In Singapore, people speak English (said by Singaporean), but it has strong regional accents and intonations. This English is specifically called Singlish. Accents are placed at different places than those of British or American English, mainly on the latter syllables of words (e.g. ‘tired’: ta'iərd ---> taiə'rd / ‘heavy’: he'vi ---> hevi' ) . Words of sentences are prolonged each other from the beginning to end. And it is spoken at unbelievably super high speed (can you imagine that all the words of sentence are spoken very fast like bullets!!).

People put ‘Lah’ in the end of word or sentence; OK-lah, Can do lah, Yeah-lah, No-lah…. on everything with no meaning! It is little bit like ‘~ ne.’ (e.g. Sorede-ne, Arigatou-ne) in Japanese but much more frequently.

It is OK with me to hear Singlish or to talk with people of Singlish, except for one phrase; ‘Never Mind Lah~’. The phrase ‘Never Mind’ certainly does exist in English, and is frequently used. And I like it when it is used in the normal way. However, when people use “Never Mind Lah” in Singlish, I get easily irritated.

In ordinary English expression, people use this phrase when wanting to cheer up a person who is depressed because of his/her mistakes or bad results. But in Singapore, people who have made mistakes often say ‘Never Mind Lah’ to the person who was affected by that mistake!!!!!!

Let me give an example from a daily life situation……;At a bank, money was miscounted by a bank clerk, and a customer recognized it. Then, the bank clerk said ‘Oh Never Mind Lah~’.

Well, I would shout ‘Say “I am sorry” !!!’ Especially when hearing ‘Lah~’ in the end of a sentence, it makes it even more irritating!!!!! This seems to be a part of cross-cultural experiences…. !