Moral English

Abstract

Changing attitudes toward the teaching of English in several Asian nations, including India & Singapore, are discussed. A historical overview of the European colonization of many Asian nations & a subsequent discussion of reasons for the teaching of English in these nations are offered. Although English was a medium toward acquiring more prestigious & remunerative positions in India & Singapore, sentiments depreciating the teaching of English at the expense of culturally endemic languages have proliferated. The moral values supposedly possessed by European colonizers as described in the 18th century by Charles Grant are compared to the modern ideology of Lee Kuan Yew, former Prime Minister of Singapore; it is demonstrated that moral values once associated with Europeans have shifted to association with Asian citizens. Concerns over the propagation of pornographic or defamatory materials via the Internet are also considered. It is concluded that modern citizens of Singapore should avoid the depravity of the West, as exemplified in the negative values attributed to non-English languages by 19th-century British colonizers. J. W. Parker.