Start Learning Singapore's Five Languages - Celebrate On National Day and all year

Happy Birthday Singapore. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Singapore's National Day is August 9th every year and in 2019 it falls on a Friday. The whole weekend, Friday to Monday, is a holiday in Singapore, and it coincides with a Muslim festival so there's lots going on in the centre and all over the city, carnivals and kiosks, free fun and food to buy.

Although I cannot be there on National day, I have been busy taking photos of the flags around the city. I am also preparing a presentation on the five languages for Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters Club which meets two days before National Day, on the Wednesday.

Four Official Languages
Singapore's four official languages are 1 English!

UK flag. The Union Jack.

(British) English.

Hello. How do you do? Welcome.
Hello and welcome. 
Hi (informal and USA). 
Good morning. Good afternoon. Good evening. Good night. Goodbye.


Flag of China

2 Chinese (Mandarin), (spoken in China and Singapore)
Chinese greeting:
Ni how (pronounced knee how? Literally you good?)
(Reply:) How (meaning good).


Flag of Malaysia.

3 Malay (spoken in Malaysia, only a bus ride away from Singapore across the bridge, a language similar to Indonesian with slight difference in vocabulary, like British English and American English)


Flag of Indonesia.
 (I reproduced a photo of it flying because the white does not show up against a white background.)

You will see Malay signs in Singapore. On the outside of Community Clubs you can identify the word Kelab which is Malay for club. On construction works you will see the sign for danger, keep out.

Bahaya - caution, care, danger, warning

Tamil (spoken in Southern India and Sri Lanka).
Two words I picked up from memrise:
amma - mother (like mama)
appa - father. (like papa)

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=mobi.steps.fiftylanguages&rdid=mobi.steps.fiftylanguages


Flag of Singapore.

Singlish
In addition Singapore has Singlish, a hybrid language, lots of expressive vocabulary, interjections and abbreviated sentences. For example:
Cannot. (Short for: I can't, you can't, it can't be done, impossible.)
No more already. (A shop assistant's version of: We are out of stock.)
Shiok! (Delicious, for food.)
La! (Added at the end of sentence, no real meaning but you could translate it as well, yeah, so, okay.)

If you want to learn languages at home, online, or on the train, try Duolingo.

Duolingo has several million users.

So does Memrise, another free language learning website.
Memrise helps you remember by creating memory aids, or using those created by other people. You record your own memory aid, keep it private (if it is personal or rude or you want to create a course and sell it) or share it, and can also pick one of those memory aids previously created and shared by others.



If you are in Singapore and free on Wednesday 7th August 2019 come along to Braddell Heights Advanced toastmasters Club at Braddell Heights Community Club, 7 pm to 9.30 pm and if possible wear red and white, such as a white skirt or trousers and a red blouse or tee-shirt. Or any tee shirt or cap with the word Singapore or SG. I bought a great hat with SG on it for only S$5 in the YWCA shop.

Toastmasters Cost And What You Get
The cost of the meeting including Singapore food is $10 for guests, but free for members of Toastmasters.


To join BHA costs only $180 per year to renew or transfer membership. That entitles you to attend meetings for free and receive a mentor from the club and the right to enter contests if you are eligible (after a few speeches); and a $40 one off joining fee to get on the Toastmasters International programme on the web and receive the monthly Toastmasters magazine full of tips on speaking and leadership.

Singapore has about 250 Toastmasters clubs, usually two or three every evening. Most are in English.

But there are several all Mandarin speaking clubs, a couple of bilingual Mandarin and English clubs where you are likely to hear speeches in both languages.  A Malay speaking club, Jauhari which mets late afternoon on the 3rd Saturday of each month. Several Tamil speaking clubs, are mostly around the Little India area.

You can also visit Toastmasters English speaking and local language clubs all over the world, in China. (I went to clubs in Shanghai and Beijing).

If you go to a Toastmasters meeting you can hear native speakers speaking their language and become accustomed to the intonation.

Learning Languages Online
To learn English, Chinese, or Malay you can use Duolingo or Memrise or many other free online resources.

English
English is the most widely studied language on Duolingo, along with Spanish. Maybe the numbers of Americans online has something to do with it.

USEFUL WEBSITES

Flag of UK. Union Jack.

ENGLISH
duolingo.com
(English courses for speakers of several other languages including Vietnamese.)
English for Chinese speakers who can also learn Japanese and Korean and French, Spanish, Italian and German.
https://www.duolingo.com/courses/zh


Flag of China.

CHINESE Language Learning Websites
Duolingo
HelloChinese
Memrise
Pleco
The Chairman's Bao
https://www.alllanguageresources.com/chinese/
https://www.alllanguageresources.com/chinese-resources/
YouTube
Chineasy

MALAY
https://www.memrise.com/course/193830/beginners-malay/

TAMIL
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=mobi.steps.fiftylanguages&rdid=mobi.steps.fiftylanguages
https://www.memrise.com/course/505488/a1-tamil-course/

TOASTMASTERS
ENGLISH
Braddell Heights Advanced (English speaking) club
https://www.facebook.com/bhatmsg/
1st Wed evening and 3rd Saturday afternoon every month except on National Holidays when the Community Club is closed.
Braddell Heights has two more English speaking clubs meeting on different Saturday afternoons, BH1 and BH2.


Flag of China.
MANDARIN
Braddell Heights also has a Mandarin speaking club.
All are at Braddell Heights Community Club, exit F from Serangoon MRT, two escaltors up. (The other 4 escalators go to busy Nex shopping mall.)
Braddell Heights Mandarin Club
Meets 2nd and 4th Tuesday at 7 pm.
https://www.toastmasters.org/Find-a-Club/00005815-braddell-heights-mandarin-club

ENGLISH
Cairnhill Community Club has nine Toastmasters clubs mostly English-speaking, Including Star Millennium (American president in 2019-2020) and
Cairnhill (big and busy).

MANDARIN
Cairnhill Community Club, near Newton MRT station, also has a Mandarin-speaking club.


Indonesian flag.

MALAY & INDONESIAN
Malay language is available at the Jauhari club (bilingual English and Malay) at Carnhill CC on the third Saturday each month.
Jauhari means jeweller or expert.
The Indonesian Professional club is in English but an opportunity to meet people who speak Indonesian to practise your Indonesian or if you are Indonesian to compare resources for learning English.

https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2019/08/how-to-learn-indonesia-and-malay.html

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, blogger, polyglot, teacher of English advanced, French intermediate and how to start other languages such as Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, German, Chinese (Mandarin), Indonesian, Malay and Esperanto. Please see my other posts on Singapore and languages and share links to your favourite posts with family and friends and colleagues.

About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have many more posts on Singapore, Singlish, Mandarin, Tamil, Malay, Indonesian and American English. Please bookmark and share links to your favourite posts.