Languages in Singapore

[Observer]

Just wonder what is the official language in Singapore?
Do Singaporeans consider themselves native speakers of English?

[Guest]

Official language is Malay, however, you will hardly find any malay speaking ppl in Singapore.

[Observer]

English is not one of the official languages in Singapore?!
Then what languages do the kids learn at school?

[Yutenji]

Hi

... you will hardly find any malay speaking ppl in Singapore.

Errr, are you sure about that ?! (Rhetorical question).
Malay is the official language for the country, for historical reasons. And there are still plenty of people speaking Malay (about 20% of the population, e.g. about 700,000 people).
Having said that, English is the normal language for international business, and Chinese (Mandarin, Hokkian and other dialects) is widely spoken.
It's a tough one to generalise but (imho) English, or it's local equivalent Singlish, is the language used for business and between different 'races', whereas Mandarin/Hokkian etc are used amongst between different Chinese groups and amongst Chinese families.
For schools, apart from the 'International' schools, most are divided into English or Mandarin. It's your choice.
As for whether Singaporeans regard themselves as native English speakers ... I ain't touching that one :!:
Hope this helps.

[harri]

english will do