at home: english (sometimes hokkien)
grandma: mandarin, hokkien, teochew (a lil' bit of english and cantonese)
friends: mostly english; but have to switch to mandarin when speaking with chinese-speaking people though.
ah bengs/ah lians: speak to 'em in hokkien , they don't understand. jialat.
speak to 'em in english; they say what talkin' you? speak to 'em in mandarin; they say; that's our local paikia language (plus the hokkien profanities).
online: english
anyway, both sides of my family are english-speaking. And in contrast, quite a no. of friends speak mandarin and obviously i wouldn't have any problems.
can't speak to ah bengs/ah lians in english; we're the english elite, and hearing their terrible english; it's a total disgrace. you know.. their local lingo is mandarin, mandarin, mandarin (+ hokkien profanities)
low-class sad sods; society's losers. no qualms about that.
Singlish? Hmmmm... go read the newspapers about 'em and f*ck pro-singlish/everything singlish fugheads!
