A similar observation can be made when comparing Mandarin Chinese with English. Here is an extract from an article in Issue 638 of Friday Weekly, a newspaper targeted at schoolchildren in Singapore:
大 小 不 同、 各 色 各 样 的 风 筝 令 人 眼 花 缭 乱， 一 下 子 也 无 从 选 择。 虽 然 精 贵 的 风 筝 特 别 吸 引 人， 我 还 是 替 大 家 选 了 最 便 宜、 简 单 的 纸 风 筝。 理 由 是， 你 们 毕 竟 是 初 试 者， 就 先 学 会 把 简 陋 的 风 筝 送 上 天， 才 攀 缘 上 等 的 风 筝 吧。Even if you can't read Chinese, you can probably see that 风 筝 ('kite') occurs five times.
A literal translation is
There were so many different sizes and shapes of kite to choose between that for a moment I could not make up my mind. Although the expensive kites were attractive, I decided on the cheapest and simplest kite for everyone. As you were just beginners, it was best to practice with a simple kite before progressing to a more elaborate kite.This is not very good English because of the repetition of kite. Something like this would be much better:
There were so many different sizes and shapes of kite to choose between that for a moment I could not make up my mind. Although the expensive ones were attractive, I decided on the cheapest and simplest for everyone. As you were just beginners, it was best to practice with a simple model before progressing to something more elaborate.This seems to read much better in English. You may note that a variety of strategies have been adopted to avoid the repetition, including use of pronouns (ones, something), ellipsis (the cheapest and simplest) and a more general term (model).
When two of the indigenous languages in Southeast Asia, Chinese and Malay, both tolerate widespread lexical repetition and may even encourage it as a means of ensuring cohesion, it is hardly surprising if the English used in places such as Singapore and Brunei is affected.
