Taiwan celebrity apologises on blog for rude comments – Sorry, my English isn’t good either

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By Liew Hanqing

TWO of the Taiwanese who made fun of Singaporean English on a TV programme have apologised.

In an entry on his blog on Tuesday, former boyband member Arroy Shen apologised for remarks he made on the 28 Jan episode of the variety programme Mr Con and Ms Csi, about the way Singaporeans speak English.

Addressing Singaporeans in general, Arroy wrote in Mandarin: ‘I may have gone overboard with my comments and offended many people.

‘My English isn’t good, and I will continue working hard to improve.
‘I have been blunt and rude – I’m really sorry.’
He ended the entry by wishing everybody a happy Chinese New Year.

Xu Wei, an English teacher who was featured on the same episode, apologised on her blog the next day.
She wrote: ‘I do apologise… if that unconsciously-spoken bad joke really irritated you.
‘I meant to make fun of my own bad hearing… But I think on account of the length of the programme, they did some editing of what I said and the context was lost. Please forgive my well-meant slip of tongue.’

The apologies came in the wake of an onslaught of angry messages left by Singapore netizens on video-sharing site YouTube and on both the blogs.

Arroy had demonstrated how he thought Singaporeans pronounced words like ’sorry’ and ’tissue paper’.
Xu Wei described an encounter with a Singapore immigration officer who asked her if she was pregnant.
She claimed she did not understand the officer because he had kept asking ‘pegnan? pegnan?’
Their comments were met with roaring laughter from the show’s hosts and other guests.

After a segment of the variety programme was uploaded on YouTube last week, it got more than 25,000 views and 900 comments.
Many netizens called for a formal apology from CTi TV, the Taiwanese cable network which produces the show, as well as the individuals.
Some seem to have graciously accepted the online apologies.

Wrote netizen yuanyuan on Arroy’s blog: ‘I respect your courage for apologising, and I accept your apology – Happy Chinese New Year.’

Added Pearlc: ‘You are a good man who is trying to make up for something which I think is honestly not your fault.
‘But it is really awful of the other presenters, especially that so-called English teacher, to comment on Singaporean English when their pronunciation is not as perfect as they think it is.’

And some netizens are still upset.

Wrote Sam: ‘These comments affect a country’s image. We probably won’t be satisfied until we get a public apology from the show, and all who participated in the mockery.’

LINKS:
english teacher blog