Actually those that take Mandarin serious, do not do it in Singapore, when i was in the Beijing Language Institute, i met the mother and her son, someone very high up in the National University, she told me that Singapore was a very poor place to learn Mandarin as English is the focus and Mandarin isn't really at a good standard yet, so she sent her son to China, also because the courses are much cheaper too..Eau2011 wrote:I was being a bit sarcastic to say their Mandarin is as good as their English.... because Mandarin is still my mother tongue.sundaymorningstaple wrote:According to those in the know, the majority's Mandarin is as bad as their English. It more commonly called singdarin and their English is called singlish. Both are atrocious and the government has been running campaigns for years trying to correct it to no avail.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singdarin
So...which language can Singaporeans speak properly, if not English and Mandarin?
My wife is Taiwanese, they still have traditional Chinese Characters there, though my 10 yr old daughter must settle for simplified Chinese. They wouldn't let her take Mandarin as mother tongue, which i wanted, as English is first language here and father is a Heinz 57 variety, British, Irish, Welsh and some Spanish I guess with a dash of Scandinavian too floating around
It is far too slow here to pick up anything significant in terms of Chinese Mandarin for foreigners, though as a young child talking with other Chinese kids, they adapt easy and pick it up easy, so by all means let the kids start learning. For beneficial and significant study either a course in China or Taiwan, though Taiwan use the Wade Giles system and China have adopted pin yin if i'm not wrong, its been a long long time Since i was in China, it may have changed again.