On a lighter note, here's some more common questions I have been asked.
How did you learn four languages?
Background: I speak English, Mandarin, German and Japanese.
As a base line, most Singaporeans learn two languages. All would have learnt English, to varying, but high, levels of proficiency. Singapore ranked as 5th in English proficiency as a non-native language in the world, and 1st in Asia as of 2017. All lessons (except for non-English language lessons) are held in English, and English is taught as a subject of its own from kindergarten until the A-levels (grade 12).
The second language would be the so-called Mother Tongue (MT). This can be Chinese, Malay, Tamil or a Non-Tamil Indian Language (NTIL, includes Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi and Urdu). The Mother Tongue is not necessarily limited by ethnicity: parents of Malay and Indian children have been known to enroll them into Chinese as Mother Tongue classes and only requires a letter from the kindergarten that the children were in.
Chinese taught as a Mother Tongue is of the Mandarin dialect, with writing being Simplified Chinese. The teaching of Chinese in Singapore is a well-debated topic among educators and students alike, with many students loathing the lessons while they were studying Chinese.
The length of instruction for MT varies based on the course that is selected. There are three courses: the Higher MT (HMT), normal (officially written as just MT) and Basic (MT-B). HMT (officially termed 高级华文 for Chinese) has the shortest length of instruction and only up to O-levels (grade 10). MT (unofficially termed 普通华文 to differentiate from Higher Chinese) requires one more year of instruction and is counted as a H1 subject in the A-levels. The exam for H1 MT is held at the first year of junior college (grade 11) and is unofficially called the AO水准考试 in Chinese since it is held between the typical O- and A-level exams. MT-B is the easiest course, but takes the longest to complete, with the final exam at the same time as the main A-level exams (grade 12). Nevertheless, the standard for MT-B is very easy, with only the standard of Secondary 3 (grade 9) normal Mother Tongue.
Students who have shown good performance in their Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE, held at Primary 6 or grade 6) will be given an opportunity to learn a Third Language. These Third Languages include the classic three, French, German and Japanese, with other choices added later being Malay (for non-Malay as MT students), Chinese (for non-Chinese as MT students), Bahasa Indonesia, Spanish and Arabic. The criteria for Third Language eligibility is set at top 10% of students (ie aggregate over 251[1]).
I was offered a choice between the three classic Third Languages after my PSLE, after narrowly crossing the aggregate line at 253. I initially wanted not to learn any third language since I was not offered Malay, but I was strongly urged to reconsider it by my mother, who basically said that these kind of offers don't just happen every day.
I studied German based on notes from people around me who have studied the other languages before. My father learnt French as part of his scholarship to Singapore and he basically did not recommend it since it was unlikely to be of much use to me (France excelled in high-voltage electrical generation and transmission technology, not so much in engineering). My tuition teacher learnt Japanese and did not recommend that to me either, citing that it's very difficult to learn (specifics not given, but based on my less than stellar Chinese performance in school it would have been good advice to avoid it).
Third Languages can be studied up either O-level, H1 or H2 level, taking 4, 5 or 6 years respectively. Based on my consistent high performance in German (my German grade was even better than my Chinese grade), I took the H2 course. The final exam required a grueling gauntlet of examinations (listening, composition, comprehension and oral skills) complete with a coursework that needed to be done throughout the final year. I completed the H2 course with a B, which probably amounted to nothing considering by the time I took the TestDaF (qualifying test for German that is recognised by companies), I failed it.
Apparently because I'm a sucker for punishment, I then proceeded to take up Japanese. Influenced by my sister's interest in anime, and after reading the millionth poorly translated Japanese package instruction, I took up Japanese as well. I started in my second year of my military service, which was easy for me since I was relegated to desk work [2], basically self-studying. Self-studying wasn't perfect, and I picked up some mistakes which I had to rectify later on when I took some lessons at Orchard.
After finishing my lessons at Orchard, I felt that there is still more to learn in Japanese [3], and with my imminent enrollment into NUS, I was given a chance to continue learning Japanese to a higher level than before. Due to the modular system in NUS, which gave even more freedom to structure classes than even NUS High, I took Japanese lessons to turbocharge my knowledge, and turbocharge it did. NUS Japanese is among the most difficult language courses that exists, arguably among the most difficult Japanese language course that exists in the world. But still, I rode the train as far as I could and hit Business Japanese I (the 2nd highest level possible in NUS, same level as Japanese V) before I had to stop taking Japanese in the interest of my graduation schedule. At the same time, I also managed to pass my JLPT N2 (2nd highest level of JLPT), leaving a mark in my record that can be used to boost my resume when the time comes.
In terms of language utilisation, they are (in order from most to least used) English, Japanese, Chinese and German. Surprising to note that I use Japanese more than my Chinese, but most of my reading material online that is not in English is mostly Japanese. Most Chinese websites are worse formatted than Japanese websites and I never felt the need to use Chinese websites, but nevertheless I do read local newspapers in Chinese and watch TV in Mandarin or Cantonese, so it's not like there is a huge usage gap between Japanese and Chinese. German is basically rotting since I don't exactly see German in my Internet anyway.
[1] This is a calculatable score, since the aggregate is the sum of four subject T-scores based on a mean of 50 and a standard deviation of 10. This gives an average aggregate at 200.
[2] I was excused from firearms and explosives. Unless throwing office chairs or CQB-ing like John Wick (killing people with a fookin' peencil) become a viable battlefield combat skill, desk work is all that I would be fit to do.
[3] Pretty much my whole mentality of "riding this train as far as I can go".
