SINGAPORE: A Reddit user from the United States who has been living in Singapore for some time now has found themselves using Singlish more or less inadvertently and took to the platform to ask whether it’s offensive or not.
Fortunately, many locals responding to the May 21 (Wednesday) post on r/askSingapore from u/MasteringTechSkills, said that it’s all right, with a top comment even calling it “endearing.”
What can we say? While some nationalities can be less than welcoming when foreigners try to adapt linguistically, Singaporeans appear to be a more generous lot, at least in this aspect.
The post author wrote that although they’ve been in Singapore for less than a year, they find that they’re “slipping Singlish, totally by accident.”
“Singlish is extremely contagious,” they added, going on to explain that they’ve used expressions such as “Doctor can swish ah?” to a dentist and “Can take cash, yeah?” to a cashier.
While these phrases “just slipped out,” the post author added that they do their best not to use Singlish.
“I do not want to come off as ‘mocking’ or a try-hard. I love and respect Singaporeans, but it is genuinely slipping off my tongue lately, as I assimilate into the society.
Is what I said offensive? How would the average person feel about it? I want to assimilate and relate without offending,” they asked.
Commenters were quick to put their fears to rest.
“It’s okay la. I think people will secretly find it endearing,” was the top comment.
“If you do it with a mocking tone or demeanor, then yes offensive. If you do it because it’s become natural, then it’s endearing,” commented another.
“The fact that you got it down as reflexive responses probably meant that you’re using Singlish right,” one chimed.
Another agreed, writing, “I actually find it quite cute leh!!! 😍 I think most Singaporeans would feel surprised at first but will soon be impressed with your ahs, lahs, lehs, and lors and hors!”
They pointed out that although Singlish does not follow standard English grammar, it “really rounds up a whole sentence into an efficiently short and understandable one (such as ‘Why is John behaving this way?’ to ‘Y John like that ah?’)”
A commenter observed that “Singlish is way easier to speak than standard English.”
The post author agreed with this, writing, “I agree! Straight to the point, very busy in SG lol.”
“Bro, if you speak Singlish, people will love you even more. Especially amongst the older generation who might find it difficult to understand a strong Western accent. If you spoke Singlish to my grandma, she will ask you to marry one of her granddaughters,” a Reddit user quipped.
“If anything, it’s heartening to see the Singlish is subconsciously slipping through—it’s one of the few things about SG that unites us all,” another commenter noted, adding, “Don’t worry about offending people. It’s understated how much we appreciate people using our local slang as is. We get enough flak from all its root language native speakers on it not being ‘correct’. (e.g., English speakers complaining about grammar, PRCs insisting we use Mandarin instead of dialect terms, etc., etc.).” /TISG