Hello, I work in Malaysia. But my HQ is in Singapore. I liase a lot
with the singaporeans by phone and email. But I don't understand
why my singaporean co-workers speak to me in mandarin even though I
kept on telling them that my mandarin is only kindergarden level.
Even they come down here for visits, they also speak to me in
mandarin, only when i ask them to speak to me in english, then they
do so.
Yes most malaysians speak and write mandarins. But I am one of
the 20% malaysian chinese who don't.
It is ok to speak in mandarins.
Just like me when I called up my shanghai colleagues, I speaks
mandrian with them and they feel comfortable with it.
And when I called up my Jkt colleagues, I speaks English. Too
bad, I dont know malays. If know, I definately speaks malay
too.