New Zealander’s authentic Singlish delivery wins netizens’ hearts: ‘Can move here liao’
A New Zealander has drawn praise for her surprisingly authentic delivery of Singlish phrases in a video, with some remarking that she “can consider moving here liao.”
In a video posted on April 9, Miss Angel Tao, who goes by @angeldoestuff on Instagram, delivered several Singlish phrases with precision.
These include phrases such as:
- Why you liddat one?
- Abuden
- Walao eh
- Can anot?
- The cheeren (children) so noisy sia
Miss Tao, a 21-year-old communications undergraduate, told Stomp that she met five Singaporean friends two months ago at the start of their stint as exchange students at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou City, China.
“I’m from New Zealand. I have like five Singaporean friends in total. I’ve been to Singapore recently for about four days,” explained Miss Tao.
Singaporean netizens amused and impressed
Her video, captioned “POV: You hang around Singaporeans too much”, has garnered more than 523,000 views and 260 comments.
Many Singaporeans were amused or suitably impressed with her Singlish renditions.
“Why is she so good?” asked an Instagram user, to whom Miss Tao replied, “My friends held my hand on the journey of cultural immersion.”
“This one steady sia,” said a netizen. “Wah the ‘yalor’ especially with the dropping tone,” said another. “This is so spot on,” yet another commented.
One Singaporean living abroad loved her precise intonation: “So good! As an overseas Singaporean I haven’t heard this in a while, this is hitting too close to home.”
Some thought she must have had a lot of coaching or practice.
“Sis definitely hung around us locals every day for more than five years,” said a netizen. “Sure you not Singaporean?” asked another.
“You can consider moving here liao!” yet another suggested.
She does hope to use Singlish in Singapore more permanently someday.
“I’m keen to live in Singapore for like two years? The only thing stopping me is the climate and visa,” she explained.
Miss Tao explained to Stomp that she finds Singlish fascinating.
“I find Singlish very interesting. I speak English and Mandarin, but Singlish is like mishmash. So I picked up on the things that my friends say that are very interesting to me. It’s like Chinese grammar in English,” she said.
She also credited her Singaporean friends for teaching her how to pronounce the words and phrases correctly.
“My friends help me with the pronunciation for the video,” said Miss Tao. “I copy them on the spot. They say my Singlish sounds Filipino when I try to speak it on my own,” she added.
Miss Tao also teased a ‘sequel’ to her Singlish ‘series’: “I’m working on a Part 2 because there are lots of other interesting phrases!”
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