I AGREE with Mr Dudley Au ('Don't use culture as an excuse for Singlish', last Friday) that one should not use culture as an excuse for Singlish. The recurrent debate about the use of Singlish has been due to different perceptions of what constitutes Singlish.

Singlish is not about borrowing Chinese and Malay words to create a local flavour or to enrich the English language; there is nothing wrong with that practice. Singlish is not about accent; acquiring a certain accent is difficult and usually requires exposure in childhood. Singlish is simply a substandard and undesirable variant of English, characterised by disregard for acceptable grammar and sentence structure and correct usage of words.

If one's primary language is English, one usually has the natural ability to use correct English. If one's primary language is, for example, Chinese, one tends to yield to the habit of translating Chinese word for word into English, and that is how Singlish was born.

Singlish is generally propagated in school and society because of peer pressure and poor attitude to correcting one's own mistakes. Herd instinct and natural reluctance to admit one's inadequacy contribute to the continuing use of Singlish in Singapore.

Dr Ong Siew Chey

This article was first published in The Straits Times.