Singaporeans debate ‘attractiveness’ of SG accent

SINGAPORE: When a local Reddit user asked, “Do people not like the Singaporean accent?”, it sparked a lively debate.

In a June 24 (Tuesday) post on r/askSingapore, u/ExpressionOk5435 wrote that they had recently been talking to a friend about the accents they find attractive. In the post author’s opinion, the Singapore accent “sounds really attractive and cute”.

However, their friend said that the Singaporean accent is “disliked by many people”.

“I know this is kind of a weird question, but is this a common thought? Do people not like the Singaporean accent in English?”

To sum up, a majority of the answers appeared to depend on how thick the Singaporean accent is.

By far, the top comment on the post reads, “Our neutral Singlish accents are ok. The exaggerated ones grate on my nerves.”

Many agreed with the commenter. On the plus side, one wrote, “the neutral accent is one of the most endearing accents to me,” and called it “perfect for casual conversation.”

On the other side, you could almost see another cringe with this opinion: “Especially when the influencers go out of their way to add the sia lah lor into every sentence.”

“This hits the nail on the head. The neutral ones are ok, the light / professional-sounding ones sound great. The heavy and thick accent is annoying and difficult to follow (and I am from SG),” another agreed.

“I think foreigners find it cute or quaint. I notice that tourists love to pick up some Singlish as a novelty, though they usually do it incorrectly,” a commenter observed. However, they added that “some Singaporeans view Singlish as low-class, although I think what they actually dislike is the inability to code-switch effectively”.

Interestingly, they also pointed out that “there is a lot of variety, along age, racial, and gender lines” with the Singaporean accent. “A young Chinese Singaporean girl is going to have a wildly different accent than an old Malay uncle”.

Another Reddit user agreed with this, sharing, “I had this lecturer in school who had a distinct Singaporean accent, but her enunciation and intonation were so so perfect I remember thinking to myself I could listen to her talk about stuff I don’t care about for the rest of my life…”.

One, however, commented, “Personally, I like the Singaporean accent in conversation—it’s what I grew up with, so it’s comforting, but maybe it’s because I mainly consume Western content, I absolutely cannot stand the Singaporean accent when consuming online content. Even as a kid, I could not enjoy watching Jian Hao Tan with my friends.” /TISG

Read also: ‘Beware of scammers speaking with a “very Singaporean” accent,’ woman warns