Today's "Letter to the Editor" of the Day

Signboard error does not sit well

NOW that the Speak Good English Movement is on, it is timely to point out an error in English usage on the signboards displayed at many food centres in Singapore.

For example, the signboard at the food centre at Block 8 Empress Road reads: 'Customers are at liberty to sit at any table and stool irrespective of the stalls they patronize.'

But when a customer sits at a table, he should be sitting on a chair or stool, therefore the words 'and stool' are redundant.

In other words, the wording should be changed to read: 'Customers are at liberty to sit at any table irrespective of the stalls they patronise.'

The error should be rectified as soon as possible.

The error should be rectified as soon as possible! People might die! Or worse - they may sit on the table instead of the stool. Or sit at the stool. Horrors!

People, there are far worse English errors that need to be fixed here. Let's focus time and columns space on how to improve the English education here in Singapore, and less on correcting a small redundancy by an undereducated person, shall we?

The emails I've seen written by colleagues and ex-colleagues of mine really make me want to reach out and strangle them. These are graduates from Singapore's finest universities, after at least 15 years in an English medium education.

Let me look for some of these choice samples and I'll post them here in a couple of days.