Tourist TikToker at Changi Airport mistakenly calls local language ‘Singapori’
A foreigner who was in Singapore’s Changi Airport for a six-hour stopover has garnered attention on TikTok by mistaking the language used on information panels to be “Singapori”.
The TikTok user, known as Archie, shared his experience of the airport’s facilities in a post on March 14.
His video highlights included the Cactus Garden, which he found unusual for an airport.
Changi Airport’s Cactus Garden is home to more than 100 species of cacti and other arid plants, some of which are endangered species, its website states.
In the video, he praises the garden as a pleasant spot for those in transit to get some fresh air.
But he mistakenly refers to the language on the information panels installed near the plants as “Singapori”, sparking a flurry of amused reactions from Singaporean netizens.
Archie’s video quickly went viral, amassing more than 440,000 views and nearly 39,000 likes. Singaporeans took to the comments section with humorous retorts.
One user playfully responded, “Ran straight to the comments,” while another chimed in, “You speak good Britisori or whatever that is”.
The jest continued with a user saying, “As a linguistics major, I would love to study Singapori,” and another joked, “Singapori is my favourite language.”
English is one of four main languages in Singapore, the others being Malay, Chinese and Tamil.
It is the medium of instruction in schools in the former British colony and also the principal language used in business and commerce.
But many locals speak Singlish, an informal, colloquial form of English that incorporates some elements of Chinese and Malay.
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