Second post! This time I chose a relevant topic again. This article is definitely relevant to all of us. The article is title “Is the Queen’s dead?” The article was taken from the second issue of the magazine Lexean in 2007 and is written by Noelle De Jesus.

Once again I shall start by critiquing the title of the article. This is especially in magazine articles; the title has to be attractive and thought provoking so as to attract the attention of the readers who browse through the many articles in the magazine. For this title, I did not immediately understand it as it was not very clear. I first read it as “Is the Queen dead?” and thought it was an article on either the monarchy in England becoming obsolete, or that it was an article on England getting taken over completely as a world power by other countries. I decided to take a better look and realised it was nothing to do about the monarchy but the second idea I thought of was close. The article was lamenting the falling importance of English and the Queen’s English in the world. It examined the various causes for the diminishing significance of English in various case studies about a few countries. It then went on to talk about Queen’s English losing their place as well due to various other “Englishes”. The main English that is taking over it would be American English. That is why it could be used to display the taking over of America as the world’s power.
The top level structures used most extensively in the article are exemplification and cause and effect. The main top level structure being used is cause and effect, displaying the relationship between progress of other countries and the diminishing use of Queen’s English. The main threat to the Queen’s English is still American English. This is due to the influence of media from America. One example is Hollywood or MTV which both exert a worldwide influence promoting American English. Also, there are countries that are surviving without imposing English as the medium of instruction. In Singapore, the common view is that as long as it is pronounced correctly, it does not matter about whether it is Queen’s English or American English. This leads to the common types of English emerging in various countries. This is as it is easier to communicate in something that is easier to pronounce. For example, in Singapore, many Singaporeans use “Singlish” and in India they also use “Hinglish”. These examples show that common folk do not use Queen’s English anymore but adapt it to suit themselves.
In my opinion, it does not really matter whether we use Queen’s English or a variant of it. The most important part of it is using good English. What is good English then? Good English refers to English that is grammatically correct and the accent in which it is spoken in does not matter. As the article says “Ultimately language is a tool. As the Bard himself might have said, English is English, and with any accent, will sound as sweet” I agree fully with this statement as English is still English when spoken with whichever accent and it is useful as long as it fulfills its purpose as a communication tool.

Elitism

Again the last minute rush to fufill the minimum requirement of two blog entries. This time i chose an article on an issue that is embedded in everyone of our hearts. Elitism. Enjoy. The article was taken from the second issue of the magazine Lexean in 2007. The title of the article is "So, what school did you go to?" and it is written by Sudhir Vadaketh.

The article is one that engaged me and kept me amused till the very end. The apt title stated “So, what school did you go to”. This creative title was not only attention grabbing but also thought provoking. Especially for me, as I acknowledge that I myself am somewhat elitist. When I saw the article, immediately the thought “I am from Raffles Institution, the elite school in Singapore” came to my mind. This shows the relevance of this article which discusses elitism in Singapore is to me.
Although the title of the article is rather vague, the introduction paragraph shows clearly the main topic of the article. That is embedded in the thesis statement “A society which oils its engines with meritocracy, is Singapore nurturing a breed of elitist?” This statement refers to Singapore’s system of meritocracy leading to elitism. To develop his thesis statement, the writer uses cause and effect to show the causal link between the system of meritocracy Singapore adopts and the growing elitist culture.
The writer extensively used terms and illustrations that really blew my mind due to the depth of his vocabulary. These terms, which are fitted in with exemplifications of the causes and effects in the main top level structure of the article, have another role in the article besides just vivid diction and impressive wield of the language. In my opinion, these words could have been put there to make the article come across as so called “high class” and sophisticated, just like the way the elitist feel about themselves. I inferred this after reading the short but sweet conclusion where the writer wrote “It doesn’t take much to be an Elite Chauvinist Pig. I am losing the battle. Are you?” showing that he is also battling with elitism.
This article, besides entertaining me, also widened my perspective about the problems that could surface from this culture of meritocracy. This is as the writer gave viewpoints from both sides when he used the example of what Wee Shu Min, “the daughter of a member of Singapore Parliament”, wrote in response to Derek Wee’s blog entry that lamented the rising costs of living and the falling availability of jobs for the group of “ageing semi-skilled workers”.
From these examples, the writer helped me to empathise with this group of people who are falling into poverty due to polarization; the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. For me, I live comfortably and go to a top school in Singapore and this problem was never so real to me before. This is due to the fact I did not realise it existed due to my circumstances. This article definitely fulfilled its purpose in invoking a sense of pity so as to help the readers to empathise with these victims of elitism in our society today. I shall end off similarly to the way the author did. It doesn’t take much to be an Elite Chauvinist Pig. Don’t succumb to it.

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