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Romancing the Language: A Writer's Lasting Love Affair with English
I had fallen head over heels in love with a foreign language that others in my community were indifferent to, had grudgingly learnt or positively hated. I embraced the English language fully, wanting to learn everything about it, to celebrate it and serve it, like the completely enamoured and enslaved lover. This delightful collection of essays by Catherine Lim explores her love affair with the English language through her stories and anecdotes about her encounters with the language. As the author explains, "This book is primarily to satirise (and also to celebrate) my special relationship with the English language... I actually want the reader to smile a little and think, 'That's vintage Catherine Lim, a mix of wit and bluster and showing off!'"
160 pages, Hardcover
Published November 15, 2018
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About the author
Catherine Lim
51 books78 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
林宝音 in Chinese
Catherine Lim Poh Imm (Chinese: 林宝音; pinyin: Lín Bǎoyīn, born 21 March 1942) is a Singaporean fiction author known for writing about Singapore society and of themes of traditional Chinese culture. Hailed as the "doyenne of Singapore writers", Lim has published nine collections of short stories, five novels, two poetry collections, and numerous political commentaries to date.
(from Wikipedia)
林宝音 in Chinese
Catherine Lim Poh Imm (Chinese: 林宝音; pinyin: Lín Bǎoyīn, born 21 March 1942) is a Singaporean fiction author known for writing about Singapore society and of themes of traditional Chinese culture. Hailed as the "doyenne of Singapore writers", Lim has published nine collections of short stories, five novels, two poetry collections, and numerous political commentaries to date.
(from Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 23, 2025
7 things I learnt from Catherine Lim’s essay collection Romancing the Language, in which she explores her intense love for the English language:
1. Lim is enamoured with the English language so much that she celebrates it and serves it like a lover, studying it and enjoying its use in real life and in her stories alike. Her passion for it is immensely palpable in this collection which is such a delight to read!
2. In certain places and countries, such as in Lim’s hometown of Kulim, Malaysia, the knowledge of English is a status symbol in itself; a marker of social class. Aspiring to be proficient in it is like aspiring to improve your social status.
3. What the Daffodil Syndrome is: when the colonial language—English in this case—and its culture seeps in and becomes a part of people’s worldview, even though they have not really seen or experienced it.
4. Singlish ≠ bad English. The former arises out of a spontaneous evolution of language usage, while the latter results from an “incomplete learning of the language, when the rules of usage have not been properly taught or learnt.“ Competent speakers code-switch between the two to effectively communicate with different members of society, rather than rigidly sticking to the hard and fast rules of standard English.
5. Singlish is a form of “social glue” in Singapore, where speakers can use it“to establish a friendly atmosphere, in order to put people at their ease, to inject a note of cordiality, to initiate humour.”
6. Ideally, language learning should be fun and rooted in its everyday usefulness, instead of just rote memorisation. The latter would just result in educaricide (the killing of learning), as Lim delves into in one of her essays.
7. English is actually a really fun and playful language replete with its many figures of speech, including: puns, metaphors, personification, irony etc. When known and used effectively, it is a de facto playground for ample humour, as Lim deftly demonstrates in this book!
1. Lim is enamoured with the English language so much that she celebrates it and serves it like a lover, studying it and enjoying its use in real life and in her stories alike. Her passion for it is immensely palpable in this collection which is such a delight to read!
2. In certain places and countries, such as in Lim’s hometown of Kulim, Malaysia, the knowledge of English is a status symbol in itself; a marker of social class. Aspiring to be proficient in it is like aspiring to improve your social status.
3. What the Daffodil Syndrome is: when the colonial language—English in this case—and its culture seeps in and becomes a part of people’s worldview, even though they have not really seen or experienced it.
4. Singlish ≠ bad English. The former arises out of a spontaneous evolution of language usage, while the latter results from an “incomplete learning of the language, when the rules of usage have not been properly taught or learnt.“ Competent speakers code-switch between the two to effectively communicate with different members of society, rather than rigidly sticking to the hard and fast rules of standard English.
5. Singlish is a form of “social glue” in Singapore, where speakers can use it“to establish a friendly atmosphere, in order to put people at their ease, to inject a note of cordiality, to initiate humour.”
6. Ideally, language learning should be fun and rooted in its everyday usefulness, instead of just rote memorisation. The latter would just result in educaricide (the killing of learning), as Lim delves into in one of her essays.
7. English is actually a really fun and playful language replete with its many figures of speech, including: puns, metaphors, personification, irony etc. When known and used effectively, it is a de facto playground for ample humour, as Lim deftly demonstrates in this book!
February 17, 2019
Curiosity level: thoughtful Singaporean essays on the love of English and it’s complicated relationship with Singlish
•
“An ‘A’ for sound investments
An ‘A’ for rule of law,
An ‘A’ plus’ for governance,
Each is a perfect score.
/
But it is a dismaying ‘D’
For freedom of the press,
Political debate and dissent
Get a grade that’s even less.” - Singapore, for better or for verse
•
#CatherineLim is honest, candid, punny and wise in this book. It’s a love letter to the English Language. She writes about how being a writer and being a writer in Singapore are two entirely different things. She loves English. In the 1950s, it wasn’t ‘proper’ to be so adept at the “colonial language”, but Catherine loved it so much that she even replaced it with her mother tongue. Soon, she finds out that it’s a struggle to fit the westernness of the language into a country that hosts four different races, each with their own mother tongue and dialects. She tells us, through these essays, how she finally comes to terms with being a Singaporean Writer
•
I truly recommend this read for aspiring Singaporean writers! Gives you a lot of food for thought :)
•
“An ‘A’ for sound investments
An ‘A’ for rule of law,
An ‘A’ plus’ for governance,
Each is a perfect score.
/
But it is a dismaying ‘D’
For freedom of the press,
Political debate and dissent
Get a grade that’s even less.” - Singapore, for better or for verse
•
#CatherineLim is honest, candid, punny and wise in this book. It’s a love letter to the English Language. She writes about how being a writer and being a writer in Singapore are two entirely different things. She loves English. In the 1950s, it wasn’t ‘proper’ to be so adept at the “colonial language”, but Catherine loved it so much that she even replaced it with her mother tongue. Soon, she finds out that it’s a struggle to fit the westernness of the language into a country that hosts four different races, each with their own mother tongue and dialects. She tells us, through these essays, how she finally comes to terms with being a Singaporean Writer
•
I truly recommend this read for aspiring Singaporean writers! Gives you a lot of food for thought :)
December 23, 2025
Deviated from my psychological thriller binge with this ode to the English language by Catherine Lim. A short read. Some chuckles to be had. Also further reinforces that I cannot be a writer, that there are many more with superior command of English than I. ( me ?)
January 2, 2019
Reignited my love for reading again.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews