Why does Singapore practice English instead of Chinese?

Let me first talk about why Singapore, as a Southeast Asian country, takes English as the official first language.

Singapore was originally a kingdom in Johor, Malay Peninsula, and its aborigines were mainly Malays. 18 19, that is, the year when Queen Victoria, the "Queen of India", ascended the throne, Sir Thomas Stanford Raffles, an employee of the British East India Company (Jamaican, England) landed in Singapore on behalf of the empire, which opened the period of British rule. 1824, the Kingdom of Johor formally signed a treaty to cede Singapore, thus becoming a British colony. At that time, the sun will never set in this century. As a British colony, you don't have to force the popularization of English, you can only use it regularly.

It was not until 1942 that the Japanese took over the control of Singapore from the British, which opened a short period of Japanese rule. 1945, that is, three years after Japan occupied the whole territory of Singapore, it declared defeat and all its members withdrew. We can feel from Korean dramas and Taiwanese dramas that Japanese is often quoted in the spoken language of Taiwan Province Province and Koreans. But Singapore is different. After all, the Japanese control time is very short, so it has no influence on the status of English at all.

You know, before 123, English was the official language of Singapore. During this period, there were not only Malays inside and outside Singapore, but also foreigners such as Nanqing people, Indians, Thais, Armenians and Jews. If they want to live in Singapore for a long time, of course, they must learn English. The same is true after that.

Let's talk about Chinese again. But before that, I think we should first make clear the key word in the question-Chinese. First of all, Chinese can be a big concept, including the mother tongue of all Han people, but it is also often used to refer to Putonghua.

As we all know, among Singapore's population of more than 5.6 million, Chinese account for about 75%, followed by 13% Malays and 9% Indians, and finally there are very few Eurasian and other races.

Among the Chinese in Singapore, 40% are from Fujian, while nearly 40% are from Guangdong, Hainan and Zhejiang, and more than 20% are from southern provinces of China. Most of these Chinese immigrated before the founding of New China, and the Chinese are famous for holding groups to keep warm. People in other places will live in a circle in an organized way, and this is how Chinatown around the world comes from.

This means that China people have brought their mother tongue into their daily use, that is, various types of Min dialect, Cantonese, Qiong dialect, southern Wu dialect and even more kinds of southern dialects, and have little affection for Putonghua based on Beijing Mandarin. In other words, it is normal for most Chinese in Singapore that Mandarin is not their first mother tongue.

For more knowledge points, please check the original link:

Why is the official first language in Singapore not Chinese?