Singaporean Accent in SIS

missq

One of my friends who went to Singapore Int'l School's Open Day yesterday (Sunday) told me she's concerned about Singaporean accent she heard on campus. I am very interested in the school and actually love it very much. I wish I could pay the visit to the school as well but I was out of town. Anyone can comment on the accent thing?

FattyDaddy

missq 發表於 12-12-11 01:20
Anyone can comment on the accent thing? ...

If you are concerned about Singaporean accent then give SIS a miss, your child may end up acquiring more than just an accent but Singlish itself, perhaps not from the teachers but fellow students who are from Singapore.

Put it this way, would you send your child to Australian International School and expect him/her to not pick up an Australian accent?

minirat

原帖由 FattyDaddy 於 12-12-11 發表
If you are concerned about Singaporean accent then give SIS a miss, your child may end up acquiring  ...

I couldnt agree more.

mrshoho

If that is your concern, then choose another school.

Leisurefan

If you cannot bear listening to sg accent at all, forget about SIS. There are sg teachers and, for obvious reasons, sg students in the school. The accent you heard are probably spoken by native sg teachers and students who picked up the accent from home. Kids of other nationality, like my kids and their local friends, did not pick up any bit of the accent. In fact, they can tell what the characteristics of different accents are and can switch among them as they wish, but just for fun. The English teachers are mostly expatriates and overseas born chinese. My kids speak with an American accent. But again, if you're really concerned, don't choose this school

bobbycheung

This is my experience.  When my kids talked to their fellow sg students, they spoke with a sg accent.  But as Leisurefan said, they could switch to other accents as they wished.  Moreover, they lost their sg accent completely as soon as they left SIS.  I haven't heard them speaking with a sg accent ever since.  Anyway, one of the main attractions of SIS is that the school teaches Chinese to a comparatively high level.  Perhaps you should weigh this and other factors that attract you to SIS in the first place against the sg accent issue.

missq

Thanks for sharing your experience and thoughts.

FattyDaddy

Leisurefan 發表於 12-12-11 09:38
In fact, they can tell what the characteristics of different accents are and can switch among them as they wish, but just for fun. ...

That would depend on what age they entered SIS, if they entered at kindergarten stage I doubt if they could ever switch away.

Many adults simply could not eradicate an accent they picked up in their early childhood, that is why very few Frenchmen could speak English without a French accent.

minirat

FattyDaddy 發表於 12-12-11 15:18
That would depend on what age they entered SIS, if they entered at kindergarten stage I doubt if the ...

To certain level, it also depends on the child's exposure of English back at home.  If the parents are speaking English at home, there is every likelihood that the child will pick up the accent from their parents, and is possible to switch at school when they speak to classmates.  However if the child picks up English purely from school, it's not impossible that he/she will have Singaporean accent if the proportion of Singaporean classmates is high.  Personally I share my views with FattyDaddy about every race has an accent, not only SIngaporeans.  If you have concerns about Singaporean accent in particular, then maybe you should give SIS a miss.

Leisurefan

Both my kids entered at PY (kindergarten stage)

FattyDaddy

minirat 發表於 12-12-11 15:34
To certain level, it also depends on the child's exposure of English back at home.  If the parents  ...

That is true, parents have a much greater influence, however many Hongkongers go for SIS because they like the emphasis SIS place on Chinese, and these families tend not to speak English at home.

Actually Singlish is more than just an accent, it is a creole variant of English, with words from Hokkien, Malay, Tamil etc thrown in, you may get a sentence like:-

Don't be so kiasu (Hokkien) lah, you listen to me you won't kena (Malay).

"唔好驚執輸, 你聽我講你一定冇死"

minirat

FattyDaddy 發表於 12-12-11 16:18
That is true, parents have a much greater influence, however many Hongkongers go for SIS because the ...

I went for the last SIS open house, and noticed non-Singaporean parents speaking fluent and good English, probably not the typical Hongkonger families.  However I don't deny the fact that Cantonese is still the main language spoken in most Hongkonger families.

Hey are you a Singaporean?  I hope you do realise you are chatting with a 100% Singaporean here, haaa!  Yes, Singlish is not proper English, but personally I feel that it's just a friendly culture among ourselves, since we have different dialect groups and races (Malays and Indians) in Singapore, all like you mentioned.  However when we write or speak in proper occasions, it's only proper English.  Of coz Singaporean accent is still there.

FattyDaddy

minirat 發表於 12-12-11 16:28
Hey are you a Singaporean?  I hope you do realise you are chatting with a 100% Singaporean here, haaa!  Yes, Singlish is not proper English, but personally I feel that it's just a friendly culture among ourselves ...

Hahaha, no I'm not Singaporean, but I did have quite a lot of friends from Singapore and Malaysia before. Singlish is certainly part of Singapore's culture, I would not say it is "not proper", just like I would not say American English is "not proper", they are just variants of English formed after being influenced by local culture.

In a similar way the Cantonese spoken in SG and HK are variants of the Cantonese spoken in China. For example when we say "幾多錢" you would say "幾多累" ("累" is derived from the Malay word "duit" [pronounced 堆] which means money). When we say "買飛" people in China would say "買票" ("飛" is derived from the English word "fare") {:1_1:}

shadeslayer

Do we also say Hong Kong style English and pronunciation is a variant of English influenced by Hong Kong culture.  

温吐飛科快識社分
Z = 易set
Claim = Cam
Buffet = 捕飛
Coupon = Q-pon

Is it proper English or not? Should it enjoy the same status as American/English/Australian pronunciation?

Do we also say Japan/Korean/Chinese style English and pronunciation are a variants of English influenced by Japan/Korean/Chinese culture. Are they proper English or not?

FattyDaddy

shadeslayer 發表於 12-12-12 01:35
Is it proper English or not? Should it enjoy the same status as American/English/Australian pronunciation?
  ...

As soon as you mentioned the word "status", there is no need for any further discussion.

I guess all the concerns about accent and Singlish is really about status isn't it? That is why no one seemed concerned about picking up an Australian accent from Australian International School, or sounding like Marlene Dietrich after attending Deutsch-Schweizerische Internationale Schule

minirat

FattyDaddy 發表於 12-12-12 01:55
As soon as you mentioned the word "status", there is no need for any further discussion.

I guess a ...

I share my sentiments wholeheartedly with this one.  Its about status.  And if one has concerns over say Singaporean accent, why not consider other IS options, since SIS is not easy to get in anyway.  In that few hours tour at SIS that day, I can tell you I heard Singaporean accent all the time.

shadeslayer

原帖由 FattyDaddy 於 12-12-12 發表
本帖最後由 FattyDaddy 於 12-12-12 02:33 編輯

Ok, i see you chose a particular way to interpret one word from my message and avoided the questions. Fine.

shadeslayer

My objective criteria for whether an accent or certain way of pronunciation is something to avoid is this.  If many native English speakers genuinely do not understand the pronunciation, or they are strained to keep up the communication, or they are distracted by certain pronunciation that the communication and flow of ideas is interrupted, then we should avoid using those pronunciation.

shadeslayer

Don't get me wrong, if you read carefully, I am not questioning Singlish and Singapore accent, or even HK English. I am just questioning the idea of local variant of English as an excuse for not learning good English pronunciation.

FattyDaddy

shadeslayer 發表於 12-12-12 08:44
My objective criteria for whether an accent or certain way of pronunciation is something to avoid is ...

If you're referring to Singlish, yes, I doubt if many native English speakers could understand words like "kiasu" and "kena", but if you're referring to Singaporean accent, then no, native English speakers have no problem understanding the accent. Don't take my word for it, I'm sure our Singaporean friend(s) here can also tell you.

I don't know what the phrase "enjoy the same status" means to you, but I don't think I'm the only one who interpreted your words in that "particular way". It is fine to be status conscious too, there is no need to stretch yourself and try to pass it off as a communication issue {:1_1:}