I beg to differ as Mandarin is spoken by most of the ethnic Chinese employees at my company outside of official meetings. It seems that only the Management Team converses in English with each other and our subordinates. This accounts for the lack of fluency in spoken English among the majority of adults, in spite of 10 years or more of instruction in an English-medium school environment. Generations of young S'poreans enter the working world hampered by their inability to be understood in English because they seldom use it at home or at their workplace.