"Engrish"

After the school bus had left with my two little ones, I decided to walk to our family physician to replenish my boy's nasal spray. The existing bottle of doses were depleted and therefore my boy had not been on full dosage of sprays for days. He had to wake up several times clearing his nose last night.

Along the way, I overheard a father speaking to his child. "Where you get the money, you no working, huh?"

He continued again, "You no working. Where have money?"

Those questions had struck a chord on my head. Even now, I am still thinking hard.

The fact is, many Chinese speaking parents are very much like this father. They will rather make themselves speak "English" than Mandarin to their children. English has always been deemed as a language for the intellectual. English commands better respect than it's second class cousin, Mandarin.

This is no wonder even the not English speaking parents are all rushing to command such respect by feeding their kids with "English".

Ummm, Singlish, that is.