A story was recently shared by a local online feeling unhappy about his/her Singaporean accent.

Here is what the netizen said:

Sorry if this offends anyone, it’s not my intention to.

I’ve always been embarrassed of my Singaporean accent and Singaporean English. Most of us are bilingual thanks to the education system, but it seems like we’re not good at either language. Every time I hear the Singaporean accent on videos, podcasts and interviews alongside the standard western English accent or Chinese accent, I can’t help but cringe inwardly. Basic words like “Salmon” and “flour” are often mispronounced and our grammar is atrocious.

You just have to look at the Facebook comment section to find words mispelt and used incorrectly. Yet, we seem to have some sort of superiority complex, reading so many comments and posts chiding people of certain nationalities. Having lived here all my life, I too have the standard Singaporean accent. Every time I go overseas, I’m very Self concious of my accent. When I speak to my foreign friends I’m afraid that they won’t understand me or laugh at my accent. In other words, there’s a feeling of inferiority.Does anyone else feel this way? Have we tried too hard? Isn’t it better to learn one language and be good at it than to learn two and be terrible at both? I’m curious what foreigners think about our accent and the way we speak English.

Here is what netizens say:

• Why think of it this way? In every country or even amongst different states. There’s always different accents even in the same language. Think of US vs British vs Aussie. They all have different accents in English alone. Why be bothered by such mediocre thing. The accent is really nothing. What’s important is how you accept yourself for who you are and be confident on what you say. Even if you have broken english, singlish etc but you have the conviction on what you’re preaching, you can be great too. Think of Jack Ma, he didn’t even speak good english when he started his biz idea. But he was full of confidence and conviction when he talked. He once said you only need to know 500 english words and you can talk to other biz people. It all boils down to your mindset too. Change your mindset, perceptions, change your life.

• Language is about communication. Even many native speakers from English speaking countries struggle to communicate. If you’re succeeding at the basic purpose, then it doesn’t really matter whether it sounds exactly like some imagined ideal or not. And if it still bothers you, practice by trying to sound like the podcasts from major news services one word or vowel at a time.

• This guy talk so much macham the post he type all the ang moh correct, this kind is call ang moh wannabe.

My wife is 32 weeks pregnant. She’s been vegan for the past 5 years.

We switch cooking duties on alternate days.

Usually, I eat vegan food and when I crave meat, I eat one of those vegan alternatives. My wife doesn’t like me eating meat so I try not to eat meat most of the time.

Today, I was craving seafood so my wife offered to make vegan alternatives for seafood. However, I like the texture of seafood and that cannot be replicated using vegan ingredients so I told her I’d be eating lunch outside. She protested but I stood my ground. I prepared her a meal and then went out for lunch.

When I came home, my wife said I was inconsiderate and rude and that I shouldn’t have eaten seafood knowing she’s vegan. She is now refusing to speak to me.

Here are what netizens think:

• Correct me if I’m wrong. Your wife is a vegan, you however are not. You’ve been considerate enough to change your diet for her sake.? She is now manipulating you by giving you the silent treatment as punishment for doing as you will and what most people in life do on a regular basis.

• She needs to grow up, she cannot force you to do what she feels is right or whatever reason she’s a vegan. You are allowed to do as you will with your diet because YOU know your body and what it likes and dislikes.

• My wife has an allergy to fish, not a dietary choice, a medical condition. She doesn’t stop me from eating fish, we have some in the house right now. Out of consideration I now stick to tinned fish on crackers, so I’m not getting fishy fumes in the apartment, or risking fish residue on the cast iron.

• She is though for forcing her dietary choices on you, and for essentially throwing a tantrum when you didn’t want to follow her diet for a solitary meal. You were considerate in how you did so even, by not eating it in front of her.

I (27m) proposed to my girlfriend Ellie (28f) and she said yes. We’ve dated for 6 years, lived together for 3, raised two cats together, and talked about marriage and having children for a long time.

My fiancée is bisexual. Before we started dating, we were friends in uni. When I met her, she identified as a lesbian, which wasn’t a problem for me, I even met a couple of her ex-girlfriends and supported her through her breakups. Later she realized that she was bisexual and again I supported her, then we started dating and I’ve never been happier.

From the start of our relationship, I made it clear to her that her sexuality wasn’t an issue for me and that i accepted her for who she is. However, she’s not “openly” bisexual, as she doesn’t feel that her sexuality is anyone else’s business. For that reason, I never felt the need to tell my mom about her it,,, as I never considered it a problem or a topic of conversation, just a fact.

When I went home for dinner, I told my mom about the engagement. She was very happy since I’m an only child and she sees Ellie as the daughter she never had. A couple of my friends who know about Ellie’s sexuality went over to the house and we had a few drinks. Drunk, one of my friends commented “How does it feel to marry someone who slept with more girls than you?” in front of my mom.

After my friends left, my mom asked me for an explanation and I revealed my fiancee’s sexuality to her. A little confused, she said “Well, now that she’s with you she’s not like that anymore, right?” and I denied it. “No, she’s still bisexual,” to which my mom got a little mad. “How can you marry a lesbian?” she asked me. I explained to her that bisexual is not the same thing, but according to her, “If she has been with women she is a lesbian.”. I decided not to argue with her and went back to my house.

The next day, Ellie showed me a voice message she received from my mom telling her horrible things and refusing to have a daughter-in-law who uses her son as a “screen” to hide that she’s a carpet muncher. I saw red and called my mom. Instead of apologizing, she was offended that I wasn’t on her side and outed my fiancée in front of our entire family. Now some religious relatives are opposed to coming to our wedding, even though my cousins and a couple of uncles and aunts are on our side.

This has been very stressful and hurtful for my fiancée since her sexuality was always a sensitive issue for her (her mom still doesn’t accept it and kicked her out for it) and all this hate towards her makes me fear that she might decide to call off the wedding.

My mom is not generally homophobic, so this new attitude of hers surprises me and makes me think that if I’d told her before, maybe she wouldn’t have reacted this way. So AITA?