- Joined
- Sep 11, 2010
- Messages
- 41,820
- Points
- 113
Clive Bilby
·
Follow
Knows English Feb 7
Do people born in Singapore realise how goofy they sound when speaking English after listening to the enchanting US accent?
Singaporean accents aren’t “goofy”!
I cannot help but refer back to Chew Shou Zi and many US Senators’ questions to him all about China. It was not Chew Shou Zi who came across as “goofy” to the rest of the world, I can assure you.
Of what nation are you a citizen? Singapore!
Are you a citizen of any other nation? No Senator!
Have you ever applied for Chinese citizenship? Senator, I’ve served my nation…No, I did not!
Do you have a Singaporean Passport? Yes
Do you have any other Passports? No
Have you ever been a member of the Chinese Communist Party? Senator, I’m Singaporean! No
Have you ever been associated or affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party? No Senator, again I’m Singaporean!
But that’s more due to an ignorance of geography and world politics, not accents.
The Singapore accent is just how locals should sound, just like the Irish accent in Ireland, the American accent in America, and the French accent in France, etc. It’s perfectly natural and doesn’t sound “goofy”.
Although I must admit that comedian Jeff Foxworthy did an entire “You know you’re a Redneck” skit on how the NASA space camp is based in Alabama, imagining how NASA astronauts with an Alabama accent might have spoken at work. Every country has its own “rural” accent.
But Singaporeans do not just have an accent; in addition to “Standard Singapore English”, many locals also speak a dialect called “Singlish”. Just as the Irish in Ireland also sometimes speak Hiberno-English, which is English influenced by Gaeilge (the Irish language). Singlish is not standard English either, but rather a blend of English, Tamil, Cantonese, Hokkien, Mandarin, and many other languages from such a multi-cultural country. This mixing of diverse languages has a dramatic impact not only on the sentence structure/grammar, but also on the words and even the meaning of shared words, and that can confuse anyone not prepared for it.
For example: “Die die must buy!” is not a threat or an attempted mugging!
So, to get back to your original statement that people born in Singapore sound goofy. Perhaps to you. But that’s because you need to educate yourself on other cultures and languages.
https://qr.ae/pFNpDJ
