Sunday, October 11, 2009
“Hi I'm Ris Low. Currently I’m majoring in my Diploma in health size and hospitaterility and travel tourism. Right now, I'm studying ‘steel’.Well, I define my style as my own persnenelety. I go by my moot. If I’m filling naughty then I will wear something rad and loud. something...you know???*BOOMZ*something that shouts ME! The very thing that I’ve worn is a piss of bigini and just gins and strut down orched rod.I rrrr know because I don't really care. It's about ME. So, the fashion is about, the fashion sense about me, so...Yarr everthing about... how i si myself.I guess that's my strategger because everybody is unique. Everybody is yah.Yes...I'm a HUGE fan of South Africa!I Love Safari.I Love Leopard Preens.You know? zipbraYeow, sort of thing?Not...not. You can wear leopard preens with dark gins. Is alright. You know? Neutral colours and...umm...Car key? car key green...you can pull it off with leopard preens and zipbra preens, Ya!” (Facebook, 2009)
Above is an extract that I obtained from Ris Low’s group in Facebook. In case anyone still does not know who she is, she is the infamous former Miss Singapore World 2009, who recently gets slammed by the public over her poor command of English and her credit card fraud case. After a firestorm of controversy, she eventually withdrew from the pageant, gave up her crown, was to be replaced by first runner up and cooked up another storm over the replacement matter. *That’s another story and I am lazy to touch on that.*
When this video is uploaded onto razortv.com on 8th July 2009, waves of comments were heard all over Singapore, a month later. The public was appalled and surprised that Singapore is going to send Miss Ris Low to South Africa, to compete with other Miss *insert country’s name* World 2009s over the Miss Universe 2009’s crown. Questions were raised regarding whether her command of English is good enough to address the world, is she well-prepared to perform on the international competitions, etc. Not to forget to mention, people has started to question the judges’ abilities and even suspect that she had used money to ‘buy’ the crown through the means of ‘buying’ advertisements on the pageant magazine and get people to attend the gala night, where entrance fees is applicable.
As if this is not enough, a dark secret of Miss Ris Low found its way into the news. Apparently, our former Miss Singapore World 2009 was convicted of credit card fraud in May 2009. She was found guilty of stealing clients’ credit cards while working in a medical clinic and went on to purchase items, such as, phones and gold anklets, and chalked up bills close to S$8, 000 during a period of two months last year. Once again, she was slammed by Singaporeans, who were surprised and shocked to know of this news. Questions were raised, again. The public wants to know whether the organisers know about it all along and is she still eligible to represent the island state to compete for the Miss World 2009 as it was thought that contestants must be free of criminal record.
Thus, Miss Ris Low decides to give up her crown and the organisers have to find a ‘replacement’ for her. Naturally, the first runner up, Miss Claire Lee, is the choice of replacement. However, this spells the impending of yet another storm. Miss Low called one of the local newspaper hotline and accused Miss Claire Lee of faking a back injury so that she will not ‘lose face’ if she happens not to be the choice of replacement by the organisers and also, informing the media regarding Miss Ris Low’s probation for the credit card fraud. These claims were all denied by Miss Claire Lee.
After such a long saga, what thoughts/opinions/comments do you have?
I have to admit that when I saw the video, I was partially amused and surprised by her command of spoken English. I mean, she speak in the most ‘slurrish’ way and pronounced some of the terms so funny that I think my English is not the worst after all. Not to mention of thinking how the hell did she manage to win the crown, whether should the organisers send her to South Africa to compete with other Miss *insert country’s name again* World 2009. I would also religiously go back to youtube to search for her video, re-watched it and have a laugh about it again. I would even talk to my camp mates in the “Ris Low” style, adding ‘boomz’, ‘rad’, ‘filling naughty’, etc. into our sentences and we will laugh over the stupidity of it.
“Lots of Singaporeans speak this way. She is not unusual.” (The Sunday Times, 13th September 2009)
However, come to think of it now, who am I to laugh at her? Frankly speaking, my command of English is not good at all. Growing up in a mandarin speaking family and not having a good foundation of English, I am standing next to Ris Low. In fact, I think that our standard are similar, and is on par. In fact, I was rather impressed with her courage to participate in a competition of this scale and speak over a local website.
To be honest, can we blame her for her bad command of English? I believe that most Singaporeans actually speak in this kind of style or way or manner or whatever you call it. But, as she was going to be the one that is going to represent Singapore on an international stage, she was being judged very carefully by the public and, thus, is subjected to harsh comments and even, unwanted lashing.
Furthermore, in Singapore, languages are considered as a ‘chop-chop’ affair whereby the speaker just requires the listener to understand it in the simplest way and nobody will appreciate the art of the language. Moreover, the convenience of instant messaging and texting had bring down the standard of English as everyone is thinking of an idea to shorten a word so as to type faster and to save ‘spaces’ on short message services so as not to burst the character limit of 160 letters per message. These brought further erosion to the English language.
“Perhaps it’s good that she has become Miss Singapore World. Her language abilities are representative of the population.” (Anonymous, The Sunday Times, 2009)
So, shouldn’t we reflect on our mistakes and correct ourselves before we comment.
Random Quote:
“I don’t need to know who are the seven dwarfs as long as I know who’s the Snow White.”
Labels: RAD
fuck you x=
10/11/2009 02:29:00 AM
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