Singaporean Accent / Singlish

dark_snowboy SG

i hate it when people feign the language Confused

kaobeikaobu SG

i can pronounce “siao eh” in perfect British English accent anytime.

rainee SG

yea, it makes them sound fake Laughing

honestly, you can get a good career as long as you can communicate well and people can understand you...i have had many friends here who managed to secure a good job with reputable companies in US even though the way they speak is accented...

kivichio SG

They sound "wrong" because you have become accustomed to hearing the Singaporean accent. To you its not an accent, it is the way English is supposed to be spoken. Switch environments and you become the exception, the oddity. And that is just a fact. Anyone living in America has been exposed to the jokes about how the Chinese speak English, a classic being the class clown trying to imitate a chinese restaurant owner's pronounciation of "flied lice." Just as we make jokes about Ang Mohs who speak chinese without the four inflections.

We are naturally impressed by foreigners who speak mandarin like a native. It shows he is intelligent as well as trying hard to understand the culture here. I too want to capitalize on that mentality. Its just proving a lot harder than it seemed.

rainee SG

No, they sound wrong because they sound like they are trying hard to sound like someone they are not.

And as long as we can speak English which is understandable by the people around us, I don't see what's wrong with having an accent. It is not like you are babbling sth that is totally not understandable to the Americans. And face it, if Americans were to make to speak Chinese from scratch, they too will speak it with an accent. But does that mean he does not know how to speak it well? He might have gotten the grammar and sentence structure right, but his accent is something that has been with him since birth, something that he cannot change unless he wants to come out sounding all wrong and fake. Does having an accent make him less intelligent?

And so what if your accent is different from everyone else's? Like I said, as long as people can understand what you are trying to communicate, why want to strive so hard to blend in with the rest?

kivichio SG

Engineers for the most part am I right? Rarely CEOs, Sales Heads, Division Managers, Consultants, Bankers. The Asians who usually are in these lofty positions speak without too heavy an accent. Case in point, look at Lee Kuan Yew. Cambridge educated and you can tell. You can't assume these roles unless you have excellent communication skills, and language plays a big part. There will always be a few exceptions, but losing an accent that for whatever reasons brand you as a "hick" is always helpful.

picmonster SG

some chinese from china is really good in adapting american accent… (note, I am not saying all, but quite a big percentage)

rainee SG

Does excellent communication skills means not having accent? Rolling Eyes

I think it just means able to communicate to the people around you.

kivichio SG

Well, lets agree to disagree. You raised valid points and I can see your viewpoint, but to me, an accent is not only important in communicating, but in that intangible thing that is called an "impression."

I know its a touchy topic to discuss the value of the way a person speaks so I won't try to argue that speaking unaccented english is better, because in some cases it obviously isn't. I guess the best situation would be to be one of those people who can so easily switch back and forth. As I said, speaking on the phone, you can never tell shes a foreigner in either country. And she handles korean and japanese as well. Obviously the smart genes all went to her. Sigh...

rainee SG

What does not having an accent have anything to do with being smart?

That's the part that I don't get.

kivichio SG

I think in this specific case, I'm more impressed by the fact she speaks four languages fluently. But again, your own perspective (which admittedly is the politically correct version) is that you do not think a person speaking heavily accented English is in any way lesser than a person who speaks flawless textbook style British English. A lot of people in Britain would disagree with you. Similarly in America, people have a certain opinion of those who speak heavily accented English. Sad, but true. You may say that these people are ignorant, but if by some twisted fate of the stars one happens to be your direct superior, then thats a problem isn't it.

coffeeortea SG

i understand where u are coming from, i think that sometimes its not about blending in, but the recognition and acknowledgement as someone being flexible and able to adapt to the different accents. i myself do not think it is a necessity, but i feel that they would rather want someone who speaks/acts/talks like them.

i believe in the saying

when in rome, do as romans do.

not only does it help you get along better with the people there, it allows others not to look down on the minorities there. it may sound very simple, something like, "how can a mere accent cause people to take sides". however, through my experience, i realised that the ones that do not blend in, are the ones that are always picked last, the outcasts, and people that are harder to associate with. i post this through observation.

Blahhh SG

So much insecurity.

BabyRS SG

One question I have - which perhaps one (or many of you) may be able to enlighten me.

What and Who determines the perfect form of English, anyhow? Are we to say that one form of accented English is inferior / superior as compared to the other?

As far as I'm concerned - as long as people understand what you are trying to put across, even if they were to initially "see you no up" because of your "peculiar" slang, IF you were to be able to communicate with them and are able to adapt to a certain point of discussion intelligently, I'm sure they would respect you regardless of your accent.

Those that stereotype and have a fixed mindset about others just simply based on their "accents" - aren't worth their weight in gold, anyways.

chenc SG

I have this Korean classmate who speaks perfect american accent. In fact, he is not even trying to speak that way, it just grows with him and became part of him. Why? Because when he was born, his dad got him an American to speak to him everyday. Most of his primary school-level english was learnt then. Thus, though living in Singapore for many years, he never got "infected".

Your accent has a lot to do with your first contact with the language.

chenc SG

I think in China since most of the populations cannot speak English, thus teachers with the right accent were employed to teach.

In Singapore, you can find primary school teachers with all kind of different accents. Also, even if you get a good teacher in Singapore, it wil not help as your environment affects you. All around you theres Singlish being spoken. Cannot help it la. Laughing

coffeeortea SG

hi son, this american right here is going to speak to you everyday.

kivichio SG

Koreans take English extremely seriously. I know quite a number of Korean families living in Singapore. Most of the time, the father is working hard back in his homeland, sending money over to the mom and kids who live overseas. They do this because they want their children to have an English based education so that it'll be all the more easier for them to enter top universities like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Oxford etc... This has become so common, that its commonly refered to a societal ill as the separation between father and his family has led to many issues.

Of course, more so than Singapore, the top favorite english places to rear your kids are Canada and Australia, where its not as expensive as the UK or America, yet English is the predominant language.

Korean mothers are typically near obsessive about their children's education, even more so than Kiasu Singaporean mothers. Trust me, I speak from personal experience.

ShrodingersCat SG

Actually the best ENglish is to speak it WITHOUT an accent. If you notice, many newscasters actually speak that way, which is why regardless of whether you are in American, Australia, Britain or even Singapore (though over here, some have weird accents) - the news is actually easier to understand. Of course it is inavoidable that certain cultural pronunciations are different but by and large, it is the clarity of speech that should be the focus.

Having said that, a lot of Singaporeans speak with a very 'clipped' enunciation - THAT may be the reason why Singlish is not so easily understood because we tend to shorten a lot of our vowels, and harden a lot of the consonants. You can definitely improve on that without needing to fake any accent at all.

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