I need a few cities for a few settings in my new espionage novel. I'm looking for big, dense urban areas, non-english native language (but english spoken by mostly everyone), and a cosmopolitan feel where you could be from anywhere and not look out of place. Any ideas?
Or Singapore. Sounds like you have the answer to your own question though; if you want Hong Kong then go with it.
This is the bit that makes it tricky, as I'm not sure that's a very common combination. I agree with HK/Singapore/Dubai, but honestly in those places English may be so widespread by now that it almost is a native language. Someone said Amsterdam, and I'd guess any big northern European city would fit the bill...in my experience English is way more limited in Spain/Italy, but IDK. It's been quite a while since I've been to any of these places. Oh, it occurs to me that anywhere with a big tourism industry might fit. Colombo or Bangkok?
@Homer Potvin Colombo was the last place I visited outside the US, in the Before Times. I was there for work, sadly, but it seems lovely. You know, if you're ever in the neighborhood.
Will do! It's theoretically possible, though I haven't left the 5 mile wide septagon that includes my house and restaurants in probably months.
Here's one I visited in 2006 on business. It isn't well known in the U.S. but is popular for tourism for Chinese within China. Xiamen, formerly known in the west as Amoy. Across the strait from Taiwan, on the coast halfway between Shanghai and Hong Kong. On an island, surrounded by smaller islands. One of the smaller islands has no cars allowed, and very popular for internal Chinese Tourism. 24°26'54.55"N,118° 3'43.16"E
Honestly, I'm not sure how cosmopolitan Tokyo is. The thing about Japan is, it's very homogenous. You certainly get some areas that are well frequented by foreigners, like Roppongi or maybe Shinjuku, but even then. It's not like London, where you get certain concentrations of expats or foreign-born people, like Wimbledon (Aussies and Saffies), Marble Arch (Middle Eastern) and you can really immerse yourself in those cultures. There's a Koreatown and Chinatown in Tokyo but beyond that, I think a foreigner would always feel out of place in Tokyo. You don't hear foreign languages on the streets, for example. I remember rescuing a family of rather bewildered Americans, who were looking to get to their hotel. We were speaking English to each other, and they approached us with that "Oh, thank God, someone who speaks English" look on their faces.
Bangkok springs to mind. And perhaps Jakarta. Istanbul, Cairo as well. How about Geneva, Casblanca or Monte Carlo. There's a 1950s romanticism about those places. A left-field suggestion - Luanda, in Angola. It's the largest Portuguese speaking city outside Brazil.
I saw a screening of a movie once that was in Singaporean English. Interesting dialect. Easily understandable. I seem to remember it was about a transgender teen who gets in trouble when outed to his conservative father. Don't remember the title.
Yup. In Singapore plenty of people speak English . The youngsters of Fujianese, Cantonese or Tamil origin can speak English more than their own dialect. But that has changed during the past years as more and more English speakers take interest in their dialects. Mandarin is also widely spoken like English.
There's a difference between Singlish and English though. IIRC, Singlish is classified as a pidgin, rather than a dialect of English.
When Singaporeans speak without the 'La' and 'Ma' sounds,it sounds just like normal English(if they don't use certain types of sentences). The variations switch so quickly that someone can speak Singlish during lunch with friends and English with his family during dinner and vice versa the next day. Of course not to the same level like the English spoken in England though. Although the moments where they can speak a normal "flow" are rare. It's a bit difficult to explain unless you spend enough time with Singaporeans.
Yeah my family is Malaysian (Chinese) and they have “Manglish” which as far as I can tell is pretty much the same as Singlish.
