It's National Day, and everyone's doing their bit to wish our country well on its 53rd birthday.

The U.S. Embassy in Singapore is no different, and has released a video featuring a few of their American staff trying their best to come to grips with what comes most naturally to Singaporeans after complaining — Singlish.

Fill in the blanks

They were presented with sentences about the good relations Singapore has with the U.S., and were tasked with filling blanks in them with some of the most quintessential addenda to the Singlish lexicon:

• lah
• lor, and not forgetting
• leh.

If for some reason you don't recognise these, they happen to be terms Singaporeans use in our daily speech, mostly at the end of clauses or sentences to emphasise a point or to convey an emotion that is otherwise inexpressible (or takes too much effort to express) in normal English.

While these words come to us naturally without thinking, most foreigners (unless they've been living in Singapore for a long time) would not even know where to begin.

You can try filling the blanks in yourself to see where you stand in terms of your Singaporean-ness.

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Here are some of the sentences:

1. Wah! Singapore is turning 53 already _____!
2. Ok _____... 53 is still considered very young.
3. Everyone is so friendly... and the food... shiok _____!
4. Thanks _____ Singapore... for your friendship all these years!

You can watch the video here to see if you got them right:

Singlish sounds "cool"

While not all of them managed to get the correct answers, one thought Singlish "sounds really cool" and another declared it is a language he will not try to master.

Although we of course don't need recognition or appreciation from foreigners for our local lingo, it sure is fun watching them attempt to speak it.

Top image adapted via screenshots from U.S. Embassy Singapore video