Moving to Singapore next year - is it worth learning Chinese?

[Jessica_Williams]

Hello everyone!

My name is Jess, and this is my first time on this forum.

My boyfriend and I are hopefully moving to Singapore next year for work, and I am getting very excited reading all your posts about what it is like to live there! I've never visited, but we are coming over in September to see what the place is like.

I was just wondering what your views were on trying to learn some Chinese before I go? It looks like from what most of you have said that it is easy to get by with English, but I wondered if it might help with work? My firm is an International bank but we employ a lot of locals in the Singapore office.

Thank you all!

Jess

[ecureilx]

ah .. the question of Chinese.

my take ?

If you are not chinese, and speak chinese with an accent, nobody will even try to listen. If you know how Mandarin works .. you will know what I mean .... and learning Mandarin will not endear you to the rest of the folks, especially those who speak Canto or other dialects, and may not even know how to read or write Mandarin.

And Chinese will not give you a big head-up .. in Singapore .. maybe a small help ...

Because, those industries and areas where chinese speakers are preferred - like in HR, Accounting etc, small companies will never employ foreigners, even if they have excellent Mandarin skills .. and larger companies dont give two hoots about Mandarin ..

English is well used everywhere, except in some places like food-courts and public busses, where the influx of cheap china workers have created serious problems even for the local folks, as they themselves have communication problem when talking to Mainlanders.

Cheers

[Jessica_Williams]

Thank you so much for your advice - some very good points there. In that case, I don't think i'll worry to much about it!

Thanks again

Jess

[ecureilx]

Just a tongue-in-cheek comment .. more often than ever, people from South East Asia - generally dont appreciate non-native language speakers trying to speak in their language .. rather than English.

More often than ever, I have seen natives in this region totally ignore foreigners when trying out their pidgin Mandarin, Malay or Tagalog, and get comfortable only when spoken to in English !!!

[Jessica_Williams]

It's funny - so different to the UK, where everyone would generally prefer the token gesture of being spoken to in English, no matter how bad, and it is seen as a sign of rudeness if anything else is spoken!

Genuinely though - thank you for your advice, it's appreciated!! I'll stick to English I think.

[rabbitnini]

Hi there,

Chinese is very difficult to learn, as many words sounds the same, but got different meanings, one word may have more than ten meanings when you place it in different place.
It is really challenging.

[ini_niki]

Hey there ...

I'm actually going to disagree with the first poster ... I'm lucky in that I lived in China for 5 years and actually do speak Mandarin ... I also grew up in Malaysia and so speak basic Malay too ...

While you can easily get around and do everything in English in Singapore, the arrogance of not even trying to learn one of the local languages just pisses me off ...

Why not give it a go ... and I totally disagree with the first poster saying that local's don't like you try to speak their language ...

Absolutely everywhere I've gone / lived I've attempted to learn the local language ... even those countries I've only spent a short time in like Japan ...

Why?

1. Because it shows that you are interested in their culture -- and every single person I've tried to speak to has been delighted that I've given it a go ... it's also been super helpful in breaking the ice -- yes, even here in Sing -- since it offers people something to ask you about. In fact, in Sing I've been approached by heaps of people -- esp. Chinese -- saying wow, it's so cool ... your Chinese is better than mine! ... which it usually isn't but it's nice of them to say so
2. You get an idea of how people think, you understand where they're coming from better, you become a part of the culture, you can learn things that they aren't going to tell you up front -- you overhear stuff that can be useful in your job / relationships
3. Learning a new language is always good for the brain ... it improves the use of your own language -- ie. grammar -- improves your memory and make your thinking more open and flexible
4. You look like you care about being here -- the one thing I hate more than anything are arrogant expats (more often then not from the UK or the US) who just assume that everyone should fit into their culture and not the other way around. After all -- you're coming to live in Singapore to experience a new culture right? If not, stay in the UK ...

So ... don't want to sound to aggressive ... but I think it's worth thinking about ...

However ... I also agree that Chinese is very, very difficult to learn ...

So ... I suggest that you try Malay instead. You won't have to learn a new letter system (they use English characters) and the pronunciation is much simpler. Also there are many borrow words from English -- eg. confrontation = konfrontasi etc

and ... you can use your Malay when you visit Malaysia -- which I'm sure you'll do as it's the cheapest place for a great tropical holiday ... and when you visit Indonesia as well (the languages are about 70% the same, esp. the written form) and even can use it in southern Phillipines ...

So ... if you want to get the best out of your time in Singapore, learn another language!!! You never know, you might make a whole new bunch of friends and find a life-long passion ...

Cheers
ini_niki

[natalie schwantje]

Originally Posted by jessica_williams

hello everyone!

My name is jess, and this is my first time on this forum.

My boyfriend and i are hopefully moving to singapore next year for work, and i am getting very excited reading all your posts about what it is like to live there! I've never visited, but we are coming over in september to see what the place is like.

I was just wondering what your views were on trying to learn some chinese before i go? It looks like from what most of you have said that it is easy to get by with english, but i wondered if it might help with work? My firm is an international bank but we employ a lot of locals in the singapore office.

Thank you all!

Jess

no...dont bother to learn chinese. I have been here 4 years. I only know how to say
thank you and tomato. Plus which dialect will you learn. People here speak singlish.
Maybe you should teach engrish here?

[ecureilx]

roger that Natalie - my england not so powderful ..

Mebbe learn some singlish - bagus ..

hehe .. couldnt resist ..

[DeeGee]

Originally Posted by ecureilx

roger that Natalie - my england not so powderful ..

Mebbe learn some singlish - bagus ..

hehe .. couldnt resist ..

Nono... Your Engrand veli powderfooo...

Singrish also belli goose...

Who wan learn Singrish can learn here lor...

We all can teach you all one...

No probrem...


In proper english:

I beg to differ... I suppose you have a remarkably good command of english...

You also have a good command of singlish...

Would you like to learn Singlish here?

We will be able to teach you Singlish if you wish...