Getting over the Singaporean accent!!!!

[empihsrow]

remember. everything in moderation :]

God, that sounds like Aslaksen from The Enemy of The People. Moderation!

Okay, you have to realize that English is a language. Humans use languages to communicate with one another. Singlish is definitely not a language. In fact, it's a mixture of many other languages... And it is like a farrago.

Humans have to talk to communicate cos they want to understand each other. What's the point of blurting out Singlish when you talking to someone who could speak English too? It's highly unlikely that he/she will understand you. Imagine this guy from Dubai who knows English... He won't be able to understand your weird English at all and we aren't just gonna talk about Brits, Americans, Australians... There are so many people in this world who speak English and that's why English is our universal language.

At least just try your best to speak it in a proper way [The simplest you can do is to get your grammar right! C'mon, search for your kindergarten teacher!] . But I find it very amusing when someone tries to put in an "accent".

And on the contrary, I find it harder to understand Brits. Their voice is seriously thick with their own accent. Maybe I am too used to the Americans.

 

[pf]

Language is merely a tool for us to communicate with others.

I speak proper English at work with foreigners in the office, so that they can understand me.

I speak Singlish to the hawkers, bus drivers, etc so that they can understand me.

I guess it goes for singing as well, if the song is expressed for others to appreciate. The context of the song, the audience, etc will determine english or singlish.

 

[ahkiatt]

evodia

I agree with you man, but it has become a lifestyle for many of us. All we can do is make sure the next generation don't end up like us.

And let's speak good English when we need to!

 

[ahkiatt]

pf

+1 for you!

 

[AEnimic]

but if you read it the other way, it is like a Singapore slang. Just like what rappers do? one day, when the Singapore slang so powerful, people might copy too. :lol:

I agree to that.
It's like the British Accent. Some bands in Singapore wants to follow the accent.

Sometimes I just think that we should at least have abit more pride for this unusual accent with have. Or rather SLANG.

 

[zel]

like how artic monkeys got their thick accent. lets have singapore music with our singapore accent. hahah. but that would be rather shameful.

 

[bockscar]

just speak normally

dont use too much singlish

singlish at the market is fine

but at work and talking to caucasians be more careful. dont use singlish

its not about being proud of singlish and loving singapore.

its more about communicating with non-singaporeans well. if we cant communicate well........globalisation is not for us then.

 

[shinobi]

alamak, how to improve your english if everyone mixes up slang, diction and accent

slang:
very informal usage in vocabulary and idiom that is characteristically more metaphorical, playful, elliptical, vivid, and ephemeral than ordinary language, as Hit the road.
(also used to describe the use of vulgarities in the speech of the vagabond class)

diction:
the accent, inflection, intonation, and speech-sound quality manifested by an individual speaker, usually judged in terms of prevailing standards of acceptability; enunciation.

accent:
the phonetic habits of the speaker's native language carried over to his or her use of another language.

singlish is a slang, due to the use of words that have no place in the english vocabulary. mind you, WORDS or at most PHRASES only, not wholesale hokkien/malay passages.

while it is possible to speak perfect english despite an accent, if you speak with improper diction it is just plain bad english.

listen to how lee kuan yew used to speak. singaporean accent, perfect diction, and obviously no use of slang

 

[gutturalpiss]

It doesn't matter. If you can adapt, it's good for you. If you can't, don't worry be happy. When someone tries to speak a foreign language, it will sound different, and thus funny to the natives.

Personally i prefer speaking languages the way they are spoken by the natives. So I'm a 99% british speaker when it comes to English; i switch between Cockney, Scots (hey wait, this is more intrusive than lahs and mehs), and Standard depending on whether the person can understand me :lol: If not, it's good ol' Singlish.

P.S: There is no such thing as a "British Accent". It is the original language, Brits are native to English. Only people from Scotland and Ireland, and those other lands of Celtic and Gaelic history around and in the UK have "accents".

 

[Raistmar]

I dont think its about the accent, its all about the enunciation of words. Also, why do we always compare 'our' accents with american accent, lets face it, there are many different type of accents that are as clear and understandable, take for example neutral accents news casters take on.

Its not about accents, its about how clear one speaks in order to convey the information. And nothing is pretentious nor fake about wanting to be understood.

 

[hecklerkoch]

Well, the truth is lots of people don't even know the difference between proper enunciation and having an accent.

Singlish is basically (to me at least) like a 'pasar malam' version of English, where because of convenience and laziness, Singlish speakers disregard the need to pronounce words as they are meant to.

For example, 'tight' becomes 'tike', 'that' becomes 'dat', 'there' becomes 'derr' and so on and so forth.

And coupled with the alien sounding sentence halters and 'non-existent ' words to meant to emphasize, eg. 'lah', 'meh', 'ba' or whatever - it all becomes very confusing to a native English speaker. And I feel, this is extremely bad for communication between people who are not accustomed to Singlish, and Singaporeans in general.

Of course, partly the reason is because most of us Singaporeans do not really speak English all the time. We have to like use our mother tongues with our family members and our friends of the same race, so the need is not really there for us to speak quality, easily-understandable English which can be understood by EVERYBODY.

That's why I find that people are rarely captivated by a speaker at a forum or seminar who doesn't speak English natively, versus an American or a British, for example. For these 'ang mohs', their obvious advantage is that it is their mother tongue, and they use it everyday of their lives. That's why words come more naturally and that adds so much to confidence in public speaking, in general.

For me, I just remember that my father used to communicate with me in English all the time since I was a child and I got used to speaking English more because most of my friends are not of my own race.

Till now, I'm always confused when somebody says that I speak with an accent but I know I definitely do not. I know what an accent is and I know how to enunciate words properly.

:-D

 

[fgl]

yes agreed on having a band with thick SINGLISH ACCENT.

That Scottish band that sang 500 miles had a thick Scottish accent.

Raggae bands have that Jamaican accent

Latino bands singing in english have that thick accent..

I say let cultivate a SINGAPOREAN SINGLISH SONG for international release...

First that come to mind: SIVA CHOY'S "WHY YOU SO LIKE DAT AH?" album....

 

[AEnimic]

just speak normally

dont use too much singlish

singlish at the market is fine

but at work and talking to caucasians be more careful. dont use singlish

its not about being proud of singlish and loving singapore.

its more about communicating with non-singaporeans well. if we cant communicate well........globalisation is not for us then.

yeah,use in moderation. Speaking with foreigners you need to actually try to speak proper English.

Sometimes I think,the "lah" is a fullstop in Singaporean terms. And it's quite a nice ice-breaker language when talking to new people.

 

[synapse]

interesting thread.. i was under the impression that a lot of the vocalists of local bands sing with an accent.. i thought it was because most of the music they listen to/ are influenced by are foreign.. and so they try to imitate

 

[shinobi]

yes agreed on having a band with thick SINGLISH ACCENT.

That Scottish band that sang 500 miles had a thick Scottish accent.

Raggae bands have that Jamaican accent

Latino bands singing in english have that thick accent..

I say let cultivate a SINGAPOREAN SINGLISH SONG for international release...

First that come to mind: SIVA CHOY'S "WHY YOU SO LIKE DAT AH?" album....

500 miles i thought australian?? lol anyway we should have a FULL SINGLISH rock band in singapore man. it might actually sound good

 

[optisailor2002]

singlish is a language la. language is a tool used for communication and if you can communicate with such singlish, i believe that it can definitely be considered a language.

besides, i think that singlish itself is a very interesting and expressive language. a "lah" used in different tone can mean differently. a fullstop itself might not mean anything but the end of a sentence, while a "lah" as a "fullstop" before the period can mean differently if used in different contexts.

perhaps singlish should just be considered a singaporean dialect instead.

besides, if one were to compare english from different countries, we shouldnt compare it to the americans as most of the people there do not speak proper english, and the only ones that we can learn english from are probably the brits. come on, i believe that americans (even though they are considered an ang moh country) have english standards that are below ours.

 

[blank]

There's nothing particularly wrong with using Singlish.
No one should argue about that, anyone can speak anyway they want to.

But I have to admit I get really annoyed when I hear people purposefully fcking their sentences up or giving a really exaggerated "Singlish-y" accent just for that "gimmick" effect, it's as annoying as people faking an "ang moh" accent.

As for getting rid of your accent. There are coaches that can help you get rid of your accent, I wouldn't know if it's impossible to totally get rid of it cos I've never actually known anybody who went to one, but yea... I suggest you meet one of these coaches first if you have a strong Singaporean accent and want to sing in English.

 

[Gracia]

A person who speaks with proper enunciation and no accent = Diana Serr.

I'm sure there are lots of other news anchors we can look up to, but Diana Serr is my favourite

 

[shinobi]

nothing wrong with the accent. it is possible to speak perfect english with an accent. that's what the australians, south africans and indians do. but in singapore, very, very, very few people speak good english, such that it becomes useless as a form of communication.

someone should do an experiment by transcribing a spoken passage by a group of singaporeans. i tell you it will be more hilarious that the 'broken telephone' game

singlish can never be considered a language if there is no standardisation. am i right to say that different ethnic groups will have different standards of singlish. all singaporeans may speak singlish but a chinese will never speak like a malay who will never speak like an indian. if such a thing is true then singlish is in fact english that has been murdered with the use of the speaker's ethnic language.

people should not neglect their standard of english. if english as a medium of communication degrades, it will aggravate ethnic and racial segregation of society and the seperation of singapore from the rest of the world.

 

[optisailor2002]

thing is, if anyone noticed, almost all the people who are pushing for the "banning" of singlish and the supporting of the so-called proper english are the ones who are able to speak both english and singlish.

if one were to abolish singlish or to look down on singlish as a tool of communication, it would be equivalent to looking down as those who are unable to speak english properly, which could include many who are uneducated or who are lesser educated than the rest.

besides, i see no harm in singlish at all. bush speaks in a texan accent and sometimes do stupid things that normal human beings do. this helps people relate to him and realise that hey, even our president is human and just like us. similarly, singlish helps us identify ourselves as singaporeans and hence there is no harm in "singlish" as a communication device at all.

while the standard of english should not be neglected, it is a fallacy as not everyone has an equal chance or access to good english speakers or teachers.

it is unfair that singlish is discriminated even by our own fellow singaporeans. while people in this thread have mentioned about double standards, isnt discriminating singlish in the favour of the queen's english or victorian english or whatever english displaying double standards as well?

might be off topic. such controversial topics have arise cos of something called globalisation. globalisation have been around us for a long time but its only cos of technological advancement that people are able to exchange ideas all around the world. english was introduced probably when raffles "founded" singapore and when singapore was under the british. however, most of the people who originally lived in singapore were asians (ie from malaya, india, china, wherever) and they had their own languages. probably cos they were under british rule, they had to study english. english isnt their native language and hence i find that it is perfectly understandable and reasonable that they have come up with a bastardised form of english so that everyone understood each other. granted, the rest of the world may not understand us when we talk, but as long as people within the country understood each other, i dont see a problem.

if one were to say that singlish should never be considered a form of language, its saying that english should be the standard for language. isnt singlish the same as chinese and bahasa melayu etc, since i believe most people from the UK and the US are unable to understand chinese and bahasa melayu?

i think that "faking" of accents is actually a worldwide phenomenon. believe it or not, some of your "customer service" toll-free number etc are based in countries like india, and the person who is at your service is actually an india-born indian. these indians undergo workshops/lessons in which they learn how to pronounce every single word in an american accent. if you wanna know more about such things perhaps you can read Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat. (i think there is a film based off the book as well.)

here is the link to the summary of the book: http://wikisummaries.org/The_World_Is_Flat