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Singapore Expat Forum and Message Board for Expats in Singapore & Expatriates Relocating to Singapore
"No Asians"
the lynx wrote:I can't even tell between British and Australian accents!

That said however, there is a tendency for Brits in SG to pick a bit of an Aussie lilt. It is subconscious and is called 'Code switching'. If you are surrounded with Aussies you 'sympathetically' relate to them better, by adopting elements of their style, including linguisticly. Same for expats who pick up a little bit of Singlish, or pronunciation, esp. with local taxi drivers.... 'Ah Uncle, go PIE can or not?... in fact that's multi-layered, choice of words, Singlish accent, plus the local intonation/pitch structure.
You generally turn it on and off subconsciously as needed, but after my first stint in SG I was still using gutter-Singlish months later. 'Wah lah weh, how can hor!?', and 'Ay yor' probably stuck for a year, because it is so perfectly expressive

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_switching
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