Netizen says they’ve always been embarrassed by the Singaporean accent and Singaporean English

Singapore — A netizen embarrassed by their Singaporean accent and Singaporean English wanted to find out what foreigners thought about our accent and the way we spoke English.

In an anonymous post to popular confessions page NUSWhispers on Tuesday (Jan 18), the netizen wrote:

“Most of us are bilingual thanks to the education system, but it seems like we’re not good at either language. Every time I hear the Singaporean accent on videos, podcasts and interviews alongside the standard western English accent or Chinese accent, I can’t help but cringe inwardly”.

They added that people often also mispronounced words like ‘salmon’ and ‘flour’. “Yet, we seem to have some sort of superiority complex, reading so many comments and posts chiding people of certain nationalities,” the netizen wrote.

They added that because they too have the “standard Singaporean accent,” every time they go overseas, they end up being very self-conscious of their accent. “When I speak to my foreign friends I’m afraid that they won’t understand me or laugh at my accent. In other words, there’s a feeling of inferiority,” they wrote.

The netizen then asked if anyone else felt the same way, and even questioned if it would be better to learn one language and be good at it than to learn two and be bad at both.

Those who commented on the post made a distinction between what the netizen referred to as Singaporean English and Singlish. Others criticised him for his mentality towards the entire issue.

/TISG