I turned 26 two days ago and I received quite a number of birthday well-wishes. This is a quantitative breakdown of the greetings – and the replies I gave. It’s mostly real, but it’s mostly tongue-in-cheek too. Enjoy 🙂
Tag - kukubirdedness
From: Laremy Lee
Date: March 8, 2009 6:04:59 PM GMT+08:00
To: Ng Bee Chin
Cc: stforum@sph.com.sg, chee_hong_tat@pmo.gov.sg
Subject: You have my support.Dear Professor,
I just read Mr Chee Hong Tat’s letter to the ST Forum Page, which I believe was written on behalf of MM Lee Kuan Yew. If anything, the use of a pejorative to emphasise a point which scarcely needed to have been made was thoroughly unprofessional and uncalled for.
More importantly, the bilingual policy may seem to be the most efficient option, but to speak against introducing alternatives is to disallow the freedom of choice. This is an incongruity which has me feeling rather perturbed, since the Ministry of Education is an advocate of “provid[ing] students with greater choice to meet their different interests and ways of learning”, for the ability “to choose what and how they learn will encourage them to take greater ownership of their learning”.
Nevertheless, I’d like to encourage you not to be discouraged. You have my support, along with that of many other Singaporeans, if you’ve been reading the chatter in the blogosphere.
Keep the vision alive.
Yours sincerely,
Laremy LEE (Mr)
put up (verb phrase)
to accommodate; lodge.
e.g. Where are you putting up now?
Someone asked me this today, and it was all I could do to stop myself from smiling. Why? Because I was reminded of a discussion some of us had during a workshopping session a month or so back, about ‘archaic’ phrases that people from our parents’ generation use, and how extremely out the place the phrases are. But because they’re so incongruent especially in our age, they’re kinda cute, in a retro sort of way. Other examples of cute archaic phrases: taking your breakfast/lunch/dinner in lieu of eating.
Any other examples you can think of?