Singapore: The First Few Days

It is only my fifth full day in Singapore and there’s already so much to say! After Wales, South Africa, and now Singapore, left-hand traffic rules have almost become second nature to me. 

It wouldn’t feel morally right to create a blog post about Singapore and not share the marvels of its food scene. For the past few days, I’ve been busy trying all of the hawker centres and $5 dollar Michelin Star meals I can find. So far, I’ve had the traditional Singaporean breakfast of kaya toast (toast with coconut jam dipped in runny egg with soy sauce) as well as duck noodle soup, pork and chive dumplings, butter chicken and naan, butadon, chilli crab bao buns, nasi lemak, otah (fish cake wrapped in banana leaves), and of course, kopi (Singaporean style coffee and also the Malay word for coffee). It’s safe to say there’s always more food to try in Singapore. 

Apart from this food rampage, I’ve visited the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) campus, walked around Chinatown and Little India, explored parts of Jurong East and the Jurong Lake Gardens, and visited both the Indian Heritage Center and the National Museum of Singapore. 

I had my first interview this morning, with a linguist from NTU who has a background in secondary school teaching and currently studies approaches to interactional sociolinguistics and ethnography in Singapore. Below are some of my reflections from this interview and from my experiences and observations over the past few days:

A crucial thing to understand about Singapore is that the state enforces a bilingual education policy: students must learn English (typically the primary language of instruction) and a “Mother Tongue” (MT), which is assigned based on race and not necessarily on the language one actually speaks at home. The state uses the CMIO model – Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Other – to racially classify people, which loosely maps onto the country’s four official languages: Mandarin, Bahasa Melayu (Malay), Tamil, and English. This model assumes that one race equals one culture equals one language. 

MTs are usually assigned according to one’s father’s race, and while mixed-race individuals can nowadays technically choose between their identities, many still default to the father’s side for tradition’s sake (or for pragmatic reasons, like choosing Chinese because of Mandarin’s economic and international value). Even children who don’t fit into CMIO neatly still have to pick a MT to study in school. This rigid structure is framed as promoting racial equality, but in practice, it requires constant maintenance and ends up reinforcing artificial divisions.

English is the dominant working language, essential for international business, education, and survival in the global economy. Despite high literacy and widespread home use, especially among younger generations, English isn’t recognized as a legitimate part of Singaporean heritage by the state. The government frames English as purely functional – useful but culturally empty. Plenty of younger Singaporeans see English as their first or native language, but this clashes with state ideology. Compared to places like Cardiff, where young people are reviving indigenous/mother tongue languages, here it’s the opposite: kids are leading the shift to English at home.

The state discourages people from learning languages outside their assigned MT, framing it as a threat to racial balance. At the same time, it promotes English for economic reasons – which is the same logic some families use when choosing to study Mandarin or other useful languages. The system is stuck: if too many non-Chinese people learn Mandarin, it looks like favoritism. But denying it to them can also seem unfair. These contradictions emerge because the state has tied language so tightly to race that it can’t adapt easily when real people make different choices.

Singlish, a local variety of English mixed with Malay, Mandarin, Tamil, and other influences, is widely spoken but officially discouraged. The government has tried to suppress Singlish through the Speak Good English Movement, partly because it’s seen as damaging to Singapore’s international image. Still, Singlish is alive and evolving – youth are now mixing in Korean and Japanese phrases too. Even when people speak their assigned MT, it’s often a localized version – like Singaporean Tamil, which isn’t always intelligible to Tamil speakers from India. These hybrid forms reflect how people actually live and speak, even if they don’t align with official language categories.

The state uses language policy as part of nation branding – projecting Singapore as modern and global (via English) but also deeply rooted in culture (via MTs). Multilingual signage, museum materials, and public campaigns often include all four official languages, but usually in symbolic or curated ways. MRT (Singapore’s subway system) announcements, for example, include all four, but the order often reflects population hierarchies, even if unintentionally. An attempt to make transport announcements only in English and Mandarin some years ago backfired – even many Chinese Singaporeans saw it as catering to mainland migrants over local diversity. National Day (which is coming up – August 9!) songs and posters are supposed to appear in all four languages, but this isn’t always carried out consistently.

In Singapore, there’s no formal or universal signage policy requiring bilingual or multilingual signs. Public transport, government notices, and tourist areas sometimes may use all four official languages – but largely for image, not functionality. Hawker centres and neighborhood spaces reflect more bottom-up multilingualism (i.e. signs created by people rather than by the government), showing the actual languages people use. At hospitals, older people may struggle if signs aren’t in their language,  and most museums are English-only. Some neighborhoods (like Kampong Glam) have curated murals and signs in multiple languages, but most street art is commissioned and top-down. Even things like Chinese script (simplified vs. traditional) vary across contexts depending on the audience being targeted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In contrast to the younger population, most older Singaporeans wouldn’t call themselves native English speakers. Despite Singapore’s wealth, there’s little structural care for the elderly, who often work menial jobs like cleaning or tray return at hawker centres. The country is deeply future-focused, often at the expense of the older generation’s needs – including linguistic accessibility. Public infrastructure doesn’t always accommodate non-English speakers, even though that includes a significant portion of the aging population.

Like I said – so much to say! I’ve heard plenty of travelers say you can do Singapore in just a few days, but I think that depends on what you want to see. I’ve been here for five days and still feel like there is so much more to discover! Still on my to-do list are the Gardens by the Bay, Arab Street and Haji Lane, the Botanical Gardens, and a few more museums. I also have a couple of interviews scheduled for later this week. 

Until then!