Do people in singapore speak english and chinese ?

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PoshBerries

Yes, most Singaporeans mostly speak English, except the older folks. But I must clearly explain that Singaporeans include Chinese, Indians and Malays. So to communicate to other race, Singaporeans will speak English as our mother tongue language.

For Singaporean Chinese, most of us are able to converse in both English & Mandarin as we were taught in schools to speak in both languages. Other languages such as Tamil and Malay are offered to the Chinese as elective languages in school courses or ECAs (Extra-Curriculum Activities).

And for Singaporean Indians, some of them can actually speak Tamil & Malay languages as some Indians are converted to Indian-Muslims. Not only that, Singaporean Indians can also speak in Chinese and other local dialects.

As for Singaporean Malays, their main communication language will be Malay and same for every Singaporean, English is our mother tongue in all races. For your info, some of them can actually speak Chinese and dialects too.

But most importantly is, Singaporeans can actually speak an unique language named as "Sing-lish" and I bet many foreigners have heard of this. It is actually quite easy and fun to learning and speaking this language. However, it is not recognised as proper
English taught by teachers. Anyway, it is not a concern because when it comes to writing a proper essay or doing a proposal or preparing a presentation, I know most of us will stop using "Sing-lish" to write and converse, we can actually speak proper English to fit into the right situation.

jaikumaar6

yes in singapore four languages are spoken mainly
1.chinese
2.malay
3. tamil
4. english

sah

some speak chinese only------especially old shop owners
some speak chinese and english--------especially taxi drivers,the well off and youngsters
some speak tamil and english

juizy4apple

English will be our main language as Singapore is a multi-racial country.

Most Chinese will be able to speak chinese and their own diaclets. For your information, not all chinese know how to speaks mandarin. Some chinese are actually peranakan, what we call baba or mama in Singapore. Their main language will be Malay.

Malays will speak in their mother tongue and some will speaks chinese dialacts/ tamil.

Tamils will be able to speaks in their own language and also malayu/ chinese dialacts.

Singlish is a common language in teens.

sky_blue

Yes, they do

monochrome

yup they do. maybe some speak malay and tamil too.

The World Ends with You

People in Singapore speak English and their mother tongue.

If you were born to Chinese parents, you learn Chinese and possibly a dialect. I was born to Teochew and Cantonese parents, so I learned how to speak both, along with Chinese. However, staying in the US for years has made me lose touch with it. :( Anyway...

If you were born to Malay parents, you learn to speak bahasa Melayu, the Malay language.

If you were born to Indian parents, you learn Tamil.

qooimage

We may not be speaking Queen's English. In terms of writing formal report, we splash with good command of English!

For daily communication, we mix both languages together! We have our own language - SINGLISH!

cecelafleur

Well, they speak everything but the national languages are english, chinese, malay.

peanutz

Majority of the Chinese in Singapore are bilingual, speaking both Chinese and English. However this does not mean that there will not be Malays or Indians who can happily rattle in them too.This is the beauty of a multi-racial country in harmony.

floozy_niki

All educated Chinese are effectively able to speak both English and Chinese with ease.

acidten

Yes

Asesinos FC 4EVER - ENFANT

Yes. Majority of the population is bi-lingual. The people in Singapore either speak in English and another language (Mandarin, Malay, Tamil, Tagalog, etc.)

vienies259

english

supermario

basically, english ya.

but...

being a multi racial country, we have chinese, malay and indians. so not all speak english and chinese.

awara99

Official Language: English
National Language: Malay
Spoken Languages: English, Singlish (Singaporean English), Mandarin, Tamil, Malay.

Warren Tan

both

thea

yes, they do speak english and chinese.

sammitan

mainly english but if they're chinese sometimes you hear people speaking chinese. actually singlish is like english, chinese and malay put together. haha

simplegal

Most of the people here speak english, some chinese and also Singlish, cheers

drjenlee

YUP...all chinese here speaks mandarin n english..the malays n indians do speak english too.. english is their first language.

LeoL

Almost bilingually effective here for the Chinese mainly and English should be easily across the board for all races.

there's this thing about Singlish.....which ironically is due to poor use of vocabulary....similar ot the way mandarin is spoken here....looks like Singdarin is also in now.

rendragoon

My answer would be yes & no. All Singaporeans adopted English Language as our main language. Some of us (generally the Chinese) can speak English and Chinese Mandarin. But, do bear in mind, Singapore is a multi-racial country, comprising of 4 races (mainly Chinese, Malay, Indian and Eurasian). So, certain people will be speaking their Mother Tongue; Malay Language for Malays, Tamil/Hindi for Indians and French/German/Portugese for Eurasians.

We first learn to speak both English and Mother Tongue at the age of 5-7 in school. We cannot choose which Mother Tongue to learn. Instead, it's depends on your Father's race. Example, if your Father is a Chinese while your Mother is a Malay, the child would have to learn Chinese, even though if the family spoke most Malay at home.

For students who is in the Special stream, which means they'll very intelligent, he/she can be eligible to learn a third language which is either French, German or Japanese.

Delvin

Languages:
Mandarin 35%, English 23%, Malay 14.1%, Hokkien 11.4%, Cantonese 5.7%, Teochew 4.9%, Tamil 3.2%, other Chinese dialects 1.8%, other 0.9% (2000 census)

Religions:
Buddhist 42.5%, Muslim 14.9%, Taoist 8.5%, Hindu 4%, Catholic 4.8%, other Christian 9.8%, other 0.7%, none 14.8% (2000 census)

Getting more andmore Malay and Chinese families speaks English at home and neglect their own language. Sooner or later, English will be use mainly follow by Chinese...

Nowadays, alot of Malay and Indian know how to speak Mandrain.. As for working purpose...

naina mrc

ive been to singapore they either speak malay, english or tamil

Nigerian woman

malay

andykpln

english

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