Singapore Expats

I asked permission from my flatmates that if ever their daughter talks to me in pidgin, I will scold her for it.

She's three.

durain wrote:

Vaucluse wrote: Of course we immediately took the soap and washed her mouth out . . .

LOL! i think i should do it to my kids too!!! mine came home and said "daddy i want some watt-ter" (as in water).

Cringe . . yes, the intonation . . . cringe . . .

. . . that and the 'want' . . .

Watt-er has slipped into my 5 yo son's vocab too! And "dun wanna" for don't want to. Eeek!

A very interesting topic we have here... I apologize for the TS's behavior and I'm sure you guys know not everyone in Singapore's like him...

Nonetheless, hoping to drive this thread in another direction... May I know what are the opinions here in regards to Singapore's campaign for accent-less English?

To make it even simpler, what do you guys think of MM Lee's English accent... Is it accent-less to you? Perhaps, you can elaborate on what is your personal definition for accent-less?

Cheers

jimi wrote:A very interesting topic we have here... I apologize for the TS's behavior and I'm sure you guys know not everyone in Singapore's like him...

Nonetheless, hoping to drive this thread in another direction... May I know what are the opinions here in regards to Singapore's campaign for accent-less English?

To make it even simpler, what do you guys think of MM Lee's English accent... Is it accent-less to you? Perhaps, you can elaborate on what is your personal definition for accent-less?

Cheers

Far as I know, there is no campaign for "accentless" English here. What IS here is a campaign to speak "Proper" or "Good" English. This doesn't mean the lack of an accent, but instead, the usage of proper grammar and words in general. Accent and grammar are two completely different things. One can usually understand a person, regardless of the accent unless they are a Scot or Scouse as long as the grammar/sentence structure is correct! Accents delineate from where a person is from, but bad grammar only tell about ones quality of education or the type of people one hangs around with.

MM? Pretty neutral if you ask me.

sundaymorningstaple wrote:MM? Pretty neutral if you ask me.

Just to be sure, you meant his accent, right?

I know I haven't been in Singapore long enough, but I also don't know of any "accent-less" English campaign. Most people regard international news reporting to be as "accent-less" as they can get. I mean, these people have to appeal to an audience of vastly differing contexts of English usage.

nakatago wrote:

sundaymorningstaple wrote:MM? Pretty neutral if you ask me.

Just to be sure, you meant his accent, right?

sundaymorningstaple wrote: Far as I know, there is no campaign for "accentless" English here. What IS here is a campaign to speak "Proper" or "Good" English. This doesn't mean the lack of an accent, but instead, the usage of proper grammar and words in general. Accent and grammar are two completely different things. One can usually understand a person, regardless of the accent unless they are a Scot or Scouse as long as the grammar/sentence structure is correct! Accents delineate from where a person is from, but bad grammar only tell about ones quality of education or the type of people one hangs around with.

MM? Pretty neutral if you ask me.

I suppose I shouldn't have called it a campaign although it appears that people in the media (e.g. News anchors on local news channels) are encouraged to tone down their foreign accent. Of course all these are based on hear-say and personal observations

Nonetheless, there was once when I had a short chat with an acquittance who got back to Sg after a 2 weeks holiday in Europe. I felt distinctively uncomfortable when I realized that he was speaking in a very heavy British accent complete with words like "blimey" and what not.

Would you feel uncomfortable if a Singaporean were to speak to you in an American/a British accent and you knew that he has never been to either country?

Don't worry about it. It only lasts until they go to their favourite kopitiam and when the tea lady cannot understand them, they relearn singlish real fast.

Wot, then, eh? He's just tryin' ter impress. O'course, right, we all know, right, he's bein' pretentious, tryin' on that new accent 'e's copied. Right. But like wot SMS said, right, it won't last.

jimi wrote: Would you feel uncomfortable if a Singaporean were to speak to you in an American/a British accent and you knew that he has never been to either country?

Two posts, two questions along the same line . . .

care to share with us which venerable institution you work for?

aiya you understand me can already lah
why the trouble?

sundaymorningstaple wrote:Don't worry about it. It only lasts until they go to their favourite kopitiam and when the tea lady cannot understand them, they relearn singlish real fast. :lol:

I am an English speaking Singaporean as well and I don't speak Singlish at all. I speak mostly Singapore Standard English with a Singaporean accent. I pronounce "three" as "tree" as well, though I do pronounce the "th" in most other words. I won't change my accent for anything in the world, it is who I am.

I won't bother to defend the majority of Singaporeans who do speak pidgin English due to a host of various factors - education, home language, etc. I think the situation is exacerbated by the large number of foreigners working in the informal sector. I realise that I probably belong to the 20% minority. But I have noticed that the majority of younger Singaporeans do have the ability to use Singapore Standard English.

I don't visit coffeeshops much because like what you said, they can't communicate with me, so why patronise them? If someone can't understand me, I would ask him "Do you speak English?" and wait for someone who speaks English to come. If there is no such person, I would just walk away to another store.

The informal sector in Singapore has to do something about their workers. The bosses are only concerned with making profits so they hire the cheapest labour possible without any regard for the service they provide. They get their workers from Malaysia, China, Vietnam and from the less educated (read totally uneducated) Singaporeans.That is why most of them can't even take an order in English these days.

nakatago wrote:I asked permission from my flatmates that if ever their daughter talks to me in pidgin, I will scold her for it.
She's three.

When I was living in Singapore, 'scolding' someone never really sounded strange, but I'm more inclined to say 'tell her off' rather than scold, these days, partly due to the fact that people look at me askance when I say 'scold'.

'I scolded him..'
'You wot?...'

sundaymorningstaple wrote:

jimi wrote:A very interesting topic we have here... I apologize for the TS's behavior and I'm sure you guys know not everyone in Singapore's like him...

Nonetheless, hoping to drive this thread in another direction... May I know what are the opinions here in regards to Singapore's campaign for accent-less English?

To make it even simpler, what do you guys think of MM Lee's English accent... Is it accent-less to you? Perhaps, you can elaborate on what is your personal definition for accent-less?

Cheers

Far as I know, there is no campaign for "accentless" English here. What IS here is a campaign to speak "Proper" or "Good" English. This doesn't mean the lack of an accent, but instead, the usage of proper grammar and words in general. Accent and grammar are two completely different things. One can usually understand a person, regardless of the accent unless they are a Scot or Scouse as long as the grammar/sentence structure is correct! Accents delineate from where a person is from, but bad grammar only tell about ones quality of education or the type of people one hangs around with.

MM? Pretty neutral if you ask me.

Not sure if that's entirely true. 'Proper grammar' is all fine and good but when a person speaks and say, puts the emphasis on the wrong syllable, it does massacre the language a little. That and the omission of certain sounds. I mean, if someone says 'use' and doesn't pronounce the 'd' to indicate past tense, you'd automatically assume they have a poor grasp of the language, even if they write perfectly acceptable English.