hdogan

You carefully chose all the countries that used to be colonised by the British or Americans Out of all those countries, Singapore is the only one where English is official and encouraged to improve by the government. It'll be interesting to see HK general English level in generations educated after 2037...

iluvcruising2

Sadly, the standard of English in Malaysia has dropped drastically in the past two decades, because they have decided for various reasons to focus on Malay. Religious and racial politics comes into play.

hdogan

I had the most enlightening taxi ride with an old Chinese taxi uncle in KL. He was easily over 70 years old. I hopped into the taxi, and he started the regular chit-chat, "Where are you from" being the most often asked question to an Ang Moh So I replied "Europe", and he said "Where exactly in Europe?". Not only did he know about the small European country I'm from, he also knew about the history, important people etc... and he said "Do not underestimate this old taxi driver. Educational system in Malaysia in the 60s and the 70s was top notch!" So, of course, I asked (knowing the situation full well, but I wanted to hear it from him) "so it's not like this anymore?" The uncle said "Nah! Now they produce monkeys! Once you abandon English, it all goes downhill."

Majulah Singapura!

musicallypso

singapore has everything looks tidy and clean in public spaces while their own citizen know how to keep clean and tidy of everything like aiport,public transportations and more

shuigao

Frankly, this is equal parts due to the army of foreigners SG hires to wash corridors and clean up all the trash that the locals throw everywhere.

Just today I was waiting for my wife at an open area. Saw a bench and approached it to sit down, but decided not to thanks to literally hundreds of cigarette butts strewn all over the ground.

SQTraveller

I second this statement. During the last few elections one of the big gripes, other than housing being too expensive for locals, was the fact there were too many foreigners taking jobs from Singaporeans.
Well --- who build the housing, the trains, the roads, the airport? Invariably foreigners. who staff hawker centres, does office/house maintenance, are maids? again ... invariably foreigners.

It makes me kinda frustrated when visitors say Singaporeans keep their country clean --- nope, no they don't. It's the foreigners. It's the Singaporeans who through the rubbish the first place!