I refer to the article, “Say what? English can, Singlish also can” (Jan 8), and Mr Jonathan Wong’s letter, “Should those who can code-switch be the main voices in Singlish debate?” (Jan 10).

Over the years, the champions of Singlish as a uniquely Singaporean cultural asset have done us a great disservice. 

They have helped to blur the line between jarringly bad spoken English and the otherwise harmless use of common Singlish words and expressions.  

The Singaporeans who can express themselves fluently and clearly during everyday conversations are now seemingly a minority. 

An alarmingly large number of working Singaporeans appear to struggle with sentence formation, grammar and pronunciation in this global business language.

The Singlish that Singaporeans take pride in is no substitute for proper English, and may well turn into a glass ceiling that our young working adults hit during their careers, as they compete for managerial and senior positions in multinational corporations with English-speaking workers from around the world.

Seah Jin Wah