In regards to this:
http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_435832.html
Sorry, but I have to rant.
'So perhaps her spoken English could also be an effect from her Bipolar disorder.'
I'm sorry...WHAT!? Who was this quoted from, or did you people make it up yourselves?
I did a search on bipolar disorders, and this is what I came up with [definition by wikipedia]
"Bipolar disorder, also known as manic depressive disorder or bipolar affective disorder, is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a category of mood disorders defined by the presence of one or more episodes of abnormally elevated mood clinically referred to as mania or, if milder, hypomania."
There is NO WHERE in that whole chunk of words that can imply in the slightest that bipolar can change a person speaking "perfectly good English" into one who wields the English language worse then a 3 year old kid.
Giving her the benefit of the doubt, I googled "bipolar affecting speech" and I got something known as pressured speech. Again, let me quote the definition of it. [bipolar.about.com]
"Dr. Jacob L. Driesen defines pressured speech as "rapid, virtually nonstop, often loud and emphatic, seemingly driven, and usually hard to interrupt. It typically occurs in mania and in some drug-induced states and in severe anxiety states." In her book Bipolar Disorders, Mitzi Waltz uses the phrase "motormouth" to describe pressured speech."
Now, I reviewed the video on RazorTV. She did NOT seem to be "in mania", nor was it "rapid, virtually unstoppable, loud, driven" or "hard to interupt". She was comfortable and casual, even inserting quite plainly that she strutted down Orchard road in a bigini. She could've been a slight bit nervous, but probably nothing amounting to severity.
Are you people in Straits Times reading this? If the statement was meant as a sarcastic comment, kindly state so. Otherwise, if may lead to many others thinking that maybe, just MAYBE, it was a possibility. This. Is. Not. Even. the Slightest. bit. possible, or at least it hasn't been proven at the current moment.
The bipolar disorder is a mental disorder that may affect speech in times of severe nervousness or panic. While it affects speech, it makes the one suffering from this disorder speak in a rushed manner, and not like half their brain got shaved off with a cheese grater. It is also presumbly temporary and will wear off when their panic attacks settle down. As shown in the newspaper interview and the razorTV youtube interview, it seems that this is her normal way of speaking.
Please. I can maybe understand blaming her stealing on the bipolar, but the way the ERM is conducting itself is just plain ridiculous. "We didn't know" is not a valid excuse [as told many many times in attending school].
"We felt that person who made fun of her on YouTube was malicious and did not do her justice. The video clip was presented in a way to ridicule her"
Sorry, presented in a way to ridicule her? Was there a mustache drawn on her face? A paper with "BIMBO!" stuck on her forehead? No, there wasn't. The questions were perfectly reasonable interview questions, and from there on it was just pure her. No one made her say what she said.
"The incident was a one-time interview which misled the Singapore public to believe she spoke English poorly."
Miss Singapore World was a one-time 10 second thing too. That, coupled together with the fact that it was being filmed for the whole of Singapore to view, with judges judging her every move, and contestants behind her acting as competition. She probably CAN speak good English [then again, if she couldn't she would be a failure to Singapore and it's emphasis on English as it's first language], however the real fact behind it is that though she can, she doesn't do it often and that is what is peeving Singapore: Our 'beauty queen' in her true colours. The ugly canvas with the pretty veneer.
I can keep going on, seriously, but quoting is getting pretty tiring, and I'll just end it at that.
