Is Mandarin in PRACTICE the main language of Singapore?

5 Comments

1. amir l says:

   September 25, 2009 at 9:34 am

   Those Chinese maybe speak mandarin to their parents who is not educated, but educated parents from what i know converse with their child English. If they speak casually with their peers they speak singlish (Singaporean English) But if they speak professionally, they can constantly switch form singlish to standard English.
2. languages1001 says:

   September 25, 2009 at 9:34 am

   http://chinois.chinese.free.fr/index_uk.php
3. Gina says:

   September 25, 2009 at 9:34 am

   The official language of Singapore is English and not Mandarin. Legal documents are drafted in English and all signposts on the streets are in English. Singaporeans are mostly bilingual, but English is a more important subject than Chinese in schools. If you flunk English, you would be deemed to have failed the entire exam. There is a large group of Singaporeans known as the "ang moh pai" who only live, breath, speak and dream in English and another group which is more comfortable with speaking Chinese at home, and here in Singapore, those who are Chinese-educated don’t often see eye-to-eye with their english-educated counterparts.
4. Rooster Booster says:

   September 25, 2009 at 9:34 am

   While Mandarin is very widely spoken in Singapore, it’s English that’s considered the lingua franca of the city state.
5. TexHabsfan says:

   September 25, 2009 at 9:34 am

   English is the lingua franca for all, official languages – English, Mandarin, Hindi, Malay