The most useful foreign language to pick up in S'pore is...
- Thread starter xmen1977
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amirfarhan
New Member
bahasa indon. seems to be in demand after japanese. must be because of all those indon maids in singapore.
Poledra said:Yup. I totally agree with you about that part of language being lost if not used frequently.
That's why Malay is the most practical thing to learn. In my opinion. We're surrounded by Muslim countries... And when you haggle at night markets in Malaysia, you're gonna get a better price if you use Malay..
surrounded by Muslim countries ? what it has got to do with Malay language ?
and, last time I check, Indonesia is not a Muslim country. A country with largest Muslim population, it is, but a Muslim country ? nope..
AixisOfJustice
New Member
Poledra said:Yup. I totally agree with you about that part of language being lost if not used frequently.
That's why Malay is the most practical thing to learn. In my opinion. We're surrounded by Muslim countries... And when you haggle at night markets in Malaysia, you're gonna get a better price if you use Malay..
Actually I dun understand ... what has being muslim got to do with malay and vice versa? not all malays are muslims and not all muslims are malays. it is just that the majority of the malays here in this region are muslims.
fact is, malay cannot be categorised as a foreign language as it is the language in this region. Lest anyone here forget, malay is the national language of singapore (if i recall correctly).
English is very popular as it has the most countries that can speak English, and thus is the most influential language in the world.
2nd would be French, with the 2nd most countries that speak french, and in certain cases, the next most commonly used language in the business world. Just look at all the various product name that we have been buying. A lot are actually in french. Just look at cosmetic for example. And there are many more.
The 3rd most influential language should be Spanish, but in our case, I would think Mandarin should be more influential. Just going by the total number of people that speak mandarin is staggering. About 1/5th of the world population speak mandarin (most of them in China). Total number of English speaking people are only half of that. And China is a huge market waiting to be tapped.
So for most Singaporean Chinese, if we are all effectively bilingual with English and our mother tongue, then I would say that learning to speak French makes more sense. Of course there are always other factors that learning other kind of language would be better. Example if a person had a lot of dealings with our close neighbours, then learning to speak Malay would make more sense. And if any who wish to tap into the growing Middle East market, then learning Arabic would be better.
The most funny thing is that Singapore has 4 official languages, but how many of us can actually speak all 4?? If we can't even speak all of our official languages, why are we bothering with the rest?? Very contradicting isn't it.:bsmilie: :bsmilie:
2nd would be French, with the 2nd most countries that speak french, and in certain cases, the next most commonly used language in the business world. Just look at all the various product name that we have been buying. A lot are actually in french. Just look at cosmetic for example. And there are many more.
The 3rd most influential language should be Spanish, but in our case, I would think Mandarin should be more influential. Just going by the total number of people that speak mandarin is staggering. About 1/5th of the world population speak mandarin (most of them in China). Total number of English speaking people are only half of that. And China is a huge market waiting to be tapped.
So for most Singaporean Chinese, if we are all effectively bilingual with English and our mother tongue, then I would say that learning to speak French makes more sense. Of course there are always other factors that learning other kind of language would be better. Example if a person had a lot of dealings with our close neighbours, then learning to speak Malay would make more sense. And if any who wish to tap into the growing Middle East market, then learning Arabic would be better.
The most funny thing is that Singapore has 4 official languages, but how many of us can actually speak all 4?? If we can't even speak all of our official languages, why are we bothering with the rest?? Very contradicting isn't it.:bsmilie: :bsmilie:
kelccm said:
Particularly due to the British Empire's dominance in the 19th century. Yes, English it is.
kelccm said:
While Malay, Tamil and Chinese shares the official language status, how many laws are enacted in a language none other than English? Of course, that is to reflect the structure of the society; we are a multi-racial society of a similar history. Do our ancestors not struggled together for the homeland we endorse so dearly today?
I had never considered Chinese as my mother tongue, particulary due to the fact I grew up with lots of non-Chinese. I am considering English as my primary language, though it seemed for now, my family speaks only English.
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