| The Beauty of Singapore |
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| Written by Wen Bin Zu | |
| Monday, 23 November 2009 | |
 A former Singapore scholar speaks out about his bilingual education
I am a typical byproduct of Singapore: a Chinese who can speak Mandarin, passed Mandarin classes but can still barely read and write the language well enough to be considered proficient. Technically I am illiterate. And, while that may not speak for all of us, there are sufficient numbers to justify the label "typical." This has become an issue because Singapore's founder, former prime minister and Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew openly acknowledged last week that the 40 years of bilingual language policy he put in place was "wrong." Today, he says, that policy started out on the erroneous assumption that it was possible to master two languages – English and Mandarin, the latter for the majority Chinese community – equally well, and that Mandarin was taught at a too difficult level that "turned students off completely," he said. In retrospect, he said, Chinese language teachers should now make learning the mother tongue fun. That was quite an earthshaking statement. And, as has always been so typical of Singapore, you can bet your mortgage that Chinese-language teachers will find a way to turn their ever-so-routine and regimented lessons into something seeking to approach fun almost overnight – because Singaporean citizens and institutions almost never fail to recognize the hidden message from the larger-than-life Lee senior: an instruction has been delivered. Or have you not noticed the word "now"? The public acknowledgement blew my socks off. Since when was Mandarin, also commonly known as Putonghua in other parts of Asia, taught at a level considered too difficult? Chinese compatriots in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan would certainly challenge that premise. And why is the officially branded "second language," Mandarin for the Chinese Singaporeans, (ethnic Indians and Malays receive language training in their own native tongue) always termed the mother tongue when English is the official first language and business language? "What exactly is your mother tongue?" That is a long story, I thought, and where should I start? For starters, the bilingual policy was not the only thing that went wrong. Let's shoot back a few decades, when Singapore introduced several eye-catching policies that for decades will affect its education system and the future of its human resources, its only and most treasured "natural" resources according to the government. There was the controversial streaming of students in the late 1970s into three classes – Special, Express and Normal - at the age of… 10!? Debatable as it may have been, and it is still in practice today with even more subdivisions, it pales in comparison with another more daring stroke in the 1980s: the policy aimed to encourage and reward the highly educated to have more offspring and to encourage the less-educated to keep their children to a minimum. There were a few short-lived experiments, such as one introduced in the mid-1980s whereby the whole class got to wash school toilets during their physical education lessons, simply because the then Minister of Education was impressed during an official visit to Japan that disciplined Japanese students did exactly that. This is perhaps one education-related policy with the shortest shelf life but at least manufacturers and sellers of toiletries and toilet-washing equipment had a windfall. But not all the social engineering policies were flawed, controversial or in bad taste, at least to the rest of the world. The senior Lee decided in the early 1980s to boost Mandarin proficiency and usage and banned dialects on television and the movies for double dosage, and it was perhaps seen as a master stroke in the present context. So effective was this policy that the majority of those under the age of 30 today hardly know any of the multitudes of Chinese dialects. Did I tell you that when the senior Lee gave instructions, he was always taken very seriously? Now back to this bilingualism fuss. What happened to the typical lot -- me? When I was in school, I knew all along that I needed at least a pass in English to gain entry to the local universities although it was fine to fail in Chinese. That has since changed to a mandatory pass in both. Fine after all since the mother language is the only class taught in a different, secondary medium – told you the mother tongue issue was confusing! And here is where Lee Senior missed the point with what he said last week: motivation and not fun is the key to learning a secondary language. Look at Hong Kong in the mid-1990s. Not only did few people speak or understand Putonghua then, most scorned those who spoke it and labeled them as inferior. Ten years on, as China has catapulted itself into a recognized, serious economic power, the general public of this former British colony has suddenly, successfully and openly embraced and learned the language. The main driver is obviously motivation – driven by economic reality and practicality. By the same token, if France were to become the next super economic power, you could certainly expect to find "Bonjour" and "Merci" commonplace in Hong Kong. And why else did so many of my classmates and friends in Singapore learn Japanese in the 1980s? It was again, motivation – pushed by the perception then that Japan was to be the next super power. When I was in school, in fact we studied but did not learn the Chinese language. Memorizing and dictating Chinese phrases and idioms, often without emphasis or even a proper introduction or explanation of the origins, are not only a rigid and regimental approach to education (okay, this is true for many parts of Asia as well) but a real turn off for me – so MM Lee was right on this. I was also always relieved I could replace Chinese words I could not write with pinyin – officially HanYu PinYin, the romanized system for the Chinese language and often used as a way to spell Chinese words in foreign publications. Now was that not simply brilliant for the typical me? The Chinese essays that I always dreaded in school became somehow manageable – I have more romanized letters than Chinese characters in my Chinese essay and I can still score a pass! Did I tell you I love Singapore? In my Singaporean school days there were English-dominated schools and Chinese-dominated ones. The former meant the school had strong English cultural roots, where almost all students spoke English among themselves and most likely did at home. Many of these schools are easily recognizable by their names, such as "Saint" this and "Saint" that, "Convent" this and "Holy" that. The latter, a minority, is where the Chinese language prevails. In my days in school, one was scorned and outclassed if he or she spoke Mandarin or dialects in an English school – you will often find a mixture of languages these days – so again, where is the motivation? So was the bilingual policy wrong after all? I certainly do not think so. What Lee Kuan Yew did was to attempt to take a polyglot Chinese community made up of Cantonese, Fujian and Hakka among others and, in a bid to weld them into a single community to give them a common mother tongue that basically belonged to all of them - Mandarin. He reinforced the bilingual policy that started some 40 years ago by encouraging the use of Mandarin and the avoidance of dialects within the Chinese community. And he ordered a ban of dialect programs on television and radio in the early 1980s – a move so effective it explains why those under 30 now barely know much of these dialects. On my part, I wish I had learned Mandarin well and to be as proficient with it as I am in English since it is considered my mother tongue after all. But what I experienced as a student, with only one subject in Mandarin with the rest in English, as well as the other problems I experienced above, was not motivating and perhaps a turn off. So the typical me is fluent in English, Singapore's first language, and able to manage a decent conversation in my mother tongue. And I can understand several dialects. That helps me a lot in my work, especially where China comes into play, so long as I don't have to read or write a Chinese document -- or read a menu, for that matter. So I think I'm still blessed in some ways, as long as I don't speak Singlish. But that is another story, perhaps as a result of another policy gone wrong. See our Oct. 8 story: Singapore Beauty Trips on Singlish slip
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Too little, ...
written by Soh Huat , November 30, 2009
Too late for the young Singaporeans, at least for the next few years. With all the English-speaking media and environment, if the very first word that a child utters is English, you can bet that mastering the native mother tongue is going to be a struggle.
Votes: +3
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Life is hell in Singapore
written by Johnny Boy , November 28, 2009
Every policy implemented in Singapore is designed for one sole purpose only and that is to keep the ruling party in power.
Votes: +5
The interest of the country remained subservient to the interest of the party. report abuse
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CONFUSED !!
written by MERCIFUL , November 25, 2009
Why are you so complicated Miss Dina Tee ?
Votes: +4
You sure the word you meant would'nt be 'crux' ? report abuse
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To Dinas Tee of 24th Nov
written by Severian , November 25, 2009 it's 'crutch' mentality. And no, I will not blame your spelling on the dynasty. report abuse
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Not Good Enough
written by Trevor Yee , November 24, 2009
That is why Sigapore has diffculty in moving ahead. For over 2 decades more than 80% of the population was brought up to think they are not good enough mainly for the reason that they could not achieve a 85 to 90% passmark. This belief unfortnuately has permeated to the national psyche.
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Blame it on the system!
written by Wounded , November 24, 2009
Of course we have to blame it on the system. How else can you explain the condition of our younger generation today, who are largely barely any good in neither their Chinese Mandarin or English? Worse of all, most Singaporeans even think their English is good when they often utter Singlish, nonsense English to say the least, and became laughing stock to the world. 7th Son is very right in every ways and Dinas Tee should take note, if there are more like you Dinas, Lee won't even need to apologise for his mistakes! You vote for your leaders and you deserve very right to a better future, THEY owe that to you!
Votes: +9
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Kiasu, Lowly rated comment [Show]
Which God In Sin
written by moneyface , November 24, 2009 moneyface said... tourist ask the monk, then which god do the people in Spore pray to? good question! said the monk. Those who support or wear logo of lightning bolt pray to 'god of no mercy'. tourist ask the monk, does ying and yang exist in Spore? good question! said the monk. the answer you seek is what you see in Spore's parliament. why is that ? the tourist queried. aaah, said the monk. there are 81 worshipping 'god of no mercy' versus 2 worshipping 'goddess of mercy'. so my friend, is there a balance of ying and yang ? aaah, said the tourist. I am now enlightened. not quite! said the monk. why is that! queried the tourist. one more thing, said the monk. look into eyes of those worshipping 'god of no mercy' aaah, said the tourist. I know now! they all have the $$ signs in their eyes! good observation indeed! said the monk. report abuse
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Guilty as charged
written by 7th Son , November 23, 2009
Social engineering is the curse of all societies unfortunate enough to fall into the clutches of a megalomaniac dictator with visions of playing God. It didn't work with Hitler, it failed in China under Mao and the dead civilisation of North Korea is its epitaph.
Votes: +10
There is an old joke that you can take a camel to water but you can't force it to drink - unless you sneak up behind and clap its balls hard between two rocks to make it inhale sharply. That was the technique used by Lee Kuan Yew on his captive sheeple - no motivation, just the rod of compulsion and the sting of the lash for the disobedient. Of course his bilingual policy failed, how could it do otherwise? Lee forced an alien Northern tongue down the unwilling throats of Southern Chinese people and that is every bit as disgusting as it sounds. In its ruthless destruction of dialects his policy ripped apart family unity with dialect-speaking grandparents being unable to communicate with Mandarin force-fed grandchildren, terminally severed the roots of the truly unique Baba culture that took more than a century to evolve between Malaysia and Singapore, and destroyed the grace and nuance that is the essence of a true mother tongue. Ironically, Singaporeans are today far less multilingual than their forbears most of whom could switch in a blink from Mandarin to Hokkien/Teochew to Cantonese to Malay to English. It is true that they were jacks of all (linguistic) trades and masters of none but has the situation improved for the better after 40 years of ruthless coercion? Not according to God himself: 'Successive generations of students paid a heavy price because of my ignorance and my insistence on bilingualism,' he said. According to Lee's long-cherished dogma, commercial success can only come with in-depth command of the language spoken by your trading partners. So speaks a man who has never run a proper business of his own in his entire life. Singaporeans must be praying that Brazil, Russia and India never ever become economic powerhouses before he kicks off. report abuse
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One man's rule
written by historian , November 23, 2009
All the policies mentioned by the writer came from one man - LKY. His ministers actually did not need to think. All they needed to do was put into effect all of LKY's ideas. I recall LKY saying that if his son could do 2 languages at first language standard then he could not see why all Singaporean students could not do the same. He was so wrong and that's why thousands of Singaporeans migrated. It took LKY 40 years to realise this. What a mess he created. That is one more reason why you must not have another despot like him. Bad policies must be put to rest immediately, not after 40 years of abuse. Everyone is waiting for him to admit some more of his mistakes. But admission is one thing, an apology is another. He may make the first but the second? you will have to wait a long, long time.
Votes: +8
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YIN AND YEW
written by THE MERCIFUL , November 23, 2009 Subject: FW: yin & yew A European tourist was visiting a temple in Singapore when he noticed a statue, with two faces, a man and a woman, back to back, by the altar. He asked the monk what was the significance of the two. The monk explained that in the Chinese belief of yin and yang, positives must always be balanced by negatives, and having the statue with two sides ensures that the universal balance is maintained. "This statue of the woman is the Goddess of Mercy, Kuan-Yin." "What about the other one?" asked the tourist. "The one with the man's face is the God of No Mercy, Kuan-Yew.." report abuse
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