Singapore: from Polyglot to Monglot?

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Singapore: From Polyglot to Monoglot? Singapore is a multi-cultural and diverse country. The main population is made up of three main ethnic groups, which are Chinese, Malay, and Indian. Having consisting of multiple races, Singaporeans possess the advantage of being exposed to different cultures, religions and of course, languages. The languages spoken in Singapore are multifarious and almost every Singaporean spoke multiple languages apart from his mother tongue. The ability to speak multiple languages allows communication between Singaporeans of different ethnicity, which fosters unity in the nation. However, nowadays, Singaporean youths are lacking success in maintaining the polyglot reputation because majority of them are illiterate in their native language, as their current dominant language is the English language. In the past generations, the Singaporean population was polyglot. In 1989, the majority of the population was the Chinese, as they represent 76.4% of the population, followed by 14.9% Malays and 6.4% Indians. Interestingly, English was not the common medium used by these ethnic groups to communicate with each other. Malay was designated the national language of Singapore. Malay was an important language for communication, as it was understood by almost all Indian and 45% of the Chinese population. Majority of the time, Bazaar Malay and market Hokkien are used to communicate informally in places such as the marketplace, which is why the language was considered to be low languages. On the contrary, English and Mandarin were high languages, as it was typically spoken in government offices, education and public celebrations. Based on a survey result from a website, in 1972, 73% of the population understood Hokkien, followed by 57% for Malay, and 47% for English. In 1978, another survey was done and the results showed that 67% of the
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