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.