Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by lacampbell 3434 days ago
This is rich. Singapore's official languages are Malay, Mandarin, Tamil, and English. The official national language is Malay. Let me take a wild guess ... as an immigrant to Singapore, you've been studiously learning Malay, Mandarin and Tamil, and you absolutely do not segregate into a clique of white anglophones in your social life. Good for you, model immigrant that you are. /s

Your ignorance of Singapore is showing here. English is by far the most widely spoken language of that country. it's the language of the education system, of the government, road signs, etc. It's the most widely spoken language at home, and the lingua franca of the country. You might as well berate immigrants to New Zealand for not learning Maori or NZSL.

1 comments

>Your ignorance of Singapore is showing here.

Thanks, but I have spent a great deal of time in Singapore and know perfectly well what language road signs are in.

> You might as well berate immigrants to New Zealand for not learning Maori or NZSL.

You are comparing the importance of Malay and Mandarin in Singapore to sign language ... I think perhaps it is your ignorance of Singapore's ethnic peoples that is showing here.

Singapore is a city state, and its main language is English. Not learning one of its secondary languages hardly equates to not integrating.