SINGAPOREANS are being linguistically challenged - and they're being told it's for their own good.
It is all to do with the Singaporean brand of English, known locally as Singlish. The Government has been preaching that perfect English is the way ahead and its patience is starting to wear thin.
Anyone switching on their television sets to catch the new series of Singapore's most popular sitcom, Phua Chu Kang, will find its lead characters have been radically transformed.
Instead of speaking Singlish - a colloquial cocktail of English splattered with Malay, Hindi and various Chinese dialects - its main star Mr Phua, a foul-mouthed builder, can be seen dutifully attending language classes learning to speak the Queen's English.
Producers at the state-owned Television Corporation of Singapore felt duty-bound to act after Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong publicly criticised the show during his national day rally last year because of its poor public influence on Singapore's young.
At the recent launch of a year-long Speak Good English campaign, Mr Goh said: 'Poor English reflects badly on us and makes us seem less intelligent.' The Prime Minister was referring to terms like Phua Chu Kang's catchphrase 'Don't pray pray' (don't kid me), 'blur' (confused), 'I catch no ball' (I can't understand) and 'sabo' (to sabotage or play a trick on someone).
In the past few days, Singapore has been awash with new Web sites, radio jingles and language programmes on television, all aimed at improving English standards.