Singapore is known to be a state that accommodates a couple of races from Mandarin to Chinese to English to Tamil and Malay. Due to this it has necessitated the individuals to learn different languages so as to ease on communication. Even though Singapore was colonized by the British English is not the commonly spoken language, however in official institutions it is the main language spoken. It was in the British colonization that the different languages were brought in the country, this was facilitated by introduction of different schools of different races. These schools taught the respective students’ specific languages and there came the languages. The main languages are however ‘de facto’ and ‘English’. In this article we are going to put our emphasis on the way Singapore learn foreign languages and which foreign languages are learnt recently in the state.
Learning of Foreign Languages
Foreign languages are nevertheless important to learn for flexibility in communication worldwide. In Singapore, foreign languages such as Thai, Indonesia, Bahasa, Chinese, French and German are learnt by the individuals apart from the indigenous languages present. It is noticeable that most of the businesses done in Singapore take place in partnership with the various countries, so by learning their language business activities will be simple to run. Opportunities of business will however increase considering that they can easily interact with people from other neighboring countries. Thai is the main foreign language taught in language schools in Singapore whereas the rest follows, and can be therefore regarded as a second language in the state.
Different languages have different learning forums, for instance, in studying of Chinese (Mandarin Chinese) which is preferred due to the quite great percentage of Chinese in the region they use the HCL program (Higher Chinese Language). It has however developed with time and changes have been spontaneously changing such that the Chinese is now learnt in lower primary schools where it is learnt for enjoyment and upper primary level where the students learn skills on writing-not only speaking and listening. The schools’ objectives are to provide the support the students need for understanding the language. First, they build foundation to the student, teach them on the basic specific language skills and skip to the next level where literacy is highly prioritized. In this level a student is also examined on the language learnt. Then the encouragement of the student with notifiable interest is done, students put to read and learn the languages using different tools.
It was discovered that most of the people who went for language classes only learnt the languages for leisure purpose but due to the business blossom with foreigners it became part of the business deal. Also, tourist and travelers increased rapidly and captured an interest to learn what the natives of the other group of people talked, this urged them to start language learning of the respective areas as well as to get to know and explore their culture. Singaporeans have found it fascinating to learn the languages for it comes in handy with culture skills basic japanese class times.