Due to its origins, Singlish shares many similarities with pidgin varieties of English, and can easily give the impression of "broken English" or "bad English" to a speaker of some other, less divergent variety of English. In addition, the profusion of Singlish features, especially loanwords from Asian languages, mood particles, and topic-prominent structure, can easily make Singlish incomprehensible to a speaker of Standard English. As a result, the use of Singlish is greatly frowned on by the Singapore government, and two former prime ministers, Lee Kuan Yew and Goh Chok Tong, have publicly declared that Singlish is a substandard English that handicaps Singaporeans, presents an obstacle to learning proper English, and renders the speaker incomprehensible to everyone except another Singlish speaker.
Current Singapore Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong has also said that Singlish should not be part of Singapore's identity. In the interests of promoting equality and better communication with the rest of the world, in 2000 the government launched the Speak Good English Movement to eradicate it, at least from formal usage. The Media Development Authority's free-to-air TV code states that the use of Singlish "should not be encouraged and can only be permitted in interviews, where the interviewee speaks only Singlish." In spite of this, in recent years the use of Singlish on television and radio has proliferated as localised Singlish continues to be popular among Singaporeans, especially in comedies.
In most workplaces, Singlish is avoided in formal settings, especially at job interviews, meetings with clients, presentations or meetings. Standard Singapore English is preferred. Nevertheless, select Singlish phrases are sometimes injected into discussions to build rapport or for a humorous effect, especially when the audience consists mainly of locals.
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