SG woman in London shocked by rude Singaporeans!

Hi guys, sometimes I stumble upon something on social media that really gets me very interested and excited to talk about. So a Singaporean lady in one of the groups I am a part of on Facebook shared a story: I didn't get her permission to use her story so I am going to summarize it. She was in central London when she heard a group of Singaporeans speaking loudly, immediately, she picked up on the Singaporean accent and since she had not heard Singlish is quite a while, she spontaneously approached the group and asked them, "excuse me, are you from Singapore?" What then happened really shocked her as the group were quite upset that this stranger approached them just like that out of the blue and one of the men in the group was rather rude to her, he made it clear that whilst he was indeed from Singapore, he didn't appreciate being approached like that and they didn't welcome her intrusion. So after feeling rather defeated and perplexed by that episode, she turned to social media to vent her frustrations and ask why Singaporeans are so bloody rude in general. What then happened was that a group of other Singaporeans left some sympathetic comments, most of them pointed out that this kind of rudeness was totally uncalled for and that many Singaporeans are indeed a lot ruder than many of their counterparts in the West and Japan. But I wanted to analyze this situation a bit further as it involves topics that intrigue me: cultural identity, accents and languages - something I have blogged about a lot already.

"Excuse me, are you from Singapore?"

Firstly, I thought that she was somewhat unrealistic in her expectations - what did she expect to happen? Even if these guys confirmed what was obvious, that they were indeed from Singapore, what did she think would happen next? Would they say, "you're from Singapore, that's so amazing to meet someone from Singapore too! Hey, let's go have lunch together and talk about Marina Bay Sands, Lee Kuan Yew, Raffles Hotel and Ice Kachang!" No, that was hardly going to happen - she approached a group of strangers who happened to be from Singapore so whilst I agree that they shouldn't have been rude to her, I am not sure what could have happened next even if they did say, "yes, we're from Singapore." What would happen then? Sure, I can appreciate that this Singaporean lady was a bit homesick but what did she expect a group of strangers to do about that situation? Why should they care? Why should they take time out of their day to entertain her need to feel close to people from her country of origin? Well, let me tell you about a childhood memory when I was on holiday in Los Angeles with my family, we were standing and waiting in line with little to do, so naturally, we were chatting to each other in Singlish. This man approached us and asked us if we're from Singapore, so naturally we said yes. Turns out he was from another tour group and they had been given too much food for lunch, so he was looking for people to give that food away to because the alternative would have been to throw the leftovers into the bin and that would have been such a waste. Thus for some reason, he would rather give the food to some fellow Singaporeans (rather than some Americans). He had a reason to approach us, he had something to offer and of course, we were most grateful. But without a reason to approach the Singaporean group in London - what did this lady expect?

I do have a memory from my student days in Paris when I was in a bar with my best friend Honza who is Czech. He heard some Czech being spoken by a group of people in the bar and he said to me, "excuse me please, but I simply have to go over and say hello to those people as they are from my country." Note that Czech is spoken by about 11 million people in central Europe by those who are in the Czech Republic or of the Czech diaspora. Honza had no problem going up to those Czech tourists and they were indeed delighted to speak to him in Czech - after all, they had been struggling with the locals in French all day. They spoke a little English but mind you, this was 1999 and the French were far less willing to speak English with foreigners back in those days so they were understandably delighted to meet someone who was able to converse with them in their native language. Honza then went on to give them suggestions about where they should visit, what restaurants to visit and what they should eat - they were after something quite specific as well, they wanted to drink a certain kind of wine that they had read about in a guidebook and Honza helped them identify the best place to get that wine.  Honza's French is totally fluent, so of course he was in a great position to help those Czech tourists, as most Czech tourists in France those days faced a massive language barrier. Things have improved a lot in the last 20 years of course, but these group of Czech tourists were delighted to meet Honza. I can imagine that things might have been very different if they happened to be Czech tourists who also spoke French fluently.

So in the examples I have used so far, yes it can be comforting to meet someone who speaks your language when you're traveling abroad. In my epic trip across South America this summer, I did meet some people who spoke English with me - I do speak Spanish of course but that is my fourth language and to be able to have a conversation in English was of course a lot easier. So let me give you an example: there was that morning in Santiago when I had to get a bus up to the mountains for skiing, but for some reason the local metro station to me was shut and luckily, I found someone in a uniform at the entrance of the station and I asked her what was going on. She started explaining to me in Spanish but goodness me, she had such a thick accent I struggled to understand her. I was beginning to panic, like what the hell is going on, like is the entire metro system shut down for some reason? How the heck was I going to make it across town in time to catch my bus to the mountains? Then she paused and said, "would you rather I speak English?" Phew, yeah in circumstances like that, even though I can speak Spanish, it felt so good to have been able to do that conversation in English instead as she told me how I could get to my destination despite that station being shut. But once again, in that example, I clearly needed something from this lady and I was grateful to have been able to get that information in English. But that's not always the case - I do take pride in the fact that I speak Spanish and sometimes in South America, people would assume I don't speak Spanish and greet me in English; that's when I would deliberately pretend not to speak English and respond only in Spanish, especially if I do feel confident enough to speak to them in their language.

Now let's compare this to the situation with the Singaporean lady in London approaching the Singaporean tourists: they most certainly didn't need any help in London. There was really nothing she could have offered them - instead, she wanted something from them and why should they be obliged to give her even their time? So let's imagine if this Singaporean lady had instead met a group of Singaporean tourists at the Eiffel Tower in Paris and this was way back in 1999 - if she had identified herself as a Singaporean who spoke French fluently and those Singaporean tourists had just spent the last 48 hours thoroughly frustrated by the language barrier, then of course, I am sure that under those circumstances, they would have been delighted to speak to her in English and she may have even been able to help answer a lot of their questions. When my sister was in London earlier this year, she felt totally at home here - whilst I was working, she could go out shopping, navigate her way around the city with public transport and if she wasn't sure about anything, she knew how to find the information she needed either via the internet or simply by asking someone. I didn't need to take care of her at all and she was even telling me which pub she wanted to meet me for lunch etc - Singaporeans can feel totally at home in London because it is such a tourist-friendly city and most of all, there's absolutely no language barrier for English-speaking Singaporeans. So that could explain a lot as to why the Singaporean tourists didn't welcome being approached by a stranger, but there's no need at all to be rude under any circumstances.

Secondly, I need to point out that the two most spoken languages in Singapore are English and Mandarin. The two most spoken languages in the world are also Mandarin and English, if you count native speakers along with second language speakers as well, it's still these two languages which are most widely spoken in the world. So if you meet someone else who speaks Mandarin, it's like, big fat hairy deal, so what? It's so bloody common - over a billion people in a world speak Mandarin, you're not part of an exclusive club at all, quite the opposite! Same for English, Russian French, Spanish, Arabic, German or any language with over 100 million speakers. It just so happens that Chinese Singaporeans speak two of the world's most spoken languages and we do not have a language of our own (and don't even try to suggest Singlish is a proper language). Furthermore, both English and Mandarin are spoken by many countries: English is an international lingua franca whilst Mandarin is spoken by people from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Macau and the massive Chinese diaspora around the world from Malaysia to Australia to Canada to America. The language doesn't link you to one country - let's compare it to the Japanese language: all native Japanese speakers are from Japan or at least part of the Japanese diaspora with Japanese blood. Thus the Japanese language is closely linked to its national identity and culture - that's simply not the case with Chinese or English. Besides, I have witnessed situations whereby two Japanese people meet in somewhere like London and promptly switch to Japanese from English mid-conversation once they realize they are both Japanese - but with Singaporeans, that can't happen as we're already English speaking.

It is subjective whether or not an accent (rather than a language) is enough to unite a group of people. In a previous post, I have discussed the contentious issue of whether or not shared experiences make people bond and if I may jump to the punchline, my conclusion was not always, not all the time and you can never make any assumptions.Thus in the case of a Singaporean coming from Singapore, there are three possible outcomes when it comes to your relationship with the Singaporean accent or Singlish. You may love it (and thus would seek to bond with others who speak like you), you may hate it (and thus would avoid others with that accent) or you may be neutral towards it (and thus would define your identity through other means apart from your nationality or your accent). So it is entirely possible that this Singaporean lady had approached a man who was either neutral about his accent or even hated his accent, which could explain his rather hostile reaction in this context. Now let's contrast this to the situation in Georgia where I visited earlier this year - older Georgians tend to be bilingual in Georgian and Russian but younger Georgians are mostly monolingual and very little English or Russian is spoken amongst younger Georgians. The population of Georgia is just 3.8 million, it's a very small country so if you are one of those monolingual Georgians then you don't have that many people to speak to and that would compel you to be far more desperate to speak to someone who can understand your language. But in the case of Singaporeans, they are in a far better position than the Georgians so they can afford to be a lot more picky whom they wish to speak to especially when they could pick and choose their friends from across the English speaking world.

However, I speak a few other languages fluently including two minority languages which are spoken by very few people: the first is my mother tongue Hokkien (the Southern-Peninsular Malaysian variety as spoken by about 1.5 million people from Melaka to Singapore to the Riau islands) and  though it is quite rusty today, I still love speaking it - I don't feel the same way about Mandarin as none of my grandparents can speak Mandarin, it is a foreign language that I was forced to learn at school. I consider Hokkien my mother tongue. The other minority language that I am fluent in is Welsh which is spoken by a tiny number of people, the government estimates that about 800,000 people have some knowledge of Welsh but truly fluent Welsh speakers are well under 100,000. Possibly as little as 50,000 and of course, I'm proud to be one of them. Now I have actually connected with strangers who are Welsh or Hokkien speaking cos it is just so freaking rare to meet anyone else who speaks that language and we do have a sense of identity that is far more tightly wrapped up in being able to speak the language. In Wales for example, there is a gulf between those who speak Welsh and those who don't - so being a fluent Welsh speaker means you're one of them, you're more Welsh than those who don't speak Welsh. I've met some Welsh people whilst in New Zealand and we chatted for ages because we share something in common that so few people have: we are one of the 50,000 in the world who are fluent Welsh-speakers. And course, earlier this summer, I traveled all the way to Patagonia in Argentina to the only other place outside Wales where Welsh is spoken and it was so totally amazing to meet other Welsh-speakers there - halfway around the world in South America.

But how different is it to be able to speak a minority language when it comes to shaping our cultural identity compared to simply having a similar accent? I decided to speak to my English friend Richard who like so many English people are completely monolingual. So I asked him if he felt strongly about his regional accent given that he is from Birmingham. "Not particularly, not really. I can tell if someone is from the West Midlands and if they are from Birmingham or the surrounding areas, but it's not like it defines me. After all, Birmingham is a big city of over a million people, it's not like you can treat all Brummies like we're a monolithic entity: we're divided by class, age, sexuality, wealth, religion, education levels, culture and that's because Birmingham is a huge cosmopolitan city and with that comes that great diversity. So even if someone had a similar accent to myself, we may have very little in common say if he was a working class person who never completed his education and works in a garage in Hockley whilst I'm a middle class person who did go to a good university, left Birmingham to pursue a career then got a well-paid job in London. Thus it is not our accent that defines us but rather our class identity, how educated we are and consequently what kind of job we are doing and how much money we are earning from that job. Your accent doesn't determine that - it's more the kind of family you were born into, whether or not you had good parents who invested in your education and brought you up well. I have far more in common with my colleagues today than the people I grew up with because we took the same kind of path to get to where we are today, we do the same kind of work day in day out together but they're from Sweden, Australia, Poland, South Africa, India, South Korea, Italy, Argentina, Mexico - all over the world! We're defined by our profession, not our accents."

Thus Richard's case, he is a highly successful professional who earns a lot of money - it is obvious that he would choose to define himself by his career rather than his hometown or the accent from that region. But what if you were that guy in Hockley who dropped out of school and ended up working in a garage on the street where you grew up, earning in a year what Richard earns in a month then? Can I be extremely cynical and point out that if you have nothing to be proud of - if you were a failure at school, if you are struggling to make ends meet doing a job you hate, then you need to find a source of pride from somewhere else so you start being proud of the country you are a citizen of, the town you grew up in and the accent that you have? Thus that could be a possible reason why some people make such a big deal about their accents whilst others like me are actually go the opposite direction and choose not make it a part of our identity. And of course, Richard and I both agreed that not everyone from the same city would have the same accent. Richard barely has a hint of a Birmingham accent and even most English people might find it hard to identify which part of the country he is from. Likewise, after having spent more of my life in the UK than in Singapore, I have a "neither here nor there" international accent - it isn't Singaporean, yet it isn't completely British because it has hints of American and European influences. Of course, I can speak Singlish but I wouldn't do that unless I am in the company of other Singaporeans who want to speak it with me. Instead, I readily switch between accents, dialects and languages depending on the company I am with - so that's quite unlike someone who isn't that educated and can barely articulate himself in his native language.

So here's the one assumption that always irks me, "oh you're from Singapore, you speak Singlish, right?" Actually no, it is not that simple! Singapore is a huge city with 5.6 million people and there's so much diversity in Singapore, this would affect the way a person speaks English or Singlish. For example, given that I was brought up speaking Hokkien, I use a lot of Hokkien loanwords when I speak Singlish but that would confuse someone like a younger Singaporean who doesn't know any Hokkien - that's because Hokkien is far more widely spoken amongst older Singaporeans and so even age is a factor in terms of one's accent. So an Indian Singaporean might use more loanwords from Tamil whilst a Malay Singaporean would use more loanwords from Malay and so on - as with any kind of Creole or Pidgin language, the lack of any formal rules means that you get a sliding scale rather than any one standard form of 'Singlish'. So even within Singapore, you will find that different people would speak English and Singlish quite differently because of the other languages that they speak, the kind of social class they belong to and the kind of company they keep. So for example, when I was in the army, I used to switch between different kinds of Singlish depending on the people I was speaking to - when I was speaking to my Chinese friends, I had to curtail my use of Malay loanwords and likewise, when I was speaking to my Malay friends, I avoided all Hokkien and Mandarin loanwords. We code switch and adapt constantly - it's not like we have no control over the way we talk! Actually, what we do on a daily basis requires a rather high degree of skill, tact and knowledge, carefully navigating between different accents and languages depending on the social context.

Furthermore, you can't assume all Singaporeans love the Singlish accent given that the way class identity plays a huge role in Singaporean culture these days. The way you speak English does reflect on your level of education - so a scholar who has studied at Oxford or Cambridge would sound very different from your auntie in a hawker center who hasn't had much formal education but is using Singlish as a lingua franca to communicate with her Indian and Malay customers who don't speak Mandarin. Okay, perhaps I was picking the two extreme ends of the spectrum but it does illustrate my point that you can pretty much ascertain a Singaporean's social status based on the way they speak English. I have a friend in Singapore (let's call him Terence, not his real name) who is a successful lawyer - he did his degree in the UK at a top British university and he has at best a tiny hint of a Singaporean accent. He gets the TH digraph right when many Singaporeans struggle with it.  In fact, since he is speaking standard English with near perfect pronunciation, it is very hard to identify what country he is from solely based on listening to the way he speaks. Sure Terence could deliberately speak in Singlish or English with a very strong Singaporean accent (we would speak to each other like that just for a laugh sometimes), but most highly educated, highly skilled professionals like him would not speak like that because it doesn't send out the right message at work. Terence can mimic the way a taxi driver or a hawker would speak English, but the reverse is most certainly not possible. Someone like Terence can use his ability to speak English a certain way to demonstrate his social status whilst a taxi driver in Singapore may be very self-conscious about his inability to be as articulate in English. So let's not assume that taxi drivers are somehow proud or even defensive of the way they speak.

Thus going back to the story of the Singaporean lady who approached that group of Singaporeans in central London - my theory is that the tourist who was very rude to her got upset, perhaps he thought he was fitting in just fine, speaking the Queen's English in London. Maybe he thought that his English was perfect, that he was sounding so posh and refined, only for this kaypoh lady to come along and remind him that he sounds so extremely Singaporean, that he belongs in a hawker center in Toa Payoh rather than in the fine company of British aristocrats in Mayfair. The thing is that many Singaporeans actually think that they speak English extremely well but that's only because they compare your average Singaporean to people from countries like Vietnam, China and Thailand where English is not the language of instruction in school. So of course Singaporeans speak better English than their counterparts in Hanoi, Beijing and Bangkok but compared to their counterparts in London, New York and Sydney, there is still a pretty big gap. This false sense of security is built upon selectively comparing yourself to people who are worse than you whilst ignoring any evidence that may suggest the contrary. But since I wasn't there and I didn't meet this rude Singaporean guy, I don't know what was going on in his head - this is but a theory to explain why he got so upset and chose to be rude to the lady who asked him if he was from Singapore. What do you think? Why do you think he was so rude to someone who merely asked him, "are you from Singapore?" Are Singaporeans generally quite rude or do you think this man was an exception rather than the norm? So, leave a comment below please and do let me know what you think. Many thanks for reading!