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I am primarily interested in Singapore, but open to other areas and countries. Singapore has one of the strongest economies in the area correct? Does anyone know where you can find unemployment info?
Is English enough or is one expected to know the local language?
For Singapore specifically, I believe that English is one of the official languages. Mandarin, Malay and Tamil are the others. When I have visited Singapore, I worked with the locals and we only spoke English.
If you are going to be in Singapore, then I believe English is enough. I believe their English is better than HongKong. Hongkong, they are supposed to speak and understand English but some people still can't.
India and the Philippines. In the Philippines, English is one of the official languages. Even the ones with low paying jobs will try to answer you in English if you ask them something.
If you go to China, you won't be able to communicate in English.
When I was in Switzerland (German part), educated people there all speak perfect English. However, they don't like it if you've lived there for multiple years but still refuse to learn German.
In China, I saw some westerners who have been there for 8, 10 years and cannot speak any Chinese. Honestly I don't like it either. It shows they don't care about the local culture.
Japan usually wants their foreigners to acquire Japanese. South Korea seemed indifferent about it, they actually seemed to assume that foreigners couldn't speak Korean. Japanese people will assume that if you are in Japan, that you probably do speak Japanese.
A little different everywhere, but whenever I've been in Singapore, I've heard all kinds of Singaporeans using English in conversation.
When I was in Switzerland (German part), educated people there all speak perfect English. However, they don't like it if you've lived there for multiple years but still refuse to learn German.
In China, I saw some westerners who have been there for 8, 10 years and cannot speak any Chinese. Honestly I don't like it either. It shows they don't care about the local culture.
Maybe because Chinese is really a difficult language to learn... I know a Canadian guy who used to work in South America and was able to learn Espanol in 6 months, Now his company sent him to China and he said he's been living in China for 3 years but he can't speak Chinese at all.
I am primarily interested in Singapore, but open to other areas and countries. Singapore has one of the strongest economies in the area correct? Does anyone know where you can find unemployment info?
Is English enough or is one expected to know the local language?
I think english is one of their official language. I think you will just adjust on the accent cause I worked to some of them.
Maybe because Chinese is really a difficult language to learn... I know a Canadian guy who used to work in South America and was able to learn Espanol in 6 months, Now his company sent him to China and he said he's been living in China for 3 years but he can't speak Chinese at all.
Definitely true.
I went down to South America for 10 months, and learned a lot more Spanish/Portuguese and in those 10 months than I have with 15 years in Asia - Japanese and Korean.
In Japan/Korea/China, you have a ton to overcome from unfamiliar root words, and different writing systems. When I was in South America, I could just passively read anything and everything, and make out the meanings of much of the words.
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