Woman from China defends Singlish: 'S'poreans are misunderstood, they can speak proper English'
A Chinese national living in Singapore has defended the use of Singlish, explaining its merits while clarifying that Singaporeans are more than capable of speaking proper English.
TikToker @_k_yn, also known as Nini, describes herself as a comedian and actress. She says in a video that Singaporeans are often criticised for being difficult to understand and sounding bad when they speak English.
"Singaporeans are misunderstood," she adds in Mandarin. "Singaporeans speak Singlish in everyday situations because it is very easy to understand."
For instance: "Hey, put your wallet away, the bill is on me" can be simplified to: "Eh, I pay, I pay, no need, I pay."
"Isn't that more convenient? You can understand or not? You can understand, right?" she says in English.
Nini adds that Singaporeans adopting American or British accents might be seen as pretentious. This is especially so in ordinary situations such as ordering a drink at a coffee shop, where instead of "Excuse me, auntie, can I have a cup of kopi C kosong, thank you", simply saying: "Auntie, kopi C kosong" would suffice.
Why would you "delay the queue behind", she asks.
Nini ends the clip by saying that Singaporeans are quite capable of code switching when communicating with foreigners. "They can speak in proper English."
The video, posted on Jan 20, has since garnered at least 55,000 views, 1,230 reactions, and 127 comments.
The clip resonated with many. "It's true that Singaporeans' English varies from person to person. Singlish tends to stay within their own community because it sounds more friendly and approachable," wrote a TikToker in Chinese.
Another commenter wrote in Chinese that they use "different levels of English" to communicate with others in different situations. "For example, if I am communicating with someone whose English is very poor, I will lower my level to respond to them because I want to show friendliness and not discriminate. If I insist on using a high level of English to communicate with them, we definitely won't have a next sentence."
Others were impressed by Nini's proficiency in Singlish, with one saying in jest: "Can we vote for you in the next GE?"
