( CULTURAL BRIEFING N^O 10 )

A capstone event horizon

The invisible hand of American English in Singapore

_EN

            It might seem perfectly normal to describe the opening of an exhibition revealing Singapore’s separation papers — from Malaysia, for the uninitiated, more than half a century later — as a capstone event. Especially if one graduated from an American university, or one based on their collegiate system (read: Singapore Management University is one such institution).

            Yet, I scowled upon seeing the advert on one of our neighbourhood notice boards last year. When one considers its lineage in American academia, Singapore’s history as a former colony of the British, and our inheritance of UK English as lingua franca, the use of the word ‘capstone’ is culturally inappropriate.

            Why, one might ask? To begin with, the word is not part of common UK English lexicon. Communications for an event like this go through multiple layers of approvals in Singapore. It is telling that not a single person put a stop to this faux pas — not because of any deliberate ill-will or oversight. But, I suspect, simply due to cultural and linguistic drift.

            We need no reminder of America’s influence since the later half of the 20th century. However, a much subtler form has been quietly shaping us since the 1980s: computer software.

            Defaults are rarely touched. Let’s ask ourselves this: how many of us bother to switch the default language on our devices’ operating systems and software? We’ve been training on US English for more than forty years.

Notes from Ben:
This Cultural Briefing was first observed in Nov 2025, and written in Jul 2026.

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