Does 'a while' always mean a while?

I sometimes read trashy alternative news reports from dubious 'news' sites because they somehow enter my feed. Only such sites will report on the TikTok postings of people who really don't know much about the subject they talk about. A few days ago, one such dubious site reported on the TikTok post of a woman who says she's from Montana and has lived in Singapore for the past 10 months. In the post, she talks about 'the hardest Singlish phrase' she's encountered. She recounts the story of a medical appointment she had. She was told by a nurse, 'Please go have a seat, wait a while and the nurse will be out to collect you'. She says the nurse said it with a friendly smile and since she isn't a confrontational person, she just sat down, but 'inside, [she] was flabbergasted'. She was upset that the nurse could say that with a smile on her face. She goes on to say on TikTok, 'Doesn't she understand what she just said?' 

Mind the translation Part 3

I first posted Mind the translation! in which I explained that SMRT's notice 'Berhati-hati di ruang platform' was incorrect and did not at all convey the meaning it intended. I then took a photograph of the notice on a train in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and I posted the correct translation used there in this blogpost: Mind the translation! Part 2. 

I thought that was the end of the matter until one day, as I was travelling on SMRT's train in Singapore, I noticed to my amusement that SMRT had changed its 'Mind the gap' notice to this:

Mind the translation! Part 2

My last blog post attracted quite a bit of criticism from readers who felt I was not equipped to comment on Malay grammar and vocabulary. The sole objection that my readers have is my ethnicity. Many readers are of the view that only ethnic Malays speak the language perfectly and can tell what is wrong with a sentence written in Malay. That's as stupid as saying only the English can teach English and if Bernard Shaw is correct, the English are the last people you should turn to if you need help on the English language.