Singapore; any advice? recommendations?

dtoronto
 August 26, 2008, 02:40 PM posted in General Discussion

Hi Folks:

 

I was wondering if anyone here can give me some basic information on living in Singapore?  My wife does not speak English, she is from Wuhan, and only speaks Wuhan dialect of Chinese - can she get by with this in Singapore?

 

Also, how is the cost of living and what type of accomodations are available? 


Thanks

 

 

Profile picture
sebire
 August 27, 2008, 12:13 AM

They speak Hokkien as the main non-Mandarin Chinese dialect. There's some other ones floating around, such as Teochew. I don't know for certain, but they're probably not similar to a Wuhan dialect. I guess if she can talk to people from Fujian province, then she may cope. Saying that, I'm also not convinced that so many younger people are as competent with Hokkien either. I think if they speak Chinese, these days it is more likely to be Mandarin.

Most people live in HDB flats in Singapore, unless you're rich, then you can live in a house/condo or something.

I am not an expert, I think there are Singaporeans on here that'd be able to give you more info.

 

Profile picture
hitokiri6993
 August 27, 2008, 02:37 PM

Just a question for Singaporeans...what 閩南話dialect do they speak? 廈門話還是台灣語嗎?

Profile picture
auntie68
 August 27, 2008, 02:50 PM

Hi hitokiri6993. That's a tough question you've asked! Here in Singapore, everybody knows a lot of Hokkien/ Minnan slang words, but few people under the age of 40 would be able to hold a conversation in any dialect. It's a very small country, and pretty mixed. Funny thing is, we also mix a lot of Malay words into Singlish, which is very easy for Filipinos to understand. HTH...