Uncle???

I was watching a video of a group of men in Taipei, Taiwan, giving a performance of two songs in a church service. At the end of their short performance, the pastor of the church came up and asked the congregation if they wanted to hear more. He was speaking in Mandarin, saying, "有没有 "uncle"？聚会之前，他们有跟我说有没有 "uncle", 他们还是会唱多一首歌。" (English translation: Is there an "uncle"? Before the service, they told me they would sing another song even without "uncle".)

While the pastor was speaking, I was puzzled. What does "uncle" have to do with singing?

In the middle of their last song, I realised what "uncle" was. "Encore"! That's what the pastor was saying! He was asking the congregation if they wanted to hear more songs. If they did, then they should be saying, "Encore! Encore!"

Chinese English.
Mangled pronunciation.
Understand the context.

Having encountered many different nationalities speaking English, I am actually pretty good at deciphering what people are trying to say. This one stumped me. I suppose the context of a church service didn't help in this case. But, I got it in the end. It can get frustrating, but more often than not, I choose to celebrate the variety of English spoken around the world.

Let's celebrate variety and uniqueness!