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'Hello lah, I'm Singapore': Thai show playfully mocks Singlish in TV series

This article is more than 12 months old

Whether you love or cringe at it, let’s all admit – Singlish isn’t exactly the sexiest sounding patois around the globe. 

Yet, there are rules to our unique vernacular. 

For instance, “lah” has never – in any context – been used with a greeting like “hello”.

Someone should have sent that memo to the writers of the Thai television series, The Judgement, which recently depicted a Singaporean character with a wildly inaccurate use of Singlish.     

Digital content creator Zhi Kai shared a clip of the character from the 11th episode of The Judgement on TikTok.

"Didn't know that the Singaporean accent is just LAH," Zhi Kai wrote.

In the clip, one of the show's female characters, Som, bumps into a stranger with a camera on the street.

"Hello lah, I'm Singapore," the man says, with an extremely unnatural emphasis on the "lah".

"I'm a photographer lah. I walk along to take a photo on the street and I saw you ah."

After Som asks him who gave him permission to take a photo of her, the photographer answers: 

"Oh. I'm sorry lah. You looked so beautiful, I cannot stop myself. I will delete it lah!"

"No, if you like it, keep it,"  Som says.

"Oh, thank you lah," the man replies.

Later on, Som bades goodbye to the photographer, saying cheekily, "Nice to meet you too... lah!"

@poorkaikai Hello lah, I’m Singapore ?? #singlish #lah #funny #fyp #joke ♬ original sound - Poorkaikai

Speaking to Mothership, Zhi Kai said he burst out laughing as soon as he heard the photographer say, "Hello lah".

The video has been viewed more than 110,000 times, garnering hundreds of comments. 

And, as you’d have guessed, many Singaporeans were bewildered:

All the same, Zhi Kai said he didn't think the inaccurate Singaporean portrayal was a big deal  because "the character was not a bad person (and didn’t have) any unhealthy stereotypical Singaporean behaviour".

I guess we’re thankful for that, lah. 

SINGLISHthailandTV series