Getting over the Singaporean accent!!!!

[PatheinRaindropMoe]

I've seen S'poreans go study overseas for 1-3 years, and then come home with a thick ang-moh accent. Amazing.....how they do it siah?

by studying overseas 1 to 3 tears?

hehe, its normal lah, imagine if you kena stuck in a foreign land, and no one understand what fook this asian dude talking bout, its either we change to let them understand or that we dont talk at all. Even if we speak without that locale accent, sometime they dont understand either. I tried and i lookie like fool

the problem is when they cant switch between the locale sound and a booteek foreign sound. Man, next time ask those with thick ang mog accent to swear in hokkien, see does it sounds better or higher class

 

[optisailor2002]

its cos of the influence. people from ang moh countries who live in singapore after a while also have the singaporean accent, some even pick up singlish, just shows how singlish can be important as a tool of communication in singapore.

 

[lepak]

Aiyah the (SARS)VIVIOUR PCK RAP is more famous then anyother song among us singaporeansss! HAHA.

Uncle pua say dont play play.


But i think if singaporeans move thier tongue and mouth more. Prononunce properly there should be no problem with singing...

 

[bouncychu]

i know how to get over your singaporean accent, ive seen this happen to a friend and it seriously works. all you need to do is play WoW in a non-singaporean server. trust me my friend used to suck at english, he's good at it now and even has a half british/american accent. this way he doesnt sound too wierd for singaporeans to understand and foreigners can understand him better as well.

 

[currypuff]

nabei angmoh

 

[lepak]

hah angmoh also know angmoh this is how popular our lang

 

[gutturalpiss]

for some (no wait, in fact, many)..it's biological limit The tongue mate, the tongue.

Among asians, middle-, south- and far-east asians find it tougher. For south asians, they are just proud of their accent seriously (especially north and east indians).

The worst IMHO, is when a Japanese TRIES HARD to speak REAL english. Then there is the German problem. Japanese can say "Deutsch" pretty well, but that's because the "tsch" is exactly like "ts" as in "tsuki". Anything other than that is horrible.

An anime series Ai Yori Aoshi is a good example of how much of english japlish is, look up episode 11 (or part of it, since it's somewhere between 7:00 and 10:00 can't rmmbr), you'll laugh your cock off if you have one.

 

[HarrisonYeo]

bouncychu

lol , nice .

 

[tany]

i can fake angmoh accent! so fun!

 

[hecklerkoch]

i can fake angmoh accent! so fun!

Record a parody and let us hear it!

I might one day record myself singing a Mr Big song in 'Singlish', Not with the lah or what but lazy 'asianised' English.

Kekekeke...

:mrgreen:

 

[MadWerewolfBoy]

We first have to realise that a Singaporean accent and Singlish are two very different thing, though those who frequently use Singlish tend to have a very strong Singaporean accent.

But those who can speak perfect English may also retain a Singaporean accent. And also, those who can rid themselves of the Singaporean accent might be conversing in not-so-correct English.

We must be clear in what we are refering to here.

 

[alvyn]

The only thing that really annoys the shit out of me is when Singaporeans exaggerate this horrible sounding US accent when they speak to foreign tourists who're white - they don't even bother checking if they're from US, they'll naturally assume that white tourists are ALL from US.

There's no shame in speaking Singlish, or speaking with a Singaporean accent. Afterall, its only natural that you'd develop both the "ability" to speak fluent Singlish, along with a local accent. All you've gotta do is to strike a balance between speaking in Singlish, and speaking in proper English. There's no way you'd go for an interview, or make a presentation, in Singlish, and expect to do well for it.

 

[Gr3y]

trying speaking to an ang moh, or say get such a friend. you'll realise you'll initially speak in a very ang moh-ish accent then slowly you'll only use better english not with the accent.

I think this is very natural for Asians when we communicate with english people.. reason being that we will feel that they won't understand us if we speak in our natural way.. it's the same for me when i speak to a chinese, i'll use very accented chinese pronunciations. Then after a while, you'll slowly switch back to a normal singaporean way of speaking.

but ah. i'm still very proud that hor, singapore got this kinda wierd accent lor.. i'm mean ah..where else you'll hear ppl speak like us? I think maybe some malaysians lah.. haha..

 

[BadgerS88]

I read the first page of this thread and I feel very hurt. Im from England and I've been in Singapore for 4 years now. I love Singapore in so many ways, and if I have a choice I'd rather stay here than move back to England.

Firstly, Singapore is so small an convenient and nearly everyone know everyone

Secondly, I love the Singlish accents. I dont try put it on myself, but when I talk with my band members, especially my drummer, it makes me laugh so much, and lightens up any conversation. (i.e. Eh man, can ON the light BIGGER please?) Hehehe. That on cracked me up.

Thridly, I do hate some stuff in Singapore too. Such as some Singaporeans have a psychological mindset and subconciously follow all the rules that the goverment set just cause they wanna try put some fear in you.

Fourthly, I hate most taxi drivers, and alot of drivers in Singapore. I tell you drivers in Singapore need to be more curtious.

But back on topic, I hope Singaporeans never lose their Singlish accents. Its what make everyone unique.

Indian accents
American accents
Singaporean accents
Chinese accents
English accents
Canadian accents
Italian accents
French accents

This all comes back to Russell Peters man. Hehehe

 

[elektrig]

yep...what it irritates me is that even my history teacher likes to put on a british accent and claim that the local english here is ruining the current/future generation of singaporeans.
cos if we take a broader perspective at the whole world, we can see that people in different countries have different tongues, and they have different ways to speak their own language. therefore it is natural that people all over the world sound differently in english, the international language. and so it seems as though the americans/westerners are more accurate in english. (this maybe the case, but we cannot discount the fact that non-westerners do not speak proper english)

besides i mean some whites don't even speak english. if u watch some tourism shows on tv you wld realise that some of the local westerners interviewed cannot converse in english. so my point is that we do not have to be embarrassed by local english simply because it does not seem "proper/high-class" enough as compared to the westerners.

 

[Chaserr]

haha russell peters.hes not racist cause, he makes fun of his own religion as well. so the point is, get everyone to laugh at the hillarious things the things ppl of other religion that is doing humourously as well as sharing his so called "EXPERIENCES". okay its abit off topic but what the heck, that 's russell peters for you. " ur mooother soo fat that when she jumped for joy she got stuck" russel peters.

 

[alvyn]

elektrig

that's post-colonialism for you. recap to one of the forum postings in ST regarding a bellboy who flagged a cab for a Caucasian couple who was behind a Singaporean. most people in singapore possess this mentality that Caucasians are superior to Asians, and we can't fault them because of our colonial past.

i remember an experience at a particular so-called "high-class" hotel involving a table full of caucasian tourists, my family, and a particular waiter and his superior. the waiter insisted that i wait, and actually pointedly ignored me when I asked him for a glass of warm water. he eventually brought me a glass of ICED water, and rushed off to serve a group of caucasian tourists who just arrived at the hotel's restaurant. seeing how made extra effort to go the extra mile for the tourists, i called him over and asked him if I was a paying customer.

I admit I made quite a scene there, insisting that he call his superior out, asking them both if the "White race" was far superior to us locals, and asked him if he was the "white man's dog".

The amazing reply that the superior gave me was that in that particular hotel, caucasian tourists were classified as "priority" and so they'd have preferential and better treatment, because "THEY WERE BETTER PAYING/TIPPING CUSTOMERS".

If people can adopt and have this mentality, I wouldn't be surprised if they looked down on our singaporean accent as well.

 

[optisailor2002]

alvyn

hey, no surprise there.

i wonder why singaporeans like to bitch about how caucasians or the whites are treated better than singaporeans when they themselves are the ones who are prejudiced against our own people. like in stomp there was once this article (i think i mentioned this in another thread before, but whatever) about how some ang moh beggar on the street just kneeling there doing nothing earns more money from the public than a blind busker who performs along the same street for the whole day. and the best part of this anecdote? the ang moh happily uses the money from the public to go guess where. starbucks coffee to get a cup of coffee and singaporeans have the cheek to complain that we treat our own kind unfairly when they are committing what they have been bitching about.

anyway, regarding elektrig's post. i beg to differ from your history teacher. by speaking ang moh english does she refer to american or british english? cos i know that americans' english arent better than singaporean's but may in fact be worse than the standard in singapore. come on, they cant even spell properly. i have american friends who are older than me but type/speak english that is far worse than any other singaporean that we know.

 

[evodia]

Well.. i think this is the best way.. just speak normal English without the American accent or slang.. ok.. happy??

 

[wyldeboon]

alvyn

yeah man...
happened to me too in 1 of the big hotels here.

i was at the ballroom checking on the company's dnd preparations.
thirsty and asked the captain for a glass of ice water, waited for like 30mins...
then my aussie boss came in wearing shorts, slippers n tshirt (we plan to jam for that nite),straight away the captain came n offer my boss a glass of ice water!
wtf... then my boss ask "dun they get a drink too?"
the guy face turned damn red. basket...