The English language was brought to Singapore by colonists during the 19th century. Singapore is a cosmopolitan city, with 37% of its population born outside the country.[3] Singaporeans, even those of the same ethnic group, have many different first languages and cultures. For example, in 2005, among Chinese Singaporeans, over a third spoke English as their main language at home while almost half spoke Mandarin, and the rest spoke various mutually unintelligible varieties of Chinese.[4] In the Indian community, most Singaporeans of Indian descent speak either English or a South Asian language.