Third, MOE is working with the Regional Language Centre to produce a handbook on common errors in English usage in Singapore. Pua Chu Kang One of the problems MOE has getting students to speak standard English is that the students often hear Singlish being spoken around them, including on television. So they learn wrong ways of speaking. The students may think that it is acceptable and even fashionable to speak like Phua Chu Kang. He is on national television and a likeable, ordinary person.
Nobody wants to be a snob.
So in trying to imitate life, Phua Chu Kang has made the teaching of proper English more difficult. I asked TCS why Phua Chu Kang's English is so poor. They told me that Phua Chu Kang started off speaking quite good English, but as time passed he forgot what he learnt in school, and his English went from bad to worse. I therefore asked TCS to try persuading Phua Chu Kang to attend NTUC's BEST classes, to improve his English. TCS replied that they have spoken to Phua Chu Kang, and he has agreed to enrol himself for the next BEST programme, starting in a month's time.