO AVAILABLITY OR SUBJECTED TO AVAILABILITY", I clicked it and this is what flashed on my screen -


Anyone would have thought that after I had exposed their dumb mistake and their failure to understand this very simple point of the language, they would have taken the trouble to amend their answer. Well, they did write a totally different answer this time but they still got it all wrong.

If a primary school kid were to tell me that "subject" in this context was an adverb, I would call his parents and suggest that they got him a more responsible English teacher. English experts from the Speak Good English Movement who make such a glaring error ought to be sent to jail for the remainder of their lives with no hope of a remission. Mind you, this is not a careless mistake. The experts did not write "adverb" by mistake because they proceeded to define an adverb as "one that describe (sic) verbs, adjectives, or even adverbs". They really think it's an adverb.

And if you want to use "subject" as a verb, "You are subjected to your teacher's availability for consultation" is fine, according to the experts from the Speak Good English Movement. Even a castrated bull would know better than to moo aloud such a hideous piece of abominable monstrosity.

Obviously, to this very day, they haven't a clue what "subject" means. Will the Speak Good English Movement amend this webpage of theirs one more time and get it right for once?

Before I forget my manners, welcome back, SGEM! I'm sure I'll find your website hugely entertaining.

For a full list of grammar errors made by MOE, the Speak Good English Movement and other English language teachers, please click here.

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