and get with it, dear fellow Singaporeans!
The following is an extract from asia! Magazine’s website http://www.theasiamag.com/ and written by Lee Han Shih the founder, publisher and editor who has Mr Lee Kong Chian and Mr Tan Kah Kee as his paternal grandfather and maternal grreat grandfather respectively. 
“Westerners are attracted to China for one reason: its economy, [...]

Learn simple Chinese, the Singapore way:
沒錢的時候，養豬；有錢的時候，養狗。
When without money, keep pigs;
When have money, keep dogs.
沒錢的時候，在家裡吃野菜；有錢的時候，在酒店吃野菜。
When without money, eat at home with wife;
When have money, dine in fine restaurant.
沒錢的時候，在馬路上騎自行車；有錢的時候，在客廳裡騎自行車。
When without money, ride bicycle;
When have money, ride exercise machine. 
  
沒錢的時候,想結婚；有錢的時候,想離婚。
When without money, wish to get married;
When have money, wish to get divorced.
沒錢的時候,老婆兼秘書；有錢的時候,秘書兼老婆。
When without money, wife becomes secretary;
When have money, [...]

As someone who has received constant jibes from people who think they speak better Putonghua than me, I can empathise with how badly the new chief executive of Macau, Fernando Chui Sai On, must feel to have his inaugural oath delivered in Putonghua panned by some Internet jokers.
Although the jokers are probably not as many as the South China [...]

… why not Chinese Singaporeans?
It’s one of those questions that riles me time and again.
A Singaporean Peranakan friend told me the other day that she didn’t understand why our Government pays so much attention to the very small minority who kicks up a huge fuss disproportionate to their number — about themselves or their children [...]

Like Ismail Kassim, another Singaporean, Shirley Tong — who recently retired from GP Industries – has been investing good time and money to improve her knowledge of the Chinese language. Here she shares about the course she is taking and the reasons why:
My Chinese course is organised by the NUS Extension, a business unit of NUS Enterprise.  The [...]

Every few years, Singaporeans, or to be more precise, Chinese Singaporeans go into paroxyms of anguish over being forced to learn Chinese as children by the country’s government education policy.
With no blush of shame, many will reveal – even revel about — how bad they were, and still arem in Chinese. Indeed, having done badly in Chinese but [...]

This is a guest post. Today’s guest is Ismail Kassim, an ex-journalist of 25 years standing with the Singapore Straits Times. He published A Reporter’s Memoir – No Hard Feelings in April 2008.
Describing his efforts to learn Chinese,  Ismail said: “For me, for decades the name Keats conjures up images of odes, Grecian urns and all things beautiful. [...]

Is it all the hoo-ha whipped up by Singapore’s Straits Times and its affiliates as well as Internet hysteria — against China nationals working in Singapore who are unable to speak even Singlish, let alone your Shakespeare best (not that many, if any, true blue Singaporeans do — but that’s another story).
This is a preamble to a weird [...]