A YOUTUBE video has been circulating recently, in which Taiwanese TV personalities make fun of Singaporean English.

In it, they shared their experiences, including how the language confused them, how it amused them, and how it resembled Thai English.

The writer, a Singaporean singer and artiste, was asked to pen a letter to her Taiwanese counterparts.

If you haven't already known, Mandarin is the most widely spoken language in the entire world, followed by English.

I do not understand why you didn't start off by mocking our accented Mandarin - is it because you feel more superior about the Westerners' language? Every country has its own accented English, depending on the races and their own mother tongues.

We are one harmonious community and we are accustomed to one another's tones - for example, "lah" comes from the Malay language and "lor", from the Chinese language.

If one wants to mock at another's accent, there are tons and tons of nationalities which one can freely criticise.

In what way do we sound more Thai (as you mentioned) than you guys?

If you're well-travelled enough, the Thais can hardly speak English, and I am not mocking them, by the way.

Even among the English speakers themselves, there are some who speak the ghetto lingo and with all sorts of accents which I find incomprehensible.

But even we would not make fun of them because we think we have the correct "standard". Frankly speaking, when I travel to Taiwan, I have as hard a time as when I go to Thailand or Indonesia, to get myself understood - not because I have the funny Singlish accent - but because not many of your people speak English at all.

Some do not even know what "washroom" or "cable modem" means.

And being a subject of mockery in Singapore myself, I seriously think there is no fun in putting others down just to make yourselves feel better - because you are not good in English at all, in every sense.

Personally, I cannot stand Singlish but I'm more capable than the majority of you because I can understand someone who speaks that, as well as someone else who speaks in other accented forms of English, like your Taiwanese English, Texan, Georgian, etc.

I admit though that the hardest ones for me to understand are the Indian, Irish and (east) Australian English.

There is no point in debating who speaks better English anyway. Just look at the progress of our own countries.

People say, whoever who has the money and success is the victor (though I do not always agree, but for this time round, I do).

Signed,
Maia

The writer is a Star Blogger with Stomp, The Straits Times' social networking and citizen media website. This blog first appeared in Stomp. Go to www.stomp.com.sg to read what the other Star Bloggers have to say about this issue.