From Oprah With Singlish?

Don't get me wrong, I don't speak Singlish lah..

You know I'm joking, coz I do speak Singlish, at least 50% of the time.

And.. I am proud of it.

It's simple, efficient, and nice to hear. What else do you want?

Btw, neither English and Mandarin is my mother tongue. My mother tongue is Indonesian (similar to Malay). But I speak English much more than I speak Indonesian for the last 3 years and now I find it's more comfortable to write, think, read, and speak in English compared to Indonesian (I don't want to show off, but I do find it that way. Sorry ah..)

And among the Englishes in the world, I never think that Singlish is inferior compared to the Queen's English, Hollywood's English, or Australian English. I find it strange if people try to fake their English. They try to imitate how the Ang Moh speak, but they don't realize 1 thing. They are not Ang Moh, and never be. Their tongue is not Ang Moh's, and never be. The point is, just be yourself, and be comfortable with it. Period.

SO..
If you speak with vocabulary richness as rich as Oprah, and you speak with high level of emphaty like Oprah, I might listen to you as well, no matter what accent you use, be it Singlish, French-English, Belgian-English, Indian-English, Chinese-English, or whatever. As long as I can understand it without much difficulty, that's perfect.

I speak with an accent which I myself can't identify. Within the first 2 sentences, Singaporean can identify that I am definitely not local. However, by the first 3 sentences, everyone can sense that I ever live in Singapore, at least for some years. I also have British and American accent. I don't try to sound like those Hollywood actors, but I listen to English songs everyday, I watch American movies and TV shows.. So, that definitely influences my English. I never think what accent I am going to use... in fact, I just don't have time to think about that. The content of my conversation has taken up so much energy and effort.

SO.. Be comfortable with your accent, no matter how strange it is. Just be clear and understandable. Provided your brain remains the same, the more effort you try to "polish" your accent, the less effort goes into your content. And what's more humiliating than seeing someone who speak in perfect English but zero content?