Mandarin is important but remains a second language in S’pore: MM Lee
Lee Kuan Yew insists that bilingualism is impossible and that English must take precedence over Chinese. CNA:
Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew said Mandarin is important but it remains a second language in Singapore. So parents must be realistic in their expectations.
Mr Lee was alluding to the furore which erupted after media reports that the Education Ministry was looking at whether to reduce the weighting of the Mother Tongue Language, reports that have since been debunked.
Speaking at a dialogue following a Joint Conference of Confucius Institutes in East and Southeast Asia, Mr Lee said no one can master two languages at the same level.
So if parents want their kids to have a good grasp of Mandarin, a lot of time and effort is needed.
Mr Lee also spoke about his struggles in learning the language.
He said his motivation for learning Mandarin is a matter of pride and not economic reasons.
And because he learnt it as an adult, there were several hurdles to overcome, such as nailing the different intonations.
Though he can now speak it fluently, he remains modest about his command of the language.
MM Lee said: “If my English gets an A, then my Mandarin gets a C, it can’t be helped. No two languages are the same. No one, including translators, can say their command of two languages is the same.”
Filed under: Event, Quotes | 20 Comments
Tags: bilingualism, chinese, english, lee kuan yew, mandarin
Lee Kuan Yew said mastering two languages is impossible. I qualify that by saying being equally proficient in two or more languages is difficult, not impossible for many people. Some people can master more than a dozen languages. But for most people mastering two languages may be a challenge, but it is possible to do so. However for a minority of people who find it difficult to master two languages, they can master one language and be able to learn a second language at a lower standard.
That should be the way our bilingual policy should be implemented. Students should be rewarded more if they can master a second language, more reward should be awarded for higher standard of the second language achieved. This is to recognize the importance of learning the mother tongue. If there is no reward for achieving higher standards for the mother tongue, who would bother to put in the extra efforts to learn the second language?
There should be a baseline to be drawn on the minimum standard of proficiency in the mother tongue that a student must achieve in our schools. If there is no baseline standards are set, then the second language will decline further and further to demise of the mother tongue. This would be a pity for a country and its people who claim to be Asian and Chinese. The weightage of Mother Tongue Language in PSLE Exams should not be lowered. This serves as the minimum baseline for our bilingual policy. Any lowering of the weightage will invariably lead to the slow demise of the Mother Tongue languages in Singapore. Do you want to see an exclusively Singlish-speaking Singapore? What will happen to our Chinese culture, tradition, religion and customs? Gone.
So MM Lee the wise old sage of Singapore has had his wish come true. He transformed Singapore from a vibrant Asian multi-lingual society speaking Chinese dialects, Mandarin, Malay, and Tamil, into a Singlish speaking country who cannot speak proper English, cannot speak proper Mandarin. Most Singaporeans nowadays can only speak Singlish-mixed-with-dialects, and Mandarin-mixed-with-Singlish.
He says most Singaporeans cannot master two languages, he learnt that fact from his daughter who is a senior neurologist. That was why his past bilingual policy to make students master two languages has failed spectacularly. So he is now championing the mastery of only one master language, that is English. He now wants to downgrade the learning of our Mother Tongue languages. Will he be making another colossal mistake again?
Maybe he and the MOE should bring back the Vernacular education system to Singapore. Let Singapore have Chinese schools, English schools, Malay schools, and Tamil schools. Let people choose their own stream of education. That will ensure that our Mother Tongue will survive and endure into the future.
MM Lee says that Singaporeans can only master one language, and that language must be English. Mandarin will have to be second language. He also wants to downgrade the standard of Mandarin. He wants to lower the teaching standard of Mandarin. He wants to lower the weightage of PSLE Mandarin from the current 50% to say 30%? then to 10% in the next few years? The usage and the standard of Mandarin in Singapore is currently so low already. What will happen if the weightage of PSLE Mandarin is reduced further and further? Of course Mandarin will eventually die off, as most people cannot speak Mandarin anymore.
If MM Lee succeeds in first killing off Chinese dialects, then he killed off Mandarin, then what is the ONLY language does Singaporean Chinese speak in the near future? That’s right, it will be Singlish. Why Singlish and not English, you may want to ask. The answer is very simple. Singaporeans are not NATIVE speakers of the English language. We will not be able to speak English like British, Americans, Australians, or Canadians.
Will MM Lee make another language blunder again? Don’t be a “YES Man”. Time to think for yourself and your children, and their children. Do you want that kind of Singapore? If not, then it is high time YOU SPEAK UP and let the government HEAR you.
Reply to “Keep Learning Mandarin”
I would suggest you pack your bags and bring you family to China and live there. You can have all the Mandarin you want over there and drown in your Mandarin chauvinism with your China Chinese pals.
Singapore is multi-racial, and there are other races living on the island republic in case you do not realise.
Why should I pack my bags and go to China? You are right, Singapore is a multi-racial country, that includes Chinese like me. I can speak a few Chinese dialects, some basic Malay, and I’m educated in English schools. There are so many Malays and Tamils in Singapore who are proud of their mother tongue. Why don’t you tell them to go back to Indonesia, Malaysia, and India? I want to promote speaking Mandarin doesn’t mean I am a chauvinist. Same for many Malays and Tamils in Singapore. This is our right. It is you who is a bigot, insisting on others not to speak our mother tongue. You are the one who do not realize that Singapore is a multi-racial society with overwhelming Asian peoples, we are not English people, we are not USA o Australian people. Ha ha ha.
Reply to Pseudo-Englishman
PS:
I was educated in the English medium. My mother tongue was Chinese dialect. I couldn’t speak a single word of English when I went to English primary school. I didn’t know my ABC. I learn English from scratch. I found learning English was very hard. Having to learn English, Mandarin and Malay languages in school was tough. I dropped learning Mandarin after PSLE. After secondary two I also dropped learning Malay. I only picked up learning Mandarin again after my first child was born. Now I can speak good Mandarin and can read Chinese newspapers. Learning English, Mandarin, or Malay was very difficult for me. But I was prepared to put in the necessary effort, put in the hard work, and I succeeded to be bilingual in both English and Mandarin, n addition to my mother tongue dialects. How does that make me a chauvinist? Do you call a Frenchman who wants to speak in French a chauvinist. So you want him to abandon speaking French and speak English instead? Who are you to insult people like that? You are Chinese, but you cannot speak Chinese. Who are you? A Pseudo-Englishman? Ha ha ha.
Reply to Pseudo-Englishman
PS:
” I would suggest you pack your bags and bring you family to England or USA and live there. You can have all the English you want over there and drown in your English chauvinism with your American English pals.
Singapore is multi-racial, and there are other races living on the island republic in case you do not realise.”
There you go.
To “Keep Learning Mandarim”
Your 3 replies are testimony enough to show the chauvinism in you. Look at the things you say and write, very typical response expected from Mandarin “educated’ minds.
I rest my case. Let our readers draw their own conclusion.
This is my closing statement and I will not be providing any further response. You can continue your ranting as much as you want. My point has been made and I am sure a lot of other well educated Singaporeans from all races can see the greater picture here, and not the self-indulgence you are portraying.
Have a nice day.
To : Keep Learning Mandarin
Please keep your love of whatever language is your desire to yourself and don’t impose on others, even other Chinese Singaporeans for that matter. You are very chauvinistic in your Mandarin, by all means promote it within yourself or your family, but don’t try to lobby government into making a policy for all Chinese. Everyone is entitled to learn whatever language they want, be it mother tongue or otherwise.
Pseudo-Science is right, you are a Mandarin chauvinist. I speak Mandarin too, and it is also my mother tongue, but I would not impose that this must be so for all Chinese Singaporeans, or that it should be a language to be given a superior status, etc.
Learn to be more accomodating and respect the the presence of others. Don’t be oblivious to the existence of others. And you obviously are not a Malay or Indian so please don’t speak on their behalf when you do not know what their perceptions are because you are not one of them. For your information, Tamil is not the mother tongue of most Indians (a fact which you obviously do not know).
Stop your chauvinism and let our races live in racial harmony – to each his own language. Even if a Chinese, or a Malay, or an Indian, sought to improve or love the English language, so what? It’s their choice. Live and let live.
Bigots like Psuedo-Englishman want everyone to abandon their own mother tongue, convert to speaking exclusively English language. Chinese want to speak their own language, Japanese want to speak their own language, Koreans want to speak their own language, Italians want to speak their own language, Russians want to speak their own language.
What is wrong with that? You want to be able to speak your own language, that is called CHAUVINISM? Psuedo, you are such a NONSENSE. Pseudo, you cannot speak your own ancestor’s language anymore, and you want everybody to be like you? Nonsense. We will not be like you. NO roots, no culture, no heritage, no language of your own. Have to adopt a foreign colonial language as your own. That is such a SHAME, man. Not everyone in Singapore want to like you. Our Malay, and Tamil citizens want to preserve their mother tongue, culture and heritage. Don’t tell them to to discard their own mother tongue. They want to spaek their own mother tongue, you say that is chauvinism? You are such a nonsensical person, man. Better pack up your bags and luggage, and join your pals in England, Australia, or USA. Lets see whether they will treat you like their own kind.
Mr Psuedo changed his moniker to Multi-Racial Guy. You are the same person. Don’t use to change your moniker. The same leopard cannot hide his spots.
Mr “Keep Learning Mandarin” please don’t associate me with others, especially Pseudo-Science. Just because I agree with his views I am him? Your mind is really playing stupid tricks on you.
Don’t think and act like a “small guy”, because you will never achieve great things. I am also a Mandarin speaking Singaporean, but I am saddened that other Mandarin speaking people like you are sullying the image and perception people have of Mandarins like us. Your actions and writings are portraying to the rest of Singapore how insular and self-centred Mandarin educated Chinese are.
Stop behaving like a small man and stop being so childish. You shame other Mandarin lovers.
Very interesting comments made here.
I think Keep learning Mandarin is being over sensitive here, if I may be allowed to make a comment or too. He has mis-understood Pseudo-Science earlier comment. I did not find PS advocating learning English or clamouring for superiority of the English language. His point was that we should be sensitive when we come to the subject of advocating any particular language as a public policy (in this instance Mandarin was cited). The reason he is putting forth is that we are a multi-racial society and there are other races living here too (and by implication, the government should not be seen as paying too much emphasis for the benefit of one particular race, and paying less attention to the other races in the process).
I, as a member of the minority race here, agree with him totally in what he has commented. I would suggest that our readers here who want to post comments should be objective and not get emotional in their postings. Once we get emotional, our response and thinking processes will definitely be effected, and our personal weaknesses will then be reflected in our writings.
Multi-racial guy is quite right in saying that a lot of Indians here do not speak Tamil as a natural mother tongue. In fact there are a lot of Indians here who speak Malayalee because their forefathers came from southern India. Tamil is a common language which is the language of government (in India) and one which unifys all Indians. It is a language of administration much like Mandarin is to the Chinese.
Multi-racial means multi-languages. Multi-racial means people are allowed to speak and promoted their own mother tongue. How can Singapore be multi-racial if only one language (English) is being promoted as the only language for all Singaporeans. This is against the bi-lingual policy of the government and the majority of lts citizens.
For the benefit of Indians who are not familiar with Chinese dialects. Indians languages are not the same as Chinese dialects. Chinese dialects are the spoken form of the written language Mandarin. Whereas Indian languages are distinctly different languages, very much like French and German. I did not say that all indians in Singapore have to speak Tamil. Tamil is not the common, national language of India. Hindu is. India has dozens, even hundreds of different languages. Indians in Singapore should not be to forced to adopt Tamil as their common language if they do not favour it. Do not compare Indian languages with the one Chinese language which is Mandarin.
I do not understand why Shaham agree with the Pseudo guy. The Pseudo guy says that you should not speak Tamil or Malayalee if these are your mother tongue. He wants you to forget your own language, and only speak English. He also doesn’t want your children to learn your mother tongue. Do you agree with him?
This is not an all-purpose Singapore politics forum. Please limit your comments to the topic of Lee Kuan Yew and what will happen to Singapore after his death. Any further off-topic comments will be deleted.
LEEWATCH
We learnt that for the past few days this week, Chinese Cantonese in Guangzhou and Hongkong have been up in arms over the Chinese Communist Party’ boss in Guangzhou who wants to cut down on Cantonese TV broadcasts of the upcoming Asian Games. He wants to ban Cantonese TV broadcasts of the Asian Games, and he wants all theTV stations to broadcast shows in Mandarin. This caused all the 100 million Cantonese people in Guangzhou and Hongkong to be unhappy. They have come out in the thousands to protest against the interference with their mother tongue.
Compare their vigorous defence of their dialect in China, versus the meek acceptance of Singaporean Chinese people when the PAP government of Lee Kuan Yew ordered that Singapore TV stations stop broadcasts of Cantonese and other dialect programs in the late 1970′s. They also abolished the Chinese verncular schools, shut down Chinese newspapers, shut down the only Chinese university in Singapore.
Now Singaporean Chinese lost their ability to speak not only their mother tongue dialects, they also cannot master Mandarin which replaced the dialects. Lee Kuan yew came out with a new theory (based on what her daughter told him) that Singaporeans cannot master two languages. The most Singaporeans can achieve is one master language and one second language at a rudimentary standard. Thus he had proposed to downgrade the standard of teaching of the new mother tongue (Mandarin). Luckily, many Chinese Singaporeans came forward to protest and made a strong defence, they even staged a big protest at Hong Lim speakers corner. This lesson teaches us that we have to make a big protest to the government if we do not like their wrong policies. We cannot afford to keep quiet if we know the government is doing the wrong thing. I wondered whether we could have kept our dialects alive today, if in the 1980′s if we had made a strong defence of our mother tongue dialects then.
I think Lee Kuan Yew’s new theory about languages is as flawed as his old language policy was in the 1970′s and 1980′s. You only have to look north to Malaysia. The Malaysian Chinese can speak many dialects, can speak better Mandarin than Singaporeans, can also speak good Bahasa Malay, as well as can speak good English. Why Malaysian Chinese can do that, while Singaporean Chinese cannot do so? Are Singaporean Chinese people inferior to Malaysian Chinese people? That cannot be so. The only explanation is that the Singapore government has screwed up its Chinese language policy. The wrong policies were 1) abolishing the Mandarin Chinese primary schools, 2) Abolishing the dialect TV broadcasts so that people lost their dialect mother tongue, 3) over-emphasis on importance of speaking English language, make people look down on the Chinese language, 5) downgrade the importance of dialects and Mandarin. These wrong policies are exactly opposite to what the Malaysian Chinese are doing. Are Singaporean Chinese more stupid than the Malaysian Chinese? Or is the Singapore government more stupid than the Malaysian Chinese? I’ll let you make your own judgement on that.
Me wishes to say that PM Lee Hsien Loong, in my observation, has better command of languages than his father MM Lee K Y. Lee H L is impressively fluent with English, Mandarin and Malay. And there is always the likelihood that he is as good with the written forms of the three languages as well.
MM Lee have had some Chinese Language Teachers(or coaches rather), however, he did not seem to master the Chinese Language like his son. The Senior Lee is also very fluent with the Malay Language as well, probably due to the ‘Romanized’ written form which makes reading it much easier for the English(Language) Educated.
So, all in, me thinks MM Lee had underestimated the ability for one to learn two or more languages as apparently, he and his son have the abilities themselves. And why he had cited his daughter Lee Wei Ling as an authority on language learning is beyond comprehension. Is she a language expert?
patriot
To “keep learning Chinese” aka “Chinaman”,
your arguments are so warped and your facts are all wrong. Let me help enlighten your infantile naive little mind by replying to two of your comments.
1. You are Chinese, but you cannot speak Chinese. Who are you? A Pseudo-Englishman? Ha ha ha.
FIrst of all, Singaporeans are not Chinese. Are you that dumb? Most SIngaporeans hate China that third world country to the core. No morals, no justice, no human rights at all.
Your country’s (Singapore) first language is English, the laws of your country is in English and you were educated entirely in English. I think it is the Chinamen like you who have no roots.
If you want to be Chinese, Mr Chinaman, go live in China. I second pseudo-science comment.
2. We are not English people
I have to agree with Pseudo science here again. Your comments are typical of the lowly educated Chinamen kind. Nonsensical and plain stupid.
Most English speaking countries today are composed mainly of non English people anyway, including the motherland Britain herself, which is composed of Welsh, Scottish, Irish people who outnumber the English. The United States is mostly made up of Spanish, African, German people today. People of English ancestry make up less than 10% or so of the country.
Given your stupidity, I think you should row a boat there and tell half their countries to stop speaking English.
I second Pseudo-science, you are just the typical chauvinistic lowly educated dumb Chinaman. You are not Singaporean, you are just a Chinaman. Your culture, mindset, language everything is exactly the same as a Chinaman. You are a failed miserable migrant.
Go work in your factory for 800 yuan each month and bow to your dictator Hu Chinaman. Shoo, be gone!
@Singaporean not Chinese
The Celtic Nations do not outnumber the English in the UK. The population of England is 50 million, while the population of Scotland is 5 million, the population of Wales 4 million and Northern Ireland 1.7 million. These regional cultures only speak English because of centuries of oppression by the British government. Nowadays, the minority nations of the UK are trying to undo this. In Wales, 1/4 of children go to Welsh-medium schools even though only 1/6 of the population is Welsh-speaking, and most of the children who do go to Welsh-speaking schools have English-speaking parents.
Furthermore, the number of English-descended Americans is severely underestimated. This is because many of the English have been in the country since the 1700s, and so claim “American” ancestry, or if they have more recent foreign ancestry (such as Italian or German) they’ll identify with that over English on the census. Also, many of the African-Americans and Native Americans have some English ancestry, but do not consider themselves to be part-white due to the one-drop rule.
Anyway, ancestry does not equal nationality. Most of these Americans of non-English ancestry have been assimilated into Anglo-American culture. Why, then, would you want to create an Anglo-Singporean society instead of respecting the region’s diversity? Should every multiethnic area switch to English as its main vernacular? Fact is, Singapore was an island settled by Chinese. That’s why most Singaporeans have historically spoken Chinese languages like Hokkien, Cantonese and Hainanese. Honestly, I think maintaining Hokkien as the main vernacular of Singaporean Chinese would’ve been better than what we have now, but at least Mandarin would be better than creating yet another English-speaking country.
It’s easily possible to be both Singaporean and Chinese.