Malaysia and Indonesia is a Muslim majority countries but how come their malays and Indians youngsters and young adults can speak better Chinese dialects such as Teochew, Hakka, Cantonese, Hokkien and Mandarin Chinese than Singapore born Singaporean Chinese. While Singapore born Singaporean Chinese Youngsters and young adults 35 years old and below cannot even speak Mandarin Chinese let alone Chinese dialects.
environment n people they mix with
last time sg, kampong era, it is not unusual if malays and indians can speak mandarin or dialects especially if they live in chinese kampongs or those mixed racial group kampongs
i think mandarin and dialects are relatively easy for non-chinese ppl to learn n pick up, there are many languages in this world which are really complex be it vowels or grammer or verb etc. it is just the writing of chinese characters that is difficult.