Recently a rather dated video made its rounds on Twitter.

Here it is:

Bila mat salleh tinggal kat Singapore terlampau lama sampai bercakap pun jadi orang Singapore. pic.twitter.com/Ox8uzdKNz5

— @Tok_Tek (@Tok_Tek) November 16, 2019

The video has over 30,000 retweets.

That particular video is a snippet of an interview uploaded on ClickNetwork eight years ago.

Here it is:

The English was dubbed by Shan Wee and Rosalyn Lee, as well as other media publications, as White Boy Singlish, or Winglish.

With no less than CNN featuring his exploits in 2009.

The boy, Tyler Creasman, had already been in the spotlight for a while thanks to that very Winglish, with Mr Brown featuring him on his blog in 2006.

His accent might be less of a surprise once you know a bit more about his background.

Creasman, at the time of the ClickNetwork interview in 2011, had already been residing in Singapore for about nine years.

In fact, in an interview with a fellow long-time immigrant, The Swedish Immigrant, Creasman touched on how it was more of a surprise that he could still speak American English.

"After six years of local school, it’s a miracle I can still speak American English. Honestly, if you immerse yourself in something for so long, it’ll rub off on you. I didn’t even realise it, but my parents said when I was in grade school I would switch accents talking to them or talking to my local friends."

Mediacorp and beyond

In the same interview with The Swedish Immigrant, Creasman was asked what plans he had going forward, to which he replied:

"Working for Mediacorp, obviously... Hah! I'm busy with getting through college right now, then we'll see."

He doesn't appear to have continued the same Winglish skits though, but what a weird little forgotten marker nonetheless.

Here is a nifty little skit with Creasman playing the role of a taxi driver to round this up.

Image from Clicknetwork and Funniestcomic

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