Editing Regional accents of English (section)

===Singapore===
{{Main|Singapore English}}
{{See also|Singlish}}

Singapore is effectively a multilingual nation. The [[Government of Singapore|Singapore government]] recognises four [[official language]]s: English, [[Malay language|Malay]], [[Standard Chinese|Mandarin Chinese]], and [[Tamil language|Tamil]].

Students in primary and secondary schools learning English as the language of instruction also learn a second language called their "Mother Tongue" by the Ministry of Education, where they are taught Mandarin Chinese, Malay, or Tamil. A main point to note is while "Mother Tongue" generally refers to the first language (L1) overseas, in Singapore, it is used by the Ministry of Education to denote the traditional language of one's [[ethnic group]], which sometimes can be their second language (L2).

There are two main types of English spoken in Singapore: [[Standard Singapore English]] and [[Singlish]]. Singlish is more widely spoken than Standard English. It has a very distinctive [[Tone (linguistics)|tone]] and sentence structure, which are both strongly influenced by Malay and the many [[varieties of Chinese]] spoken in the city.

A 2005 census showed that around 30% of Singaporeans speak English as their main language at home.<ref name="singstatch2"/>

There are many foreigners working in Singapore. 36% of the population in Singapore are foreigners, and foreigners make up 50% of the service sector.<ref name="singstat2009"/> Therefore, it is very common to encounter service staff who are not fluent in English. Most of these staff speak Mandarin Chinese. Those who do not speak Mandarin Chinese tend to speak either broken English or Singlish, which they have learnt from the locals.