I feel quite strongly about accents, actually.

I am in awe of those who can speak with neutral accents. Pure, crisp english untainted by local dialect and slang. Haven't met many who can speak like that. 'Cause I believe to speak with no accent, you have to be supremely confident in your language. You can't mask your inadequacies (grammar or pronunciation) , rather, you need no mask to conceal those flaws, for you will have none (or close to none) if you can speak perfect neutral english.

And I despise people who put on fake accents thinking that their grotesque grammatical errors will be hidden beneath that oh-so-posh British or (usually) American "x-cent".

No its not like I'm elitist - people with bad grammar deserve to die! - but I believe that it shows something when you don't bother to at least try correcting your basics, but instead feel that you're above others just because you possess a half-decent Southern drawl or some quasi-African American vocab.

I'm not talking about those who put on accents when speaking to caucasians - I know its impossible to have a half-decent conversation with most of them in singapore-accented english, I've tried - I'm talking about those who speak to fellow singaporeans in those pseudo-accents.

I know I may seem kinda hypocritical here - I do put on some weird accent subconsciously sometimes when I speak - but believe me, I try to stop myself when that happens. I believe that if your english is of a decent standard, you should be able to code-switch; if you have some self-respect, you will not consciously put on a pseudo-accent to show that you're better than the rest. 'Cause if you do you really aren't.

Just a general rant, actually. Felt like writing something vaguely argumentative so yeah. Oh I prob was influenced by 3 straight hours of Bookworm. (Level 12 at last!! Yay!!! :D)