Sorry to burst your bubble, but if you have a full education in Singapore (ie from Primary to Uni all in Sg schools), you are already MUCH MUCH more attractive to Western English speaking employers worlwide as compared to Hong Kong and Japan. Why? Because you can write in fluent English, they can't. You can produce your Cambridge O,A levels ceritificate, showing you have been examined to Cambridge standards in all subjects in English.
U are very foolish la, do you know Hongkong is also a formal british colony and they also adopted the British A level system. Though its not sent to Cambridge for marking, the HK A level is regarded as even more difficult then the British A level exam! Since you rely on wiki so much, you should have a read to have a better understanding of the Hongkong Education System. HK's Chinese University of HK and Hong Kong University have also been consistently ranked among the best in Asia and ahead of NUS/NTU.
Japan? Japanese has one of the toughest education system in the world and just see how many Geeks they produced every year? Hey, they have won 16 Nobel prizes in total, the most amongst all Asian countries!
Yes I agree in general Singaporeans can speak better English than the Japanese and Hong Kongers ( exclude those who went abroad for many years who speak a very thick western accent), but the Singapore English/Singlish accents don't fare very well with the western employers leh! So how ar? are you going to change anything?
The education in HongKong is very competitive and world class. No doubt about that.
But the standards of English in Hong Kong is very low. Even amongst their universities which are "English medium" their students struggle with English. They are a Cantonese speaking city and don't forget they are Chinese citizens and part of China, Chinese will always be their language, not English. Many of their University graduates have the English standards of a Primary 3 Singaporean student. Only 3% of Hong Kongers speak English as their first language daily (mostly expatriates). In Singapore, I think 50% speak it as their first language, those that don't also have to use it in school/work all the time.
That doesn't stop them from churning out top Enterprenuers and senior executives. Also, you can't generalise all of them can't speak good English,Hongkongers may speak with thick Cantonese accent, but the wester ners tend to understand them better than Singaporean accent. FYI, Hong Kong 'trained' Managers are very well regarded because Hong Kong has long been regarded a very competitive society and they know how to lead and manage a business. There's heaps of HongKongers holding very senior positions, some in the west as well. The former mayor of Melbourner is a Hong Konger, though he speaks with very thick Cantonese accent. National Australian Bank, the 3rd largest bank in Australia, has recently appointed a Hong Konger into its board of directors panel. Sadly I haven't seen any Singaporeans stepping up yet!
As an English speaking employer, would you hire a professional who cannot write a simple report in proper English? Would you want to proof read and edit every one of his work? I don't think so. Singapore is the ONLY country in Asia that uses English as their first language. Malaysia, India, Phillipines all use English as their second or third or as a foreign language. And you have an advantage over many other English speaking countries such as Jamaica, African nations such as Ghana, South Africa, because the education standards in Singapore are higher.
You seem to suggest people in other Asian countries would only study in their own countries. The fact is many of them study abroad and especially those go through the high school system in the western countries can write or speak English, equal or even better than Singaporean educated in the local system. All else equal, Singaporeans will not stand a better advantage just because 'they are the only Asian country adopts English as first Language', as I mentioned earlier, Singapore is still not regarded as a English speaking country , thus for immigration and academic requirements, they still are not exempt from taking the language test (unless they hold a undergraduate degree conducted in a English language country), in this case even a NUS graduate will not be considered. This is the sad truth, so you better tell the Spore gov to do something about it. haha.
Your work experience in Singapore, for the same reason above, is also much valued than in HK and Japan to Western Employers. And with China rising, your billingual education in Singapore is even more valuable now. You can be the man they depend on to liase with factories in China and source for competitively priced materials. Singapore's education will soon be more attractive than USA/CAN/AUS to Westerners and Asians alike because the rise of China will demand English speaking professionals who are fluent in Chinese as well.
Na, Hong kong belongs to China now, and many of them have picked up Mandarin. Hongkongers are high regarded in China and many of them are sent to China as expats because of their strong business skills , Language skills can always pick up later.
China though has a long 'love and hate' relationship with Japan due to their ancient history centuries ago, have always admire the innovation and the worth ethics of the Japanese. Go to Shanghai or Beijing, you can see how smiliar their buildings and architecture so similiar to Tokyo or Osaka.
Singaporeans, can only rely on their English and Chinese language skills 10 years ago but guess what, its no longer a competitive advantage. The Chinese can speak better Mandarin and those who are educated abroad, can speak very very good English with thick American accent. So, better open your eye and see the world! U are at least 10 years behind time..haha
As it stands right now, Singapore's education is ranked numer 1 in terms of Math and Science, much better than America or any other English speaking country. There are tons of Europeans/Americans etc in Singapore right now working for rather little salary because they want the Singapore working experience on their resume!
Did you drop out of PSLE or O Levels? Pathetic illiterate table cleaner.
