lol this is funny la!

sparklette.net

good luck to Mok Li Kuang who will probably be undergoing interviews involving basic spelling tests after his future employers see this.

NTU kena tomoRowed!
hiak! hiak! hiak!

http://domtheclown.wordpress.com/

not spelled tomarlo mei?

There is little reason to think that butchers could teach others to read or write
-
刘项原来不读书

I happen to come from that school, and I don't think that there was anything involving teaching slaughter of live animals in that place.

After I typed that, I realized what you meant. Still, NTU is not a bad school. A slight verbal error does not constitute slaughter of language.

Besides, what is the school more noted for? Engineering, which is more forgiving towards errors in language than in mathematics.

It is one thing to butcher the language, and another to butcher education itself
-
`Among the three public universities in Singapore, we are the only science and technology university approximating MIT, whose excellence we want to emulate` Dr Su Guaning

Which is simply not true when you take into account the numbers of NTU graduates who happen to be employed in relevant careers (degree obtained and job match).

Sorry, I don't have statistics for you.

Besides, what is the school more noted for? Engineering, which is more forgiving towards errors in language than in mathematics.

First of all, that does not make any sense. Why do you think mathematicians are better spellers than engineers? Is this press release written by engineers, for a solely engineering readership? Second of all, that's a very sad excuse - especially for a university, in an ad touting its quality of education (talk about irony). For a place that produces the 'Leaders for Tomorrow' to be careless/ignorant about a word as basic as that, you've got to wonder. What's more, it's in large font print, for mass circulation, so how many pairs of eyes (copywriters, editors) have seen it but not thought anything of it?

Let me rephrase this: Engineering is more forgiving towards errors in language. Engineering is less forgiving towards errors in mathematics.

This is for Mr Aaron Kwok.

This may contradict my previous statement, but frankly engineers can't really calculate every aspect of what they are involved in. Takes too much time. So they mostly take a look at the important parts. Ever heard of safety factors? Or structural failure? That happens when engineers overlook something. By overlooking I mean they didn't think that the factor they ignored would cause something catastrophic (too lazy to check spelling).

Also, I wonder why we (you and I) are so worked up about a spelling error. After all, I'm not exactly a proud student of the school (though I must confess that I learnt useful stuff there). I guess that's why I'm typing this sort of thing, to say that hey, at least I have useful stuff inside my brain after what I learnt in NTU. At least I know how to apply critical thinking after my three (four?) years in the school. That is what counts for me.

I must confess, however, that I hate the cold treatment from my peers there. Everyone cares only about themselves, including the teachers. The engineering students don't really do things together, unless if they're forced to work on a project together. Some guys are only friendly towards girls.

However, I guess that the school is a microcosm(spelling?) of society, so I can't complain.
This is really getting too verbose, so I'll stop here. Continue to bash the school if you like, but hey, it's a place to learn. If you believe that a spelling error implies that the school is not capable of churning out good students, well, there's always NUS, SIM and other good overseas universities. Such as Cambridge or Oxford or Yale (though Adam Smith seemed to hate Oxford, so don't go there, I guess).

Engineering is about knowing what matters and what doesn't matter. You make a spelling mistake in the small print, it doesn't matter. You make a spelling mistake in the headlines, people are going to wonder if you aren't being sloppy elsewhere. That's the difference between a small mistake and a big mistake.

Engineering is bringing science to the consumer. (Which is why it is different from Science.) Engineering is understanding what is the product. What is the product in an advertisement? It is communication. What happens when you cock up the communication? It means that you cock up, period.

Basically you are right when you say that you need to take care of the important part. But you are completely wrong at identifying the important part.

It won't affect where I study because I'm a graduate. But without implying anything else, I'm going to say that the advertisement is a failure.

Two questions.

1. What do you mean when you say I am wrong at identifying the important part?
2. Was the advertisement outsourced in the beginning or was it done by staff from the school who happen to be engineers?

If the advertisement was done by staff who are NTU graduates in engineering (and should thus have been more careful), then I concede your point.

If the advertisement was done by outsiders and approved by the staff in the school (whose areas of expertise do not include those of details and engineering), then I can't say that this implies that the engineering scope of study in NTU is lousy.

Correct spelling in an advertisement is important, but you don't realise that.

I have been saying that the advertisement is screwed up. I haven't yet commented anything about the quality of engineers from NTU. But you have to remember that the advertisement represents NTU. It is not that the advertisement just so happens to represent NTU, it is that the whole point of the advertisement is to represent NTU. You and I can say maybe it's not a reflection of their engineering competence. But you know how advertisements work, it's what other people are going to think, not subtle and sophisticated thinkers like you and I.

Now even if it's just the admin producing the advertisement, doesn't it make you worry that "Oh, I'm going to a uni with a screwed up admin"? Even if the admin has outsourced the advertising, does it make me worried that NTU didn't check the advertisement before it went to press? And if the attitude is that "it's just an outsourced job, no worries", doesn't it also make me worried that NTU produces people with the attitude that just because I think that something's not in my department, it doesn't concern me? (As evidenced by a real life example that I am talking to)

Engineering is about something doing what it's meant to do. If an advertisement shoots itself in the foot like that then from an engineering perspective, it has failed.

I think that engineering is about attention to detail and not being forgiving towards mistakes

hey NTU apologist!

"realised", not "realized"

Hey Schizoid! Don't you know sentences start with CAPITAL letters?

"Realised" for Brits, and "realized" for Americans. I don't see why she/he should be faulted for that.

realised or realized are both correct
one is american, one is british only ma...

Oh, the irony of this error being posted on TOMORROW.sg. :)

Best university in the whole wide world! WOW! WOW!

And don't forget the lineage - NTU grew from Nanyang University. The standard of English must be weaker due to that background.

you guys are missing the point

...anyway i'm going to Penn lalalalalala

yeh. Over there they spell it "realized".

As far as I know, there is not a single cabinet minister who is an alumni of NTU. Goh Chok Tong, Wong Kan Seng, Prof Shunmugam Jayakumar, etc. are all graduates of NUS.

I know, i know. It's because Nantah people are commies, and the only good commie is a commie in a jail cell, preferably Sentosa.

this is so embarassing

have u ever thought that its not ntu's fault but the publication's? guys. think.

You're quite stupid, the corp comms department finalises their copy and sends it over as a jpeg/pdf file, the papers don't get to edit shit

Fucking dumb loser local farmer university and look at how its farmers have coined lame excuses like it's mostly an "engineering" school thus poor English nevermind.

Doesn't it also house Singapore's only undergraduate communication studies course? Aren't communication studies supposed to 'approximate' decent English? What a loser school.

Anon @ 28 July, 2007 - 1:31am, you crazy i guess. No one compares NTU, NUS or any local university for that matter in the same breath as Cambridge or Oxford or Yale. Can't believe you have the cheek to call them "good overseas universities" while praising NTU, the farmer university.

Did you know that very few people outside Asia care much about Singapore, let alone know about its farmer schools?

Local university = for farmers. Wake up.

Hahaha the NTU farmer even had the shameless cheek to say "though Adam Smith seemed to hate Oxford, so don't go there, I guess" HAHAHAHAHHAHAA. Who the fuck compares any of the farmer universities here to those top universities?

If he says someone seems to hate Oxford so don't go there, did he a lowly student of the premiere dumping ground of the three farmer universities here examine himself as to whether he can qualify for anything better than a farmer? Why didn't he apply to any top school instead of applying to end up in a farmer university?