My accent's going meh? It's still British what?!

Walau!

I've realised that my British accent is becoming less obvious to Singaporeans... no, to other people. Maybe it's the fact that I've been surrounded with American or similar accents at home (as in my home in Singapore) and at SMU. I know that I often have a tendency to slowly pick up accents or my accent begins to change ever so slightly when I'm in a different country/place for a period of time.

Yesterday I was walking with a local friend of mine and we were just talking normally, until he paused and said "Either I'm getting used to your accent, or what you said just now sounded really Singaporean." Then I frantically tried to replay what I said. I couldn't figure out what might have sounded so Singaporean? Did I unknowingly say 'lah', 'neh', 'meh', 'what', or did I miss out a connecting word somewhere in my sentence?

Then my friend pointed out that it was the tone I said a particular word was flatter and the way I said the word was dragged out longer than I normally would have said it.

Then yesterday during a group meeting, a group mate of mine asked me where I'm actually from because she thought I was from the UK but she didn't think I sounded English, but she couldn't tell from my accent where I was actually from.

Don't get me wrong, I do like the Singaporean accent, I remember the first time I went away for a few days and when I came back, the first time I heard a distinct Singaporean accent put a smile on my face.

But for me, my accent helps define who I am over here and I kind of like the fact that people always think I'm local until I open my mouth.

Hmmm... perhaps I have potential to be moulded into a Singaporean? =)