It has been a few weeks since the new announcements were put into use and, for a long time, I had thought the new announcements were recorded by internal staff and was only temporary, or that it was some tertiary students' year-end project. I had thought so simply because the pronunciation, enunciation and intonation of the spoken English was very poor and awkward.

Just to name a few of the jarring problems: Orchard was pronounced as something akin to Oooh-church. Yishun sounded something akin to Yeeee-Soon. And among many other pronunciation problems, the intonation of 'Please mind the platform gap' was awfully contorted as well.

This is totally not an issue of 'getting used to it over time'. Neither is it an issue of a local Singaporean accent, because even the average Singaporean English does not sound like that. The issue is that the announcer sounded like she deliberately put on some bizarre accent, and added tonal acrobatics, thinking that it will sound like better English.

The English heard in the train announcements just didn't make the cut.

My peers and I are quite appalled to realise that the new change is not temporary but a deliberate 'make-over' which is meant to be used permanently. We take MRT frequently, and the in-train announcements really do make us cringe, every single time.

Recently, I had two groups of foreign friends who were visiting Singapore from Vancouver and London respectively, and while travelling with them in the train, both groups had commented politely but bemusedly at the announcement voice. It was rather embarrassing, but I told them my then honest belief that the in-train announcements were just temporary.

I understand that SMRT may have good intentions in refreshing the announcement system and in hoping that the new announcements will sound younger and friendlier. However, the overhaul is really not very successful. The general sentiment of fellow commuters (including my visiting friends from Vancouver) is that the in-train announcements sounded strange, flirtatious and very 'low budget' (for lack of a better description) instead.

Having said that, I do find the other new announcements refreshing - one example being the announcement for reporting of suspicious articles in the station. It sounds younger and sweeter, and words were enunciated clearly and correctly. Similarly, the Mandarin announcements were all enunciated clearly and correctly, and as I do not understand Malay and Tamil I am unable to make any comments.

Nonetheless, the 'rights' do not rectify all 'the wrongs' that we hear all the time in the trains. I believe that most people do not mind a new voice for our MRT system. However, it must still adhere to a certain standard of good quality. I hope SMRT will seriously review the new announcements.

Lim Soo Chien (Ms)