Language

As someone who only speaks one language, multilingual people fascinate me. I know many people who can speak on the phone in one language and carry on a conversation in person in a different language at the same time. I am incredibly jealous of this skill. On this trip, I have run into countless more people who are fluent in multiple languages.

In one of our many bonding hours at the airport, we realized in our group there were eight Americans, one Malaysian, and one Venezuelan. The eight Americans spoke a combined total of one language, english. Many people can get by in other languages if truly forced, but no one is close to fluent. The two non-Americans spoke a combined total of eight languages, all of the fluently. This absolutely astounds me. They both have been learning the languages since they were young, but I still cannot imagine ever being able to switch between that many languages.

Almost everyone in Singapore is multi-lingual. There are four official languages: English, Mandarin, Malay, and Tamil. English is taught in schools and is used in official business. Many people come from families that speak Mandarin. Malay is used in all official songs, and poems and other such documents (no real idea of what all this includes). Tamil simply comes from the Indian population here. What I really find interesting is that while all business is conducted in english, almost no one is really comfortable and fluent in the language. When two people are together that know another language, they will almost always switch to that language.

While in Hong Kong, one person in our group made the observation that while fewer people spoke English, those that did spoke it much better than people in Singapore. In Singapore, there seems to be almost no regard for spelling and grammar. On my official quarantine papers, there was a stamp on the very top of my paper that read, "Isued Tamiflu: Yes/No." I could not believe that a stamp had been made and then used countless times with "issued" spelled wrong! I thought that was bad, until I went to the mall and saw this shirt. Sorry I'm too lazy right now to try and figure out how to rotate it.