Singaporeanisms - Home Sweet Home
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I ask people I meet, what's the most Singaporean thing about them? In this episode, one loves coming home, while the other, an international student, loves Singapore as his home away from home. I think the most Singaporean thing about me is I like to go home. I've lived in the US for a bit, in the UK for a bit, but I don't like to go home.

Each time when I'm away, when I come home, the feeling is just different. I don't think I'll ever give up my citizenship for anything. And home, I think, is just something that cannot be substituted by anything exterior, material. And I think that's the most thing I've ever anything about me. Yeah.

As a foreigner, when you enter Singapore, the thing that will strike you is how the English is spoken. The accent, the final particles that goes into the local language is really fascinating. It may be a cultural shock at first, but when you are used to it and you just get assimilated. When I speak to my Singaporean classmates, when they engage conversations with me for final particles,

I can use them correctly, which I'm proud of, and I can laugh with fellow Singaporeans. Last year, I went to a Koto concert organised by the Japanese Association in Singapore with a story of Momotaro spoken supposedly in Singlish, and they were using "la"s the wrong way. They were just putting "la"s after literally every sentence.

and it should be "le" instead of "la". This nativeness, it really comes from a native command. You understand the language, but foreigners, they try to imitate to have this sense of solidarity. But sometimes it just has some other effect, and sometimes very comical, I would say.

You've been listening to people answer the question, what's the most Singaporean thing about them? Here is the entrance to our office building in Tanjong Pagar and also the School of Humanities at NTU. Check out this episode's show notes for more information or visit our website, hearhear.show. Catch you on the next app.