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What's the worst-sounding foreign accent in English? Right now I think it's Mandarin, but I am open to suggestions.
Singapore is grating especially because, if you watch old clips, the Chinese elite spoke with a much more English inflection / style until about 40 years ago; Singlish is a relatively recent invention.
I dislike the “international school” accent that wealthy Europeans have speaking English. They think it makes them far superior to their poorer countrymen who speak with more identifiable accents but I disagree - it melds aspects of standard American with a kind of almost Dutch twang. Give me a Tcherman any day. It’s an uncanny valley American. There are a few who cross it and are completely stealth Europeans who sound fully American, but far fewer pass than think they do.
There is a certain charm to Indians when they use bizarre words or antiquated expressions. As far as native accents go, Australians have an annoying attitude tied to their strenuously feigned nonchalance but the accent can be entertaining. The New Zealand accent has a nice melancholy to it. I dislike the Upper Midwest accent for reasons I struggle to describe, but it just has a kind of Winnie the Pooh fakeness to it. I love all the accents of the British Isles (although some, like Birmingham/Midlands, make me laugh because it seems almost comically depressed, a kind of eeyore accent if we’re continuing that analogy). The deep Toronto / Tronno accent is annoying.
PMC Singaporeans can code-switch between Standard Singapore English (which is British English with a few Malay loanwords, and worryingly many uncles) and Singlish, and speak SSE with a broadly similar accent to other people whose first language is Mandarin. (The same is true of PMC Brits whose native tongue is one of the barely-comprehensible regional dialects like Geordie or Scouse).
My understanding is that Singlish is what happens if you take 90-105 IQ Hokkien-speakers and educate them bilingually in English and Mandarin, neither of which their parents speak.
What distinguishes Singapore English from other organic expressions of english as second language is in fact the multiculturalism in the population. Because everyone ended up thinking in their native tongue first before speaking in english there is a corresponding emphasis placement in the register and enunciation. However since an indian and a chinese have different emphasis points they both become information points for the other party to internalize and consider this is what english SHOULD sound like, and variation ends up being flattened. Maybe a similar case exists for penn/iowa/ohio/illinois accent convergence.
As an example, look at how Chin Han who played Lau in The Dark Knight speaks https://youtube.com/watch?v=os2EZeGlw7k&pp=ygUKYmF0bWFuIGxhdQ%3D%3D
versus a Singaporean Indian politician https://youtube.com/watch?v=JsXdBMV5zkY&pp=ygUHdGhhcm1uYQ%3D%3D
The tonal exaggerations and musicality of either mainland or subcontinent are absent. Chin Hans entire career was basically due to the golden period when there was a need for Chinese actors that didn't sound retarded or american when speaking english. Benedict Wong occupies that role now but he suppresses his British accent heavily.
Finally, SINGLISH is distinctly different from Singapore Accented English. Singlish is perversely abstract in its grammatical rules and expressive flexibility. Elite Singaporeans code switch as identity markers as mentioned, but also just to fuck with white people when funny.
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