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Why do some local girls speak with a pseudo foreign accent?

High Command

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I blame TV :biggrin: They think it be cool to speak like their favourite TV characters. If I am not wrong it is mostly American accent, some how the British accent is not cool. :p
 

fenwick

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I blame TV :biggrin: They think it be cool to speak like their favourite TV characters. If I am not wrong it is mostly American accent, some how the British accent is not cool. :p

Agree with you bro.,even their style also . Now many start to speak like characters in " Sex and the City ":rolleyes:
 

slyer

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some local girls whom i know always try to speak english with ABC accent... they think its more classy :rolleyes:
 

lone_dog69

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Agreed.

My friend and I were at newton hawker center yesterday having dinner. We do speak proper English. Anyway, the hawker owner assumed that we are not local, and preceded to converse with us in English, even asked us if we understood Mandarian. We found the whole situation hilarious and played along.

Bro...

I have the same problem. When I speak to others at time, the think that I am not SBC (Singapore Born Chinese). They think I am ABC (Australian Born Chinese). It does not help that I do not look like a typical chinese, what more Singapore Chinese. So, just play along and have fun.

Cheers!!
:p
 

yansen84

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I blame TV :biggrin: They think it be cool to speak like their favourite TV characters. If I am not wrong it is mostly American accent, some how the British accent is not cool. :p

how true. somehow most of the wannabes speak with an american accent (many young punks, esp. girls do this). people who know better would speak in a more british style (the posh kind). when i'm in an english-speaking country or with ang mohs, i would speak in that way. the american accent is frankly speaking a very low class way to speak, it's so pretentious and just doesn't do the language justice.

and on the subject of sinkie girls with phoney american accents, many of them have been schooled locally all their life, yet try to sound classy and overseas-educated. c'mon la wanna act classy it's time to watch more brit and aussie shows and get those accents instead!
 

Maverick01

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not just girls la..everyone..guys included..i used to think its phoney but yea if you observed pple speaking to ang moh from uk..auz or america..u tend to find that they try to speak with the accent...its not phoney but somewhat natural....u just tend to talk that way in reply to the ang moh....coz if not they wun understand u? somehow its just natural to follow....
 

scroobal

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The problem with Singapore English is that it is far from "normal". It is spoken with heavy Singaporean accent, it has the sentence structure is devoid of all grammar and is a direct translation from Chinese!

To crown it all, it contains many words that simply aren't English.

Let's take a look at some common Singlish traits..

"Cake" is pronounced as "kek".
"Bake" is pronounced as "bek"
"Left" is pronounced as "Lef"
"That" is pronounced as "dat"
"Flour" is pronounced as "flar" instead of "flower".

If one tries to pronounce words correctly as standard English dictionaries would prescribe, it ends up sounding like an "accent". In reality, it is nothing more than proper English.

I could write pages on this subject but I just wanted to make a point.

If you want to hear pleasant sounding English spoken by a Singaporean, listen to Chee Soon Juan. :biggrin:

Alamak, people talking about LHY's sister-in-law, the CNA host that talks with kantung in her mouth.
 

ahbengsong

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It is call "come down from the horse" approach... they make you feel inferior first then talk to you on un-equal terms... haha...

beng [the original]
 

snrcitizen

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Singapore is all about class. The local girls speak with a pseudo foreign accent to portray a certain class. ie. It is classy to speak with an accent as it is an indication that

  • you are foreign educated
  • you are born foreign
  • you return from overseas
  • you have a better command of english
  • you are classier

It is just LOW class to try to put on a fake accent.

Agree with Sam that all we need is to speak good English (which means including grammer) and we will be understood by the international English speaking community. No need for fake accents.

Have come across some women whose English is so hopeless to start with and their put on fake accent made it even worse.

There are many Singaporeans who were educated in western countries but they still came home speaking proper English without needing to resort to fake accents.

Fake accents make one fake.
 

tenggiri

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Not only local girls, but local guys too. Not really fair to just categorise on the girls. :p

Really didn't mean to pinpoint only gals sf@, just that mostly only us guys here so we discuss one of our fave topics which is gals lor, hehe. You can start another thread if you wanna discurss guys, hahahaha. (kidding) :p:biggrin::rolleyes:

I find these PEOPLE who try to speak like ang mo sound so bogus and it is a complex issue. Not shopping complex or something complicated haha, just inferiority complex. Just listen to Kylie Kwong, who was brought up in Aust. i think, sounds so natural, so no qualms there. But when some fake the accent, make my hair stand.
 

pia

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The standard of English shows. So whether spoken with Ang Moh accent or not, bad English will always remain bad English. I'm proud of S'poreans who speak English, albeit with S'pore accent, when talking with Ang Mohs. When speaking with Ang Mohs, just drop the Singlish.. they'll understand you perfectly. Faking an accent just proves to show you're a cultural desert with no pride in your race or nationality.
 
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