NTU valedictorian Trinetta Chong Chiao Sing, 23, uttered the F-word during her speech. Within hours, a video of her speech went viral, and she had to apologise for her 'slip of the tongue'. It is just a word, STOMPer Fish said of the incident.
During her six-minute speech on Friday, July 29, Trinetta spoke to cheering and applauding peers. She even led them to stand up and give a round of applause of their loved ones during her light-hearted yet rousing speech.
Emotions were high when she ended her speech: 'Congratulations to the graduating Class of 2011. We f***ing did it!' she exclaimed, and the Nanyang Auditorium exploded with what was described as rapturous applause.
In a report by The New Paper today (Aug 1), Trinetta said she was feeling very emotional and it just came out. "It reflected my excitement at that point in time. As a young person, we do use such words more flippantly," she added.
She went on to explain that she "was trying to say that we really, really did it, and [she thinks] the word resonated with the rest of [her] graduating batch." She also hopes people will see the context in which the word was used.
However, the graduate from the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information who majored in public relations and communication research apologised for her use of the vulgarity as she recognised it could be offensive to others.
According to the news report, the school's chair, the ceremony's guest speaker and her lecturer all did not take offence when the word was used. Trinetta's parents were initially shocked, but later took it very well after she explained its context to them.
In the West, the F-word is used to convey a sense of deep emotion and no longer considered an insult, a child psychologist told The New Paper. Young people who the paper spoke to also seemed to be more tolerant of the use of the F-word on such an occasion.
http://singaporeseen.stomp.com.sg/s...speech_relax_lah_why_sporeans_so_uptight.html
