Icemoon SG last time policemen wear shorts. What ties do we have with Malaysia that is different from our ties with other countries?
angrynor SG HAHA!!!! Seriously, I wont mind. I think Singlish rocks anyway. Best lar. But then again, must use as working language also mah... Not all ang mohs can understand the use of lar and meh one mah.....
Icemoon SG Pragmatism. Don't the ang mohs know when you are in Rome, do as the Romans do? This includes speaking their tongues.
Icemoon SG Actually both of us made fallacious statements. I just realized .. your national language or 1st language has nothing to do with whether ang mohs understand you or not. Knowing your national/1st language is not mutually exclusive with knowing English. So Malaysia's official language is Bahasa Melayu .. but I'm sure those who deal with ang mohs know how to speak English too.
Icemoon SG To those who say Malaysia is a Malay country .. think twice. According to CIA factbook - http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/my.html Malay 50.4%, Chinese 23.7%, Indigenous 11%, Indian 7.1%, others 7.8% (2004 est.) Malays only constitute half of their population. And to those who say Indonesia is a Malay country .. obviously you are ignorant. According to CIA factbook - http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/id.html Javanese 45%, Sundanese 14%, Madurese 7.5%, coastal Malays 7.5%, other 26% The point is obvious. If we read the Sejarah Melayu .. it is a history of the Malay Peninsula (mostly Malacca and Johore).
Icemoon SG Come to think of it .. according to stats .. PRC and Jap tourists constitute the majority of tourists to Singapore? So .. mandarin should be the 1st language.
Cystaire SG No, if we must speak the language of the majority, then Hokkien should be our national language. My ancestors in China did not speak the northern dialect (which is known as "guan hua" or official-speak which by a twist of fate was retained as the national language of China). They spoke Hokkien, as did the ancestors of about a million Singaporeans.
angrynor SG haha... of course. We have been fooling around. Thats why our national lang is Malay and common tongue is English. Cheers.
Icemoon SG how did singapore land up with a hokkien majority but malaysia seems to have a cantonese majority?
Icemoon SG Empty label only. Other than the national anthem and military drills, what is in Malay? I recite the pledge in English and Mandarin .. not in Malay.
angrynor SG Fujian loves us. Guangdong loves Malaysia? Not sure either. Dunno the stats... Joking only ar!
Icemoon SG the order given in the CIA factbook is suggestive: Bahasa Melayu (official), English, Chinese (Cantonese, Mandarin, Hokkien, Hakka, Hainan, Foochow), Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Panjabi, Thai Cantonese before mandarin ok .. dun play play.
angrynor SG haha.... ok wat... I lived in China before... when i was real young. Their pu tong hua is really very bad... most of them speaks their own dialects... However, they are all picking up very fast. Cheers.
Icemoon SG Actually which northern dialect is it? Surely it is not the Beijing dialect .. because that one is the Beijing Qiang1.
Icemoon SG CCTV shows mandarin programme. In contrast, TVBS shows cantonese programme. Issit any wonder why the mainland are picking up very fast but HK are picking up slower? In Singapore, even our maids know a bit of mandarin .. from watching mediacock drama. They might not speak, but they can understand.
dragg SG it is important for any race to learn their mother tongue. do you know any malay that cannot speak malay? but there are plenty of chinese who cannot speak chinese.
