On This Day in 2000, We All Started Speaking Good English (Or Tried To)

25 years ago, Singapore officially decided to mind its language – quite literally.

The Speak Good English Movement (SGEM) was launched on 29 Apr 2000 by then-Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, with one clear goal: to get Singaporeans to speak grammatically correct English that the rest of the world could actually understand.

How come suddenly must speak good English?

By the late ‘90s, English wasn’t just for the atas crowd anymore. More and more Singaporeans, especially the younger ones, were using it daily. But along with that came a very localised flavour: Singlish. Our beloved, rojak mix of English, Malay, Chinese dialects, and local slang was starting to become the lingua franca of modern-day Singapore.

In 1999, concerns were raised in The Straits Times about our English standards going downhill. Then-Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew and PM Goh highlighted the importance of speaking good English to communicate with people around the world and develop Singapore into a first-world economy.

Just days after his 1999 National Day Rally, PM Goh announced an annual campaign to champion proper English. A few months later, the SGEM was born.

SGEM over the years

Launched with the theme “Speak Well. Be Understood.”, the first SGEM opted for a light-hearted approach to get Singaporeans to speak good English through plays, speech marathons, and even comic books.

Since then, the SGEM has gotten creative in its mission. The following year in 2001, free English lessons by the British Council were available to the public. In 2004, mums who wanted to learn English to communicate better with their kids could enrol in free classes at community centres.

In 2010, we were encouraged to stick post-it notes correcting bad English around town. And in 2012, we were told to paste our favourite English phrase onto personal items – kind of like inspirational quotes, but with better grammar.

SGEM for different groups

In the early 2000s, the SGEM spotlight was on service workers such as taxi drivers, waiters, shop assistants, as big events like the Singapore F1 race meant more tourists would be interacting with Singaporeans.

In 2007 and 2009, SGEM turned up the volume with music and performing arts to appeal to the younger crowd. They even took to Facebook and Twitter to reach youths.

In 2013, the focus shifted to young working adults trying to up their workplace communication skills, while SGEM 2014 was the first campaign to promote good grammer. Comedian Kumar starred in videos correcting commonly misunderstood tenses and nouns.

Recognising English champions

In 2008, SGEM launched the Inspiring Teacher of English Award, with support from The Straits Times and the Ministry of Education. It was the first national award to celebrate teachers who made a real impact on their students’ English proficiency.

A Leadership Award followed in 2014 to honour educators who led strong English programmes in schools.

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