In Defence of Singlish
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In defence of Singlish
An anti-Singlish editorial in the Straits Time (May 2, 2000) was yet another attack by a Singapore opinion leader, but the issue needs a less reactionary approach. Firstly, like nearly all official campaigns against language issues, there will be little to show for the money spent. Language change is driven by forces nearly always well beyond the control of governments and newspaper editors. Even Stalin failed, and governments more sensitive to public opinion risk looking foolish. Secondly, the concerns that Singlish is a danger to the international competitiveness of Singapore are wrong. Many English speakers around the world speak non-standard dialects of English as their main language, yet they are still fluent in standard English. In fact, leading researchers say that less than 15% of native-born Britons speak standard English as their everyday dialect1 See the papers linked below.
Speaking different dialects in different situations is called "diglossia", and happens everywhere there are dialects of different prestige. In Singapore, Singlish is the low prestige dialect, and standard English is the high prestige dialect.
Actually, there is no one "Singlish". At its most extreme, it has relatively few speakers, just as standard English is Singapore hardly ever is exactly the same as the English of the Home Counties. However, it is clear the most Singaporeans who can speak Standard English also use a different form of English that we call Singlish, and which of these two forms they use is easily predictable depending on the social situation. Using two dialects for different social purposes is called "Diglossia", and it has been widely researched, in Singapore and in many other places. The research goes back decades. It can be difficult to find a good way of explaining to standard English speakers how people can easily move between different dialects because the variation in English dialects around the world is usually not very great2 "Grammatical differences between Standard English and other dialects are in fact rather few in number, although of course they are very significant socially" Trudgill . Most people think of "Cockney" as being a separate dialect, although most of the characteristics of "Cockney" that make it a "dialect" are pronunciation based, not grammar based. However, "Cockney" can still illustrate the key points. First, we need a definition of fluency in standard English using a few tests, and then we ask if "Cockney" speakers can pass these tests. My tests are
Cockneys can sustain a ten minute, two-way conversation with a member of the British royal family (or Hugh Grant, or a job interview with a bank manager from Brighton. These are conversations very likely to be in standard English.)
They can comprehend the Daily Mirror, and they can understand a London BBC news broadcast and the Queen's annual address (to linguists, these tests are not as important, but I include them to show how difficult it is to imagine residents of London not having good standard English skills).
My claim is not that an East Londoner (or Geoffrey Boycott or a Norfolk speaker (this is a recording) for that matter) can sound like a member of the royal family, but by passing these tests in their ability to produce standard English and understand it, they demonstrate what I mean by fluency in standard English. At the same time, they are able to speak perfectly acceptable "Cockney" to other members of that social group. The United States and England are full of people who can move between standard English and local versions of English. This is just as well, because one leading researcher, Trudgill, estimates that only between 9% and 15% of Britons actually speak standard English as their main dialect, and that only 3% speak it with the "official" accent. While researching this article I came across an old Straits Times article, where a Singaporean mother complained that her daughter was speaking perfect standard English until she went to playgroup, where she learned Singlish from her peers. In fact the daughter was smarter than the mother; how could she have been accepted by the group if she kept speaking prestigious standard English in the informal surrounds of the playground. What a miserable childhood she would have had, since by rejecting the language of her peers she would have been rejected by them. Children in Singapore must learn Singlish or whatever else is the language of their peers, and it's the same the world over.
Another example close to Singapore is Jakarta. Anyone with basic Indonesian knows how different the native dialect of Jakartans is from Bahasa Indonesia, even though Bahasa Jakarta is still the same language3 Jakarta is the only place in Java where Bahasa Indonesia is spoken as a mother tongue.. Jakartans need standard Indonesian to talk with Indonesians from outside Jakarta, and for formal situations, even when everyone present is from Jakarta. You might think that native Jakartans get confused between the two dialects and can't speak good standard Bahasa Indonesia, yet after three years of living there, I can report that every single native-born4 Migrants from rural areas of Java are native speakers of Javanse, a completely unrelated language, and sometimes struggle with Bahasa Indonesia Jakartan I met speaks fine standard Indonesian, be they professionals, taxi drivers, maids, gardeners, drivers, security guards or whatever. I don't think too much of relying on personal anecdotes, but all the native Jakartans I've asked report the same thing. In other words, native born Jakartans speak two quite different dialects of Indonesian with ease. This would not be a surprise to people familiar with research in this area. Singaporeans easily perform the same thing.
English speakers raised in Singapore learn early in their life how to use different dialects for different situations, just as people do in all the other places on the planet with different dialects for different social needs. Many languages have different dialects for different social situations, and both Singlish and Bahasa Jakarta (known as 'slang' by its speakers) are used mainly in informal circumstances between social peers even when both speakers know the standard form of the language. The important conclusion is that usage of Singlish does not mean that Singapore speakers will be impaired in using standard English.
My reference to "Cockney" above may give the impression that Singlish is restricted to usage in Singapore by less educated people, since Cockneys are famously lower class residents of a poor part of London. In fact, as research by Gupta (see also links below) and others show, Singlish usage is widespread through all classes in Singapore, including "bank managers, doctors and teachers"5 private correspondence, groups who have excellent command of standard English. In Jakarta, Bahasa Jakarta ("slang") is also used by all classes.
Despite the negative pressure from the authorities, most Singaporeans are quietly proud of Singlish, and why not? It is a fun, energetic and dynamic dialect. If Singaporeans wish for a separate cultural identity, Singlish is likely to grow in popularity, no matter what the government does. Not so long ago the editorial pages of the Straits Times were dismayed by surveys showing that some young Singaporeans really wanted to be Westerners. Singlish is strong evidence that most young Singaporeans are actually moving in the opposite direction; they want "Singaporean" to mean more than living in an air-conditioned dot on the map.
As for the concern about international English, who could seriously deny that these same young Singaporeans are first class speakers of standard English? No country in Asia has better English skills; among its service economy rivals, only Australia offers serious competition in overall language skills. But is there a decline in English here? No. Spending some time among both older and younger Singaporeans reveals that English in Singapore is getting better with successive generations, even as Singlish seems to spread further and further into the mass media.
English recently became the first language in 2000 years to have more second-language speakers than native speakers. By using different dialects of English for both international communication and for local use, Singapore is not joining a world wide corruption. It is leading a world wide trend; globalisation means that people are becoming more protective of their identities even as they spend more time in contact with the rest of the world. This will drive language change everywhere, but it will not threaten the requirement for standard English anywhere.
Clearly, Singapore's language education is working well. In an island speaking so many languages, there is very good and improving command of standard English. It's odd to think that Singlish is a threat to this, because evidence from all over the world says it's not.
Relax, lah. Singlish is cool, it's homegrown and it's no problem.
Tim Richardson, Singapore.
Draft written in May 2000. Modified Sept 2000 and March 2001.
I am not a linguist nor involved in language education, language policy or anything connected to the "language industry". My views are influenced by my undergraduate studies in Linguistics, and by my own interests, observations and enjoyment of language. -
Those who doesn't understand Singlish and refuse to say Singlish are people with low adaptability in switching between languages.
"All those peple who dun wan to speak Singer-lish is peple who are not tuly Singaa-borean. Dun play play wif our Singaa-borean hairitage."
~Phua Chua Kang -
i don't quite agree with the cockney analogy... its too simplistic... i for one, CANNOT understand it! its horrible when u're on the other side of a monologue spoken by a drunk irishman who suddenly forgot that he's not in a pub in dublin
the argument suggests that one is able to switch interchangeably between a vernacular form and a more standard form of english at ease. that is ideal, but clearly not the case here.
he also attempts to dis-associate literacy with fluency in speech, which is also not always the case here.
i believe that one should at least have a good grounding in standard english before attempting to murder it with local dialects... one cannot teach children in singlish and expect them to speak english properly when they need to.
i don't think singlish is anything that deserves to be institutionalised and glorified. it should remain what it is: an informal way of speaking to friends and acquaintances in a relaxed enviornment. but for goodness sake, don't confuse illiteracy with identity. -
Originally posted by CX:
hah. pls lor, wat identity? its just english mixed up with chinese dialect. spoken by people who can't speak english trying to make themselves sound leet. i speak it due to habit, but i know when to use proper english when it calls for it. and when to use singlish when it calls for it.
i don't quite agree with the cockney analogy... its too simplistic... i for one, CANNOT understand it! its horrible when u're on the other side of a monologue spoken by a drunk irishman who suddenly forgot that he's not in a pub in dublin
the argument suggests that one is able to switch interchangeably between a vernacular form and a more standard form of english at ease. that is ideal, but clearly not the case here.
he also attempts to dis-associate literacy with fluency in speech, which is also not always the case here.
i believe that one should at least have a good grounding in standard english before attempting to murder it with local dialects... one cannot teach children in singlish and expect them to speak english properly when they need to.
i don't think singlish is anything that deserves to be institutionalised and glorified. it should remain what it is: an informal way of speaking to friends and acquaintances in a relaxed enviornment. [b]but for goodness sake, don't confuse illiteracy with identity.
[/b] -
Snobbish english-nazis... The gamut of Singlish is wide and diverse, from the broken english spoken by our more cheena people to the lah and lors spoken by our more english educated...
Frankly, I dun quite care which end of the gamult you fall on, as long as you are trying to improve your own english, I myself speak perfect english, but find myself identifying more with singlish when it comes to my national identity...
There is however, a great deal of snobbery going around admist some of us english freaks who insist on going around speaking only in perfect english (with a slight western slang to it). And they are completely intolerant with any form of singlish, saying it's a pervision of their holy language... well I say to them like the brits might... bugger off... Long live singlish, and dun feel bad to speak it even if your english... cannot make it one. If the ah-beng across the road knows chinese better then english and speaks singlish as a result, and there are enough of them, does it make our it our identity? Certainly more so then a few bananas snotty-english accents and pasty complexions... It appears we rather see ourselves as who we want to be rather then embracing who we really are...
LAR AND LOR ON!
For a matter of fact, I dun mind drunken irish people as well, I understand them quite well despite their accent...
*Spelling errors were delibrate to press home the point that bad-english-is-good* -
Singlish can only be used when talking with locals. -
Bah, nonsense, I used it on my family from canada and guess what? The Ang Mors like it for it's economy of words and ability to get the point across with a tinge of subtle irony and ever present cartoonish humor... Of course, I learnt Irish and Scottish accents in return, adding to my Russian, British, Cockney, American west, American New York, American street and American Redneck accents as well... getting fun... I prefer to understand bad english/good singlish rather then cringe and turn away in disgust... it's a true cultural experience... the westernized asian chinese meeting the prime asian chinese... and I must say my much neglected mother tounge has gotten a booster shot in the arm...
(No thanks to MOE, I hated chinese, but ironically through contact with bad english, I started to explore my roots, not to mention my english, as I started to teach them what I knew)
That's why there's such a big kick I get when I listened to the Singlish in Shanghai Knights... hope they dun change too much in upcoming Dawn and murder it with good english...
"When you a-bun-don us for america, father said he had no son"
Ahhh... sighs of contentment across the heartland...[/b][/i] -
Maybe you are right. As long as can communicate and get the message across I think enough already.
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Singlish is so good for communication! It gets the point across with so little words and yet shows quite clearly the emotion of the person speaking it... It's a far more efficent language then english, just look at singlish speakers going full blast, the info being traded at an amazing rate...
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DonÂ’t kid yourself that Singlish can be a Singaporean identity, when most Singaporeans prefer to speak their own dialect or language.
Singlish as spoken in Singapore is not so much mixed with words from local dialect or languages, as it is spoken in a mixed up manner that follows the way a dialect or language is spoken.
In the Cantonese dialect, you will ask someone “lei ho mah?”, or in Hokkien – “lee ho boh?”, or in Mandarin – “Ni Hao Ma?”.
A sentence in Singlish will follow the manner in which the dominant dialect or language is spoken – “you good or not?”.or "you alright or not?"
In the Hokkien dialect, you will tell someone – “gua ka li kon…”, in Cantonese - “ngor tong leh kon….”.
In Singlish, it will be “I tell you ah…”
The Singapore form of English, or Singlish, is only a distortion of the mother tongue by using English words to replace the spoken words of oneÂ’s original mother tongue; and taking the form of sentence construction following the mother tongue.
One can only wonder if Singlish corrupts the mother tongue or the English Language itself.
Which ever it maybe, it cannot be worst then the English spoken by the Jamaicans, or the form spoken in Mauritius.
To compare Singlish with cockney English is to insult the “bumi-Englishman”, whose unique accent is equal to the manner Mandarin is spoken with mark differences when spoken by a Beijing person, from that of a Shanghai resident, or one that come from the more remote part of China, or even that spoken by residents in Canton.
Cockney English is the accent of the working class of England, and is only comparable to the accent of spoken English that is preferred by the working class in Australia, USA, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Canada, New Foundland, New Zealand, and Falkland Islands.
Accent is the style or manner of the spoken sound.
Singlish is not an accent, but its uniqueness is due to the manner in which the spoken sentence does not follow standard English form.
Singlish as spoken in Singapore can only be an imitation of the English language by corrupting oneÂ’s own mother tongue. -
I can relate to how Singlish can be an identity for Singaporeans as I spent a great deal of time in Australia and most of my (caucasian) colleagues and classmates that have hung out with Singaporeans have mentioned to me that they can tell a Singaporean apart from other Asians when they speak. When I heard that I felt a tinge of pride and even proceeded to explain to them the meaning of certain Singlish terms, and it's usage.
However, there is a limit to how much a non-singaporean can understand. Imagine I said to my Singaporean friend "I kena damn jialat from my mother last nite leh", do you think a non-local would be able to understand that? One might say that it is a mixture of languages. "kena" is malay, while "jialat" is hokkein. So, in other words, to me, Singlish is a mix of many languages, with added lars, lors and lehs. This "language" should only be spoken with locals.
While Singlish may be something that Singaporeans are proud of, I feel that this should only arise from the fact that it is unique, and only spoken by us. Not proud because it is a superior form of communication. It may be superior between our peers, but definitely not around the globe.
Then there's this problem of Singaporeans using Singlish as an excuse for not improving their standard English. It's downright disgusting to have a Singaporean tell me, "Aiyah we're Singaporean wat, english so good for wat! Singaporeans, must speak Singlish what! How to call yourself Singaporean like that?"
Go ahead and bastardise the language for your needs and conveniences, but for goodness sake, at least know the language that you are bastardising. -
Nobody ask you to speak Singlish to foreigners who do not understand. It's not the language that does not make sense, it's you who does not make sense that you are speaking an alien language to another life form!
That's what the Speak Good English campaign is for!
Speak good English when you need too!
The Speak Mandarin too, it helps!
These 2 bloody language campaign clashes too!
In school, this conflict happens and became Singlish,
but nobody talk about it and complain.
Do not try to act like a high-class imperialist parrot speaking accentive English.
If this is the solution to ban Singlish so that you speak proper Mandarin and English. It's simply like banning bubble gum like the PAP Government!
Snobbish educated Singaporeans dispised Singlish. How awful! How many simple Singaporeans speak Singlish because they weren't educated. You're dispising them! Singlish is a by-product of our multi-racial society's races integration!
Singlish is neither mandarin, dialect language, English or any other donkey language. It's just like the Black American slangs like "Yo, Yo, Yo man! Yo this! Yo that!"
Anyway, there could be a possibility that the Singlish develop into a language that is unique to us.
"We are humans with the approach to civilised advancements."
~ Anonymous -
Bah, I'll surely prefer any Ah-Beng spouting singlish rather then a wannabe banana spouting his terrible american/british accent... and he look rather surprised when I told him then the two were different... and that speaking like "westerners" does not mean arcing the pitch of your words crazily at 2hz.
Singlish is certainly our idendity, and that's coming from a westernized asian chinese that speaks perfect english. There should be some soceity towards the preservation and advancement of singlish...
veto that, make singlish in itself the national language of singapore... english is pragmatically for communication with the "barbarian" outsiders instead... heh heh -
I realized one thing though, language will constantly change... and all this anti-singlish talk is if the public is willing not to cooperate, akin to sticking one finger to plug a leaking dam... Singlish will persist and contuine to evolve in it's marryd of wonderful, diverse forms... And I have no idea why the more snobbish of us lambaste it so badly, even most ah bengs with rudementary knowledge of english speak far better english then most Honkies or Koreans...
Said and done, english is in itself a frankstien of over 2 million words, most of it patched from other languages... -
in response to singapore dinosaur's point:
i respect his ability to articulate and understand different accents. it must be the result of his wide exposure.
but my point stands: fluency in a language, be it english, french, chinese or swahili is not about snobbery. it is simply a matter of mastery.
needless to say, nobody expects one to speak exactly as one writes. just because i am capable of commiting my thoughts into writing in a perfectly grammatical fashion does not mean that i am predisposed to articulate the same thoughts in the same manner when i converse.
i'm not particularly interested in picking up foreign accents like strawberries in cameroon highlands, but i pride myself in being able to communicate with sufficient clarity.
i am not against the use of singlish as well. i use it when the situation calls for it. many of us, i'm sure, are capable of the same as well.
the thing is, i'm not exactly comfortable with such self-serving talk that singlish is an assertion of our identity by people who can barely speak the english language with sufficient clarity. gurmit singh does not speak that way outside his role as pck... why should anyone do so?
the point here, is effective communication. if the setting is such that one needs to adapt to hokkien-singlish, or cantonese-singlish or malay-singlish to allow one to be understood, so be it
but one needs to be able to speak with sufficient clarity without too much awkward local inflections and alien words in a more formal enviornment. most times, it is not the language that obscures the meaning in a conversation, but the thick accent that makes it very hard to understand what the other person is trying to say. and this problem is not limited to singlish. it extends to every single foreign accent which one is not accustomed to.
its not about snobbery. its about clarity in communication.
i don't think it is possible to make singlish our "national language" and to only use english for formal communication with "barbarians"... it doesn't work that way. singlish is rich because it is a local adaptation of a living language. to institutionalise it and formalise it would kill it.
and teaching it in schools would almost certainly lead to a generation of kids who can't speak singlish OR english properly much like the failure of the bilingual system don't u think? -
Bah, you are right... singlish should be left in the wild... crikety mate... ain't she a beut?
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Frankly all these speak good english things would work a lot better if the govt. realized that singlish and english can coexist... rather then point out to singlish as the cause of all trouble... only creates resistance to anything they would want to implement...
A better tagline would be:
"Feel free to speak Singlish, But speak good English as well"
Can never describe the resistance and resentment that arised in secondary school when two singaporeans are conversing in singlish and the heavily westernized principal moves in and lambastes them for doing so, asking them to queens english each other... -
i don't think anybody is THAT extreme in attempting to promote good english anymore
more and more singaporeans are now going overseas and gaining new insights and self-confidence that they need not speak with an nasal (or anal ) twang to be understood... they will speak properly when the occassion calls for it and slip into singlish when conversing over beer with friends.
speaking of good english... what i cannot stand is people who speak with a kentang accent... like bloody SPGs who do it just to annoy locals and impress their white sugardaddies -
another words. know when to use proper english, and singlish.Originally posted by SingaporeTyrannosaur:Frankly all these speak good english things would work a lot better if the govt. realized that singlish and english can coexist... rather then point out to singlish as the cause of all trouble... only creates resistance to anything they would want to implement...
A better tagline would be:
"Feel free to speak Singlish, But speak good English as well"
Can never describe the resistance and resentment that arised in secondary school when two singaporeans are conversing in singlish and the heavily westernized principal moves in and lambastes them for doing so, asking them to queens english each other... -
bad english is good.. well, if you want to fight the system go ahead, just that singlish do affect the oral clarity in kids. just know when to balance up yea? some ppl go too extreme either way. but i dunno. what i feel is, that the formation of singlish is really started by our ancestors trying to pick up english, but well. not so successfully. and tada, we get singlish. and it was passed down by example. children pick up what adults do when they are young, so tada, its passed down.Originally posted by SingaporeTyrannosaur:Snobbish english-nazis... The gamut of Singlish is wide and diverse, from the broken english spoken by our more cheena people to the lah and lors spoken by our more english educated...
Frankly, I dun quite care which end of the gamult you fall on, as long as you are trying to improve your own english, I myself speak perfect english, but find myself identifying more with singlish when it comes to my national identity...
There is however, a great deal of snobbery going around admist some of us english freaks who insist on going around speaking only in perfect english (with a slight western slang to it). And they are completely intolerant with any form of singlish, saying it's a pervision of their holy language... well I say to them like the brits might... bugger off... Long live singlish, and dun feel bad to speak it even if your english... cannot make it one. If the ah-beng across the road knows chinese better then english and speaks singlish as a result, and there are enough of them, does it make our it our identity? Certainly more so then a few bananas snotty-english accents and pasty complexions... It appears we rather see ourselves as who we want to be rather then embracing who we really are...
LAR AND LOR ON!
For a matter of fact, I dun mind drunken irish people as well, I understand them quite well despite their accent...
*Spelling errors were delibrate to press home the point that bad-english-is-good* -
Originally posted by SingaporeTyrannosaur:
i want to pick up irish accent. or australian accent. both are kinda nice. anyone seen touched by an angel the tv show b4? the female angel the voice like singsong voice. those kind are kool
Bah, nonsense, I used it on my family from canada and guess what? The Ang Mors like it for it's economy of words and ability to get the point across with a tinge of subtle irony and ever present cartoonish humor... Of course, I learnt Irish and Scottish accents in return, adding to my Russian, British, Cockney, American west, American New York, American street and American Redneck accents as well... getting fun... I prefer to understand bad english/good singlish rather then cringe and turn away in disgust... it's a true cultural experience... the westernized asian chinese meeting the prime asian chinese... and I must say my much neglected mother tounge has gotten a booster shot in the arm...
(No thanks to MOE, I hated chinese, but ironically through contact with bad english, I started to explore my roots, not to mention my english, as I started to teach them what I knew)
That's why there's such a big kick I get when I listened to the Singlish in Shanghai Knights... hope they dun change too much in upcoming Dawn and murder it with good english...
[b]"When you a-bun-don us for america, father said he had no son"
Ahhh... sighs of contentment across the heartland...[/b][/i][/b] -
If you are able to discern when to speak and when not to speak singlish, then I think singlish is perfectly normal. What proponents of Singlish are doing is not to glorify it, but rather calling for its continued use in informal and relaxed environments among Singaporeans. It has become a very Singaporean thing to speak in singlish with friends, largely influenced by the many cultural differences present in Singapore. Also, the use of Singlish is so widespread, I don't see how it is possible to effectively decrease its usage by a large percentage, especially since users of singlish only use it in private spoken communications or text messages. People of the world speak different variations of English. I think the very fact that English has been verbally modified to fit so many cultural backgrounds is a prove of its adaptibility and versatility. We should not discontinue its use among private communications, but it should be made clear that there are occasions when Singlish cannot and should not be used, such as when handling business dealings, something which the govt has stated as a reason for Singaporeans to give up singlish. Notice also that much of the hype from the govt over the use of Singlish has died down, I think this a good sign of the govt, even if grudgingly, accept Singlish as part of Singaporeans' private affairs and not poke their nose in it.
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Irish accent is pretty simple once you get the hold of it... roll your words a lot and speak quite rapid fire using a lot of the front of your mouth and cut words short... before long, you'll find yourself speaking quite good Dublin irish... Irish words are also spoken pretty much like standard english, with only a few variations here and there (replace me with my/mine and the like).Originally posted by dumbdumb!:i want to pick up irish accent. or australian accent. both are kinda nice. anyone seen touched by an angel the tv show b4? the female angel the voice like singsong voice. those kind are kool
The aussie accent is a bit harder, tip, watch Croc hunter... and before long you'll pick up quite a bit of aussie... The fun part about aussie accents is that it's a lazy way of speaking, as if you're too lazy to speak your words... look out for local aussie terms like "crikety" and the like... -
i tink aussie easier. cuz i know where to start. irish and the sing song accent. i have no idea lorOriginally posted by SingaporeTyrannosaur:Irish accent is pretty simple once you get the hold of it... roll your words a lot and speak quite rapid fire using a lot of the front of your mouth and cut words short... before long, you'll find yourself speaking quite good Dublin irish... Irish words are also spoken pretty much like standard english, with only a few variations here and there (replace me with my/mine and the like).
The aussie accent is a bit harder, tip, watch Croc hunter... and before long you'll pick up quite a bit of aussie... The fun part about aussie accents is that it's a lazy way of speaking, as if you're too lazy to speak your words... look out for local aussie terms like "crikety" and the like... -
oh PLEASE!!! u pathetic wannabe... fake an accent???
bleah... look... if u got it as a result of having spent enormous amounts of time overseas, so be it...
but if u try to acquire and FAKE one just for the sake of "sounding good", then u're a bloody luzer.
i know people who spent years overseas and never got an accent... as Sg Dino pointed out, ang mohs understand u perfectly well as long as u do not speak market singlish in their face.
acquire an accent? urgh... no offence but that sounds real OFF to me...
hee... speaking of accents... check this out...
http://www.fazzino.it/unofficial/Tourist.html