A small state in Southeast Asia occupies only 171st place in terms of area occupied by territory in the world list, but at the same time it boasts several state languages. In Singapore, as many as four are accepted as official - Malay, Mandarin, Tamil and English.
Some statistics and facts
- In addition to the official ones in Singapore, there are more than a dozen and a half languages, dialects and dialects in use. The country is a multiracial and multinational state.
- The language used in the field of interethnic communication, or "lingua franca" in Singapore at all times was Malay, but today it is widely supplanted by English. They prefer to conduct business negotiations, communicate with tourists, teach in universities.
- English appeared in Singapore at the beginning of the 19th century, when the British established a colony here and built a port. After gaining independence in the middle of the twentieth century, the country's government chose to keep English as the main one. This made it possible to take advantage of the economic advantages and bring Singapore to the number of advanced countries.
- Most of the country's residents speak at least two official languages of Singapore, and one of them is English.
- 60% of Chinese and Indian children and 35% of Malay children use English as their home language.
Chinese roots
The proximity of China and the large percentage of people from the Middle Kingdom among the inhabitants of Singapore are a good reason to make Chinese one of the official languages. Mandarin Chinese is the standard version of Chinese. In the country, it was introduced into use in 1920, opening up teaching in schools in Chinese. Seeing the language as a tool to preserve the identity of Singaporean Chinese, the government runs special programs to promote it, and a university in Singapore caters to the needs of ethnic Chinese to learn in their native language.
Tourist notes
When traveling in Singapore, tourists with knowledge of English do not need the additional help of the guides. All announcements, signs, information signs are made in four state languages of Singapore, including English. Restaurant menus are also English-language.
You can easily buy a ticket for public transport at automatic ticket offices or use ATMs - on all such devices, you just need to select the menu option in English.
