News
Is it in Colloquial Singapore English: What variation can tell us about its conventions and development
The Speak Good English campaign, launched on 29 April 2000 by then-Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, aimed to improve the English-speaking proficiencies of Singaporeans. This was due to a growing concern about the prevalence of Colloquial Singapore English (CSE), commonly known as ‘Singlish’, a variant of English that the government once saw as grammatically incorrect. CSE has developed as a product of language contact in a multicultural society, growing to become a marker of the Singaporean identity. It has become one of the most prominent forms of post-colonial English and is studied as a World English. Associate Professor Mie Hiramoto (NUS English, Linguistics and Theatre Studies) studies some of the unique features of Colloquial Singapore English in “Is it in Colloquial Singapore English: What variation can tell us about its conventions and development” (English Today, 2022). Hiramoto and other linguists look into features at the various language levels, such as phonetics, morphosyntax, semantics, and pragmatics. Specifically, they zero in on the use of the term, “is it”, modelling its usage through statistical studies. Through this analysis, they investigate how CSE users tended to use this term and how they constructed is it questions. The research identifies the different strategies and …
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Clones, Drones and Visual Culture: Teaching the Human Condition in the 21st Century
Associate Professor Graham Wolfe and Assistant Professor Beryl Pong incorporate innovative pedagogical tools into their lessons to get their students to think critically about pertinent issues of the day.
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NUS and NTU Again Ranked as Top Asian Universities Based on Subjects
NUS and NTU ranked higher than Chinese, Japanese and Hong Kong universities in terms of the number of top 10 programmes, and have done so since at least 2021.
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19 NUS Programmes Placed in Global Top 10 in QS World University Rankings by Subject 2024
Spanning across the fields of Business, Computing, Engineering, Science, as well as Humanities and Social Sciences, 19 of NUS’ 44 ranked programmes have been placed among the world’s top 10.
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NUS Open House 2024 Attracts more than 8.4m visitors as Screens and Campuses Buzz with Action
Open House 2024 returned to an enthusiastic reception as visitors turned up in force to experience one of NUS’ largest events of the year. Held in a hybrid format from 2 to 9 March 2024 and pulled together by the efforts of 2,674 faculty, staff, students and alumni, the event attracted more than 8.4 million visitors – up from 7.7 million in 2023 – as they explored the comprehensive showcase of what NUS has to offer both online and in-person.
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Results of the Goh Sin Tub Creative Writing Prize 2023 – The Short Story
Department of English Language & Literature National University of Singapore The Goh Sin Tub Creative Writing Prize 2023 – The Short Story We are very pleased to announce the results of the Goh Sin Tub Creative Writing Competition 2023 – The Short Story. Congratulations to the prize winners! 1st Prize ($10,000): Wu Ningjing for “Escape“ 2nd Prize ($6,000): Koh Jin Hui Jinny for “We Are All Alone In This Anyway“ 3rd Prize ($4,000): Dinh Cao Tue for “The Xinh-ga-po Pie” The prize winners will be notified by email and will be required to attend the Award presentation. Details of the event will be provided closer to the date. The biennial Goh Sin Tub Creative Writing Prize was established by the late Dr Sylvia Goh with an endowed gift to the Department of English, Linguistics & Theatre Studies (ELST) at the National University of Singapore in memory and recognition of her late husband, Mr Goh Sin Tub, who was one of Singapore’s best-known local writers. Mr Goh Sin Tub and Dr Sylvia Goh are both alumni of the University of Malaya (UM), one of NUS’ predecessor institutions. The Prize commemorates Mr Goh Sin Tub’s life, achievements and support …
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NUS Alumni Awards 2023: Celebrating Outstanding Changemakers and Trailblazers
NUS honoured the achievements of 21 outstanding alumni and three alumni teams comprising another 14 alumni, at the prestigious NUS Alumni Awards 2023.
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“Now everyone is uncle or auntie”: Chinese naming tradition showing generational ties fading
Chinese naming practices have been dwindling over the years, according to experts. Specifically, the practice of generational naming, or bei ming, has become more seldom in young Chinese Singaporeans. In ‘“Now everyone is uncle or auntie”: Chinese naming tradition showing generational ties fading’ (The Straits Times, September 2023), faculty from the NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences commented on this phenomenon, illustrated by examples from their undergraduate students. Associate Professor Lee Cher Leng (NUS Chinese Studies), who teaches an undergraduate course on bridges between the East and West, surveys each cohort of students about generational naming practices. She discusses not only how a small handful of students in her course have been named according to their family’s genealogy books (jia pu or zu pu), but also that most students are thoroughly unfamiliar with such practices. A/P Lee also mentions that while the practice helps embody one’s sense of identity, it has been displaced in Singapore’s increasingly Westernised society. Instead, Chinese Singaporeans have turned to new naming conventions, naming their children based on the values they want them to have; for example, girls may be named zhi hui (Chinese for ‘wisdom’). Dr Peter Tan (NUS English, Literature, and Theatre Studies) …
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As a Malay-speaking Indian Girl of Mixed Heritage, Here’s How I Celebrate Racial Harmony Every Day
In connecting with her Indian heritage, Year 4 English Literature major Darcel Anthony has also found her way to further appreciating the beauty of different cultures.
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