Strangely enough, I had a problem with a thick local accent when I was looking for a Doraemon fluffy toy at the Mini Toons store at Junction 8 yesterday. A salesgirl came up and spoke in Mandarin or Singlish. I could not make out what she was saying as her speech was marked with a heavy inflection and slur. No, I didn't think that she was mainland Chinese, rather, I thought that she was local but she was simply lazy in pronouncing individual words. I could not make out the individual words as she slurred. ARRRGH! I felt like a stranger in my country! ARRRGH!