Chinese Language in Singapore question

[Guoke]

I see. I worked in Singapore for a couple of years. There weren't so many Mainland Chinese then and I haven't gone back since I left. I guess things must have changed a lot.

[renzhe]

It's strange that little is known to foreigners, including Mainland Chinese, that such an established Mandarin community exists outside Mainland China and Taiwan

I didn't know either, it's certainly interesting.

I had a Malaysian Chinese friend, but he was a Cantonese speaker and spoke no Mandarin. But perhaps he was too old, and missed out on the Mandarin education, if it's really something relatively recent.

Edited July 9, 2009 at 09:33 AM by renzhe

[Guoke]

renzhe,

Yes, you're right. The older generation tend to speak Chinese dialects more, although many of them have attended Chinese schools and are able to speak and understand Mandarin. Many of the younger generation, however, can no longer understand or speak their parents' dialects. They learn and speak Mandarin as their first language. The younger generation also speak better and more standard Mandarin than the older generation. I've noticed that a truly Mandarin-speaking community is taking shape among the Chinese here in Malaysia.

Incidentally, I was really surprised the other day by a four-year-old boy when he tried to tell me in Mandarin that a brother and a sister cannot get married because "他们有血缘关系". Yes, those are the exact words that came out of his mouth.

[creamyhorror]

A friend of mine who's ethnically chinese was in Singapore last month and was surprised to find that alot of the store keepers and shop owners spoke to her in Mandarin. She believes the reason being is the large influx of Mainlanders working and studying in Singapore.

Nope, Chinese shopkeepers in the more suburban/less central areas have been speaking Mandarin for two or three decades (before that it was mainly dialect). The influx of Malaysian and mainland Chinese has no doubt played a role more recently, but Chinese Singaporeans have been Mandarin-speaking for a long enough time.

I'm most comfortable in English but when I'm in neighbourhood estates I mainly use Mandarin when talking to shopkeepers.

If you want more mainland Chinese conversation, just look for shops whose proprietors or assistants have a noticeable mainland twang and keep patronising them. Or you can try the massage parlours; I'm sure they'll be happy to chat with you during the massage

(Also, I thought young Malaysian Chinese weren't that good at Mandarin. The few I know tend to speak Bahasa among themselves, and are more comfortable in dialect - but maybe they were from Bahasa-medium schools. I was also under the impression that Malaysia's Chinese community had a strong focus on preserving its dialects over Mandarin.)

[calibre2001]

American speaks Singapore style English

[Meng Lelan]

That Singlish? I couldn't understand a word of it.

[calibre2001]

He does throw in some Mandarin and 閩南 in his speech too

[renzhe]

That Singlish? I couldn't understand a word of it.

Really? It wasn't that bad.

[yaoluck]

Just put it this way,

at least half of Singaporean student will choose to converse in English when meeting a chinese student. This is what I've observed oversea. This means that half of young people have problem speaking convincing chinese.

There is also an issue of pride, I don't know if it still exist today, but about 10 years ago, some people snub you because u speak mandarin. I expect things to changed alot, but how much I dun know.

Then there is the issue of accent.

The bottom line is, if ur primary motive is to learn Chinese, Singapore is not the best place. But if you have another reason, and learning chinese is 2nd on the list, then Singapore is good. Given that you will start off fast since everyone speaks english, but this will make it hard to converse in chinese since everyone speaks english.

I guess the reason u r choosing singapore because or expat relocation is easier there. IF that's the case, hire a mainland chinese tutor, twice every week. There are a big population of mainland chinese in Singapore

[creamyhorror]

I'd only seen Tyler's old video from his on-stage performance with another guy in school, but this video shows that he really knows his Singlish-Hokkien-Mandarin. Although his contraction of "kanina" as "kana" sounded pretty strange...that sort of slurring needs a more beng-ish tone to sound natural.

[calibre2001]