I'm Chinese but never learn Chinese because my special primary school never taught Mother Tongue as I'm disabled. I got exception from mother tongue classes in mainstream sec school. I'm only one who can't speak in my whole Chinese speaking family. Because of this, I have language barrier at home as my parents mostly speak Chinese and are not well educated. Even with simple English, I still get a lot of misunderstandings from them.

Yeah, i feel you when dealing with Chinese nationals. I even kena scolded by them too. But i'm not bothered when hanging out with Chinese Singaporeans and foreigners who speak English as I know they can speak English.

Even oversea, people assume that all Singaporeans speak Chinese. When I told them that i'm from Singapore in English, they first said, "Ni Hao Ma?" I tried to learn Mandarin in my undergrad school but never pursued it full time because of overwhelming assignments and exams. I just ignored mandarin texts from my mum. lol

Don't worry, there are a lot of English speaking places where you can hang out at. I just avoid restaurants and stalls where I know they have chinese nationals.