TR EMERITUS

My name is Alex L S Liang and I am a writing an official complaint about the commentators of the gymnastics event that accompanied the live broadcast. I am a former Singapore national champion gymnast (1993, 1996, 1997), a veteran of the sport and a journalist for the American gymnastics magazine International Gymnast and I currently reside in London where I work in television here in the UK. I was mortified by your choice of commentators for the gymnastics event. Your commentators for the event were a two men team - one of whom is an American and the other is a local. Neither know much about gymnastics - now I don't expect them to have the kind of technical knowledge a professional gymnast or coach may possess (since the majority of your audience are non-gymnasts) - but it seemed that they had done a crash course on gymnastics terminlogy, possibly read up a few pages on the internet and were throwing completely random terms during the broadcast, trying to bluff their way through the event quite unconvincingly. They made a complete mockery of their jobs - and this has made them the laughing stock in the gymnastics world. Just go to some of the gymnastics forums and the gymnasts are mocking what complete fools these two have made of themselves and the event. There is a fine balance between dazzling the audience with technical terms and making the sport accessible to an audience who may be watching the sport for the first time - your commentators totally failed at both for they not only knew little - but were confusing the audience by using totally the wrong terms to describe the gymnastics moves performed. They were at the Bishan Sports Hall - surrounded by so many gymnasts and coaches from all over the world; did they make any effort to ask anyone to clarify what was going on when they weren't sure? For example, a buzzer sounds on the women's beam event and on the men's floor exercise to alert the gymnast that they have ten seconds left to finish their routines. Every time they hear the buzzer, the commentators would say that the gymnasts have gone overtime - which isn't true at all. Did no one go up to these two commentators and gave them a (very long) list of errors they made after each session? Are they simply oblivious to their mistakes, or so arrogant that they cannot be asked to find out? Secondly, your local commentator had a terribly strong Singlish (Singaporean English) accent - surely you could go to any of the top schools in Singapore and pick a student at random and find someone who would speak better English. Now as someone born and bred in Singapore - I have no issues with Singlish - nothing makes me feel more at home than hearing authetnic Singlish in Ang Mo Kio. But good grief, your local commentator struggled with words beginning with the letter V. That's an elementary error common with those who speak Chinese as a first language - as the sound of the letter V doesn't exist in Chinese. It was embarrassing to hear him mispronounce again and again words like "vault", "avoid" and "value" - he kept saying, wault, awoid and walue - and his American colleague made no effort to try to correct his bad English. It was incredible when he said today, "he was already won two medals and has now picked up a turd" (he meant to say THIRD, but being Singaporean, he was unable to pronounce the "TH" sound and said 'turd' instead). That I can forgive as many Singaporeans are incapable of pronouncing the "TH" sound (again, not found in Malay or Chinese) - but there comes a point where you have to draw a line and have some quality control and demand that a commentator knows the difference between a third and a turd. Thirdly, the American commentator seems to know absolutely nothing about Singapore and makes basic errors when describing Singapore. He mentioned that Singapore was situated off the East Coast of Malaysia - which is wrong, Singapore is at the southern tip of the Malaysian Peninsular. And his Singaporean colleague made no attempt whatsoever to correct that mistake (why, was he afraid of showing up the American?) - which is unbelievable as any Singaporean should know where the island of Singapore lies relative to Malaysia. Furthermore, the American commentator makes very basic errors such as getting the country of the gymnast wrong (he said that Diana Bulimar was from Bulgaria instead of Romania) and he mentioned today that Carlotta Ferlito has already won two silver medals when she had only won two bronzes at that stage (before her beam finals). If you are going to bring an American in - surely there are plenty of other Americans who are a lot more competent than this joker? Furthermore, both commentators struggle with pronouncing the names of the gymnasts - Chinese names were hopelessly mangled beyond recognition (did the local commentator forget all the Hanyu pinyin learnt at school)? Even Swedish and Russian names were mispronounced - but this was overshadowed by the way they really mangled up all the Chinese names and made elementary errors like saying Xiaodong Zhu ("Shaodong-zoo" they kept saying) instead of Zhu Xiaodong. The event was held in Bishan of all places, they must have been surrounded by thousands of Singaporeans who were fluent in Mandarin - didn't anyone correct them? Did no one on their team speak any Mandarin at all? Was there no management in place to tell them where they have gone wrong and how they could avoid repeating such elementary errors? This is clearly a management error - if you want to bring in American commentators fine, but monitor how they are performing, check on them, listen to them as they work and don't just assume that they are going to deliver a flawless performance. This is clearly a management issue - you are not managing your staff and not giving them the help or training they need to do their jobs properly. I could go on - but it suffices to say that after having been watching gymnastics competitions broadcast on TV since the early 80s, this has got to be undoubtedly the worst possible commentary team in the history of the sport, ever, by a very long way. So whilst the gymnastics community will mock you organisers behind your back on their online forums, as a former Singaporean national gymnast, national champion and national team captain from the 90s, I feel it is my responsibility to bring this to your attention and point out to you what a disaster - no, what a complete catastrophe these two jokers have been. Let me be constructive and make you the following suggestions. 1. There is a thriving gymnastics community in Singapore. http://www.singaporegymnastics.org.sg/ Have you ever thought about approaching them for help when it came to choose commentators for the sport? They would be able to provide gymnasts, ex-gymnasts and coaches who have a detailed technical knowledge of the sport and can guide your commentators through the sport. 2. The most successful gymnastics programmes are found in the top schools in Singapore - such as Raffles Institution, Hwa Chong Institute, RGS, SCGS, CHIJ St Nicholas etc - where the standard of English is extremely high. You could have easily approached one of many ex-gymnasts from these schools who are both knowledgable about the sport and are eloquent and articulate in English. 3. Surely you must have some kind of English oral exam before you let these people on TV and test if they can pronounce simple words like "vault" and "avoid" - and why aren't these people corrected along the way after they make such elementary mistakes? We're humans, we make mistakes - but when you keep making the same mistake over and over again, then it becomes a management issue. Why aren't these two commentators managed properly? The fact that such elementary mistakes were made again and again is indicative of very poor management. I only hope you will learn from your mistakes at this YOG and stop deceiving yourselves that mistakes weren't made. When you have the world watching, you have to put on a good show or risk making a fool of your country. [Please sign the petition demanding a public apology from Dr Vivian Balakrishnan for mismanaging the YOG here.] Source: I hate YOG  Read More →

I stay in Pasir Ris. There is plenty of posters and banners put up to announce a ministerial visit and to welcome that minister. I counted a total of 24 posters put up on the lamp posts along Pasir Ris Drive 4. This does not include the numerous posters along the junction of the road. This number is only for Drive 4. I really don't know how many more of such posters are there to be put up along the entire Pasir Ris East District. This leaves several questions in my mind: 1. Is putting up the posters the most cost-effective way to promote a ministerial visit? 2.Isn't is excessive to put posters up on alternative lamp-posts and on both sides of the road? 3.Is there another more cost-effective way of promoting? 4.Why can't the authorities use other platforms such as the notice boards outside HDB lift lobbies? I think that the authorities should be more prudent at using public funds and should find a more cost-effective and less labour intensive way of promoted the visit. May Chua  Read More →

Singapore home-grown paddler Isabelle Li was defeated by China's Gu Yuting in the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) table tennis girls' singles event yesterday, but the highlight of the match lies in the spectator stand instead. According to feedback from readers who watched the match, the spectators were unusually "passionate", except that they were cheering for China. Hundreds of Rafflesians were seen at the match though it was not known if they were there willingly or "volunteered" by their schools to attend. Nevertheless, the strong show of support they displayed for China's Gu had some Singaporeans wondering if they are watching the match in China. One netizen described his experience on Facebook: "Today I saw some students in RJC uniform if I am not wrong waving China flag when watching Singapore vs China in table-tennis. At first I thought how come Singaporeans are waving China flag. but later I realise the girls are China students studying in Singapore schools. What a new sight for me." Another added: "There are hardly any Singaporeans cheering for Isabelle. I guess we are more subdued in showing our support than the mainland Chinese who tend to be more vocal and nationalistic." Zhang appeared amused by what he saw: "Woo hoo....and two RGS Chinese nationals jumping up and down (until their uniform become tucked out) and waving their flag at the same time. woo hoo!!!!!!!" Bernard Lim asked: "Are they (Chinese students) studying in Singapore on MOE scholarships? Is it possible for the govt to assimilate them into our society in the future when their hearts always remain with their motherland China?" Due to the PAP's pro-China immigration policies, an increasing number of mainland Chinese students are given scholarships paid for by Singapore taxpayers to study in Singapore. PRC scholars studying Singapore's tertiary institutions do not have to pay a single cent for their tuition fees and are given a monthly allowance as well. Though they are expected to work in Singapore for a number of years after graduation, it is not known how many of them choose to settle down in Singapore upon completion of their bonds. With China becoming an economic powerhouse, it may be increasingly harder for Singapore to retain the PRC students it has so kindly "sponsored" and "nurtured". In an interview with National Geographic magazine this year, PAP strongman Lee Kuan Yew claimed that it is a "good thing" that Singapore is welcoming so many Chinese immigrants (from mainland China) as they are more "hard-driving" and "hard-striving" than locals. From the "passion" displayed by these PRC RGS students, he may have a point after all. Please join our Facebook page here and invite your friends to do so to create awareness of the current affairs affecting Singaporeans. Please use our online web form to contact us.  Read More →