Sometimes I think we can be so damn picky about english, like this reader who wrote in to Today…

I find it amusing yet unfortunate that S’poreans do not pronounce their country’s name correctly.

It’s “SIH-ngur-pour”, with a silent “g” sound. Common mispronounciations include using a hard “g” sound; or an “ah” sound in place of “uh”. Many stress all three syllables, instead of just the first

Actually I think while he’s right in terms of phonics, it doesn’t make sense to pronounce it that way as “Singapore” was coined by Raffles when he knew that the island was called “Singapura” when he arrived in 1819. Singapura means Lion City, and therefore pronouncing it as “Sin-ga-pour” makes sense and gives the name the meaning.

Then again, we should start to worry about local teenagers who are so bad with english that it’s worrying. When ushering at indoor stadium last week, I got so thrown off by a gal with her friends who asked me where’s INDOT (indoor) stadium and what time does the SERVIT (service) start..

Update: My short reply got published