The question is why after so many years then LKY admitted his blunder. Was there no one in his cohort of policy makers review and question his error or the repercussion society will face with such policy? But is this language thingie that serious. No, I do not think so. Many of us can master two language without much problem. LKY is senile.

And the two-child policy. This policy in essence had killed so many to be borned babies but was stopped with contraceptive or vasectomy and ligation. Were those policy makers so blind and not far-sighted enough to even work out the disastrous demographic change S’pore will encounterafter 30 to 40 years of such policy.

Now S,pore are facing the problem of low birth rate and not enough citizens to fill the void left behind. Foreign replacements surged in with the gahmen’s approval and indiscrimately. A catastrophic policy that forever change the endearing family nucleus. We blame the government of PAP.

The PAP government must list out all the wrong policies made and publish it in their Shit Times and to remedy them one by one.

And stop redrawing boundaries during election. Abolish the GRC system for a fair fight with the opposition on one to one in all constituencies.

MM Lee should do a Kevin Rudd and make a public apology to the people for the all the misery we all suffered.

I guess he is trying to make peace with Singaporeans just before his sun set years
are over.I wondered what will be his next confessions.Perhaps,his population
control policy,suppression of Chinese dialects,legalization of abortion.

His biggest crime is the suppression of Chinese Clans, Chinese Schools and the political culture of the Chinese Educated Class.

I think all this is because of the impending GE.
After that, it’s back to the same old crap…
Same rigmarole, same repertoire of tricks & treats…

One step in the right direction, but a few decades too late. Oh well, no fish. old frozen prawns still better than nothing.

Second step is for MM Lee to say “I am sorry”

Third, fourth, fifth, sixth…. steps is to admit he was wrong and say “sorry” for no dialects policy, stop at two policy, graduate mother policy, bankrupting of political opponents, claiming that HDB flats are subsidised, locking up our cpf, not upgrading opposition wards, making his daughter-in-law take blame for all his blunders at Temasek, etc etc etc.

Old man has many many more steps to take to redeem himself. He might need a walking stick to help him along.

Multi-Millionaire MM Lee and the PAP Multi-Millionaire Ministers should not just talk away his mistakes on the Education Policies.

They should list down all the mistakes in all the policies, rules, regulations, laws, amendments to laws, amendments to the Constitution and all the schemes that have gone haywire due to poor implementation and coordination down the line.

And they should be man enough to say sorry, without any reservations, to all the people of Singapore who have suffered under their hands, past and present, and including the future generations. Only thus will they be able to make amends with the populace of Singapore, especially the future generations, and ask for our forgiveness.

Otherwise, the future generations will curse them no end, despite their trying to come out with Men-In-White to paint themselves white.

No amount of cover ups and twisting of history will wash away the sins from the hands of those who persist upon their evil self-praising, self-serving and self-enriching ways. After they died, their souls will be so tormented that they will be crying for help in vain. So make amends now and ask for forgiveness.

People have eyes but blind, Heaven has eyes to see!

That’s why most posting here are done in english… not chinese :-)

It’s the environment I tell you. IQ will not limit you to how many languages you can learn, as long as it’s 1-4.

The relevance of teaching the Chinese subject is … well, I suppose it still is reasonable at the Primary Level, and maybe as an non-examinable subject at Secondary Level. But to have it at a stage where you can make or break your future based on a language while faring excellent in others is a no. The education system must modify its methods to cater to those who excel in specific subjects, rather than bog them down with an average weighting for all [9?] subjects.

The MM Lee’s legacy will have to include his failure to reflect upon how his mistaken Education Policy had affected my children, and many others like them.

Both my children failed to get a good grade for Chinese during their ‘O’ Level Exam. As such, they could not be admitted into the ‘A’ Level because of MM Lee’s stupid policy of depriving those who failed Chinese an admission to higher institute of learnings in Singapore. Therefore, I had no choice but to borrow lots of money and sell my condo to finance their further education overseas. And up to today, I am still suffering.

As a result of MM Lee’s stupid Chinese Language Policy, my children not only started to hate the Chinese Language (Mandarin) but also refused to come back to Singapore after their graduation. They are now happily settled down in Australia and have became Australian citizens.

Stories like this should have been included in the ‘Lee Kuan Yew Memoirs’, and his “From Third World To First”, as well as the recent “Men-In-White”, and future history or history-related books/text on Singapore, so that future generations will have a better, rounded and balanced picture about the whole complete truth.

A genuine society must not be afraid to highlight its leaders’ failures so that future generations can learn from them and improve up them to advance their own lives. To hide failures but only bring out successes and say only the nice things will never do justice to our future generations and to mankind as a whole. Such selfish despicable behaviour must not be condoned in our Outstanding First World Country that boasted of and paid our Leaders the World’s Highest salary many times over. It can only bring disgrace and shame, not honour and fame.

It is high time that all our leaders, big or small, and all our loyal citizens wake up and stand out fearlessly to speak the truth, and nothing but the truth. So help us God!

Well.. I don’t know.

I personally feel that everyone should learn their mother-tongue in primary and perhaps secondary school. However, it should not be based for entry to higher tertiary education.

The gahmen should not promote any “Speak Mandarin” propaganda. They should promote speaking mother-tongue so that you don’t lose your ‘roots’.

The problem usually is that singaporeans usually don’t take it seriously if you don’t make it compulsory, which is why this was enforced.

I’ve seen many cases where a parent talks to his/her child in Mandarin and the child replies in English, which I feel it’s quite sad.

Its time for us to reflect on all Govt policies. We can have a group think with one man deciding what’s good for us and no one dares tell him he is wrong, until one morning he wakes up and decides that he is wrong after 30 years.

I think his mistake made is not only this, let recall back,

(1) Control of Birth Rate, ” Two is enough”
(2) Educate Level, “Uni father and Uni mother can produce Uni Child”
(3) Non Stop Changing of Educational System, those that been affected in our educate like Primary 8 system, now where we stand in the working world?
(4) GST implementation,
(5) COE implementation,
(6) ERP implementation,
(7) Privatize government control company like, Singtel, PWD, Powergrid, Public Transports, and etc. This causes our standard of living increase, because this privatize company now need to have yearly profit reports that why non stop increasing of the cost on us Singaporean,
(8) AND MANY MORE.

Just ask him to step down and keep quiet, Singapore no need this kind of Politcian to work for Singapore.

He always think he is always right. I think he is too old but he tried to carry on, sometimes what he said is not making much sense. I think he is trying too hard to hang on, hoping his grandson would be nurtured soon enough to take over. But anyway, that would be eventual as this is SGP.

Bilingualism, speak mandarin campaign, sending all his children to Chinese schools etc, all are part of LKY’s political maneuvering in the past, designed to hoodwink the older Chinese educated voters.

Now that the numbers of the Chinese-speaking voters are dwindling, LKY is trying to do an about turn, hoping that the English-speaking majority will forgive and forget, and better still, support him.

Pragmatism? What I see is a political animal who always change his colour in order to retain power.

A pathetic being indeed.

This old man is nearing his end. He is making the path easier for his multimillion dollar pm son. The admission is a probable diversion of attention of the lesser mortals. So far, it has always been the lesser mortals making adjustments and sacrifices in their lives for all the failed policies (the 2 child policy included, don’t remember an admission of error here?).

At the end of the day, the lesser mortals are accused of being choosey (for jobs and housing), lazy (not receptive to change and mobility), unappreciative of the leaders (who tranformed Singapore from 3rd to 1st world country…er city-state), unaccommodating (foreign talents), greedy (unable to accept cheaper pay than the foreign talents), unfilial (unable to pay high medical bills of parents, send parents away to cheaper nursing home or opt for euthanasia for ailing parents), and the list goes on.

Make your valuable choice wisely this time (the coming GE) and not waste another 4-5year before the admission of another mistake.

#111
The gahmen should not promote any “Speak Mandarin” propaganda. They should promote speaking mother-tongue so that you don’t lose your ‘roots’.
___________________________________________________________________

Preservation of mother tongue. This is something we should all consider very seriously. My mother spoke Teochew and Malay. My neighbourhood friends spoke Hokkien and Malay. So I can speak a smattering of Hokkien and Malay. We spoke English at home — it seemed the best language to communicate with ease.
The introduction of Mandarin was painful, to me at least. In my time, the teaching was carried out by teachers who could only speak Mandarin and nothing else. My teacher’s efforts to teach me was like a duck trying to communicate with a chicken.
It just did not work out.
Many Singaporean children today have mothers who are European (Dutch, Spanish, Italian, French, etc) and Asian (Japanese, Thai, Filipino, Korean, Vietnamese etc). I encourage them to make efforts to preserve their mother tongue.
Language allows one to stay connected with our roots. We in Singapore will have to accept the diversity of our society and that this diversity will only increase in the years to come.
Enforcing the study of mother tongues, limited to Mandarin, Malay, Tamil and Hindi, Japanese and French, is myopic and not the way to enhance the multi-racial, multi-cultural beauty of Singapore.

It is certainly very brave of him to admit his mistakes. Perhaps it is time to reassess mistakes/bad policies made and reduce his pay for bad performance. Mind you, these ppl do not come cheap and we demand top performance for top dollar.

Oxford Dude Yes U’re right, This Oldfart has dug up our culturel roots, he himself has not roots. Even our country heritage the National Threatre been tear down.
just to escape his nightmare after seeing this building.

Another of his biggest (political) mistakes is paying his ministers multi-million dollar salary. It will not take him 40 years to find out the resentment it created. He will regret if he lives to see the election results.

I can’t help but to think the Indians and the Malays are probably laughing at us Chinese now. After all, I never heard a Malay person complaining about difficulty to learn Malay or a Tamil Indian who has difficulty learning Tamil.

Is it our attitude? After all, China from the 50s onwards right up to the turn of the century was not a “cool” country and hence it’s cultures and languages were also similarly uncool. I remember growing up, there is a group of Chinese who exhibited self-hate in terms of the Chinese Culture and Languages.

Another possibility is of course, Mandarin is not our real mother tongue. We were really Cantonese, Teochews, Hokkeins, Hainanese, Hakkas and so on, being forced to adopt a Beijing dialect that is made “official Chinese” by the powers that be.

Will our society be better or worse if we were to continue our real mother tongue that is the various dialects? I guess we will never know.

As for LKY’s admission of mistakes. That was because he found the hard way when his own grandson suffered his own policies. And he was able to overcome that by simply bending the rules and sending him to SAS, in which other “mortal” children are unable to do so due to yet another Singapore rule.

So many of them have had their youth lost and wasted, their confidence shattered, their lives forever changed. And who will compensate them, hmm?

[...] education: To Bi or not to Bi – TOC: MM Lee’s admission – a good time for govt to reflect on policy – Die neue Welle: I am Singaporean II: Bilingualism is Bad(?) – Urbanrant: Why I think MM Lee is [...]

Andrew,

Regardless of whether MM made a mistake, as I read your account of your ’struggle’, I feel like making an ad hominen attack on your attitude. Frankly, I see it as totally your own fault for not doing well (an euphemism for being a total failure) in Chinese. I read no effort on your part at all to improve. To top it off, you have a defeatist attitude (skipped the exam).

To be honest, I think you are just using this ‘apology’ by MM to justify your ‘not doing well’ in the language.

Must read:
#09 Cardin

“…I suppose it still is reasonable at the Primary Level, and maybe as an non-examinable subject at Secondary Level. But to have it at a stage where you can make or break your future based on a language while faring excellent in others is a no….”

Strike to the heart of the matter. Thank you Cardin.

By all means, for people who have the aptitute and interest, the sky is the limit! But please kindly don’t force a langauge down the throat of others whom would like to study and spend more time and effort in other subjects that they are really interested in.

well, thank you for, finally, open up to the “gullible” and “innocent” citizens of the world after, so many years of disguises and pretensions! only a few possibilities that can explain this “dirty old man’s” despicable tricks in deceiving honorable singaporeans who assiduously, slogged for his “premeditated” dynasty, over five solid decades. possible reasons: 1) he is not as intelligent as he sounds to be, if not with the support of the englishman who awarded him a double first class honors degree in law; 2) he is not a ‘chinese’ singaporean as he used to claim to be; 3) why he has the ability to function as a japanese interpreter during WWll? may be he is a born Japanese, that’s why the japanese supported the autocratic government under his barbaric charged, unconditionally; last but not least, is it really so difficult to have a good command of chinese/mandarin, if you have an interest in the language?

does the majority of chinese singaporean students really hate learning chinese or just a minority? specifically those elites like MM’s grandson, or english speaking chinese ministers children like TCH etc.

all my friends born in the 70s have no regrets or have extreme difficulty learning it. and in fact is glad that it has enabled us to enjoy another language/culture.

i can assure u that most chinese do not hate learning chinese and there is nothing very wrong with the way chinese is taught.
the only problem is that some elites children have a difficult time picking up chinese.

as usual only when it affects themselves then they will take a deeper look into it.

foreigners are robbing jobs, housing and even the women but as it does not affect those making million dollars a year, u can see that there has been no concrete actions or actions only involve sacrifices on our side.

when policies affect them, they will also make sure they reap the benefits and any sacrifices will still be by the commoners.

26) anonymous on November 19th, 2009 1.01 pm
all my friends born in the 70s have no regrets or have extreme difficulty learning it. and in fact is glad that it has enabled us to enjoy another language/culture.

ok.. i am a 70s child, and my chinese for O’level was C5 or C6. :P
Also have no regrets nor have issues with way it was taught.

I fully agree with you on your point of some elites’s children having difficulty picking it up. Of course, there are others who may also have difficulty and jumped on the bandwagon immediately so as to justify their not-doing-well in the subject area.

Given the admissions of flaws,
I surprised the capable WP mp’s never ask for Education system REFORM.

Maybe REFORM party can lead the way.

We need Gungho Opposition.

2 term consecutive as MP = ??? got anything special?

I am about same age as Andrew Loh.

He said Chinese class was always a struggle for him.

I, too, went through similar singapore education system as him.

How come I do not feel much difficulty learn Chinese?
In fact, English was more difficult for me.
But see, i can now speak singlish. Not bad wor.

Singlish + Chinese Fluent speaker. Where got difficult wan?

I mean, lets say, give him & his administration the benefit of a doubt;
if at all sincere, policy changes should start coming thick & fast after the realization & confessions.
Not just a show & then crickets can be heard…

What is the basic purpose of langauge – communication. I will not agree that bilingualism is bad, just because you cannot master it at a very high level. In that sense, the bilingual policy has worked. For the Malays, it might not have served much for they would have picked up the language from home. For Indians, in the earlier decades it was a bane, many did not speak Tamil at home for they spoke other languages like Malayalam, Telugu, Marathi. So effectively they learned a third language which become a lingua franca for Indians and many Indians and Malay did Mandarin to gain an economic advantage. Somewhere along the line MOE put a stop to these good practices by implementing the mother tongue policy, where you have to learn your mother tongue and were not allowed to Mandarin by choice. It also introduced NTIL or Non Tamil Indian Langaue policy where the other Indian languages were offered in schools. In a way these prevented the non Tamil speaking Indians from doing Mandarin and also ended the ambition of having a Tamil as the lingua franca for the Indian community. Which I would say is in complete contrast to create Mandarin as the lingua franca of the Chinese at the expense of the chines dialects. But now we confession that bilinguism policy was a mistake. Well at the end of the day, if I can communicate in 2 or more language to get my message across, then I am multilingual and an asset. I need not be a expert in two language for I am not penning literature.

one of the major problems is EDUCATION. abolish exam from pri to sec. u may certain system to extract best of the bests but u can’t insist by way of force in the policy implementation.

you have by now extracted the top cream of the crop who intelligent (IQ) but no (EQ) who moulded by MMLeesytem to win by way of power and greed. but the rest of gerenal public do not have to smart but to be in ocntrol by fear of policy as acheived till today. ———–all thiese poicies have created so many problems as it is today as well……just because of one man, old fart.

true, learning chinese has always been a breeze to me in fact I got a A2 for my O levels, I kinda miss chinese lessons after I got into poly. But then I blame a MMs for eradicating dialects which are the roots of our culture and heritage.

Should Chinese Teachers, now retired , appologise to the baby boomers?
Australia’s Rudd applogised also for mistakes.

Chinese is a struggle for many because it is a difficult language to learn, period. You need to put effort into it. It doesn’t help that people are able to find excuses by saying it is not their mother tongue. Mandarin is not our mother tongue, but written Chinese is essential for all Chinese. You still need to learn Chinese characters in order to read and write Hokkien, Cantonese or Teo Chew. If you are really proud of your own heritage, you should learn Chinese. How else are you able to read the Hokkien and Cantonese writings when you go to Fujian or Hong Kong?

I stayed in a malay kampung….

by default i was able to speak and read malay….

my peranakan family only speak english or malay…

only my grand parents speak chinese…and it is cantonese or hokkien…

imagine the hell i went thru just to pass my mandrain…so what if my PSLE i got straight As for my maths, science and english but my mandrain got an “F”…have to retake my PSLE….put so much effort i manage to get a “C” grade but at the expense of my other subjects…can’t help but notice my fellow class mate who has to struggle like hell just to pass their english too…never mind if their mandrain, maths or science got straight “As” too…

Later a O level i have fellow school mates who got straight “As” for most of their subjects but failed english….for me is i fail my mandrain…so what if i got straight As for A maths, E maths or physics/chemistry…so what….no use lah in singapore…

If i was born in america or somewhere where it is ok not to do well in your 2nd language…i will probably get to maximize my life and my loved ones too…but too bad born in singapore…so have to make the best of it at my own expense due to unthinking policy makers who think so it must be it must be…irony is that they themselves did not practise what they preach or put in place…

only to find out…opppsss…my grand children have difficulties so must adjust adjust…

how many of us paid the price….i believe too many….we have to forgo our dreams, our beliefs, ourselves….and for what…

To accept we are 2nd best….but we are not 2nd best….we are made to be second best by others who set and dictate these unthinking policies…

sorry…is it enough to paid back what has been taken away from so many…

I don’t think so….i don’t ever is it enough.

Preferably, every english educated chinese Singaporean must not only be able to speak and read chinese – but must also be able to speak , at least one chinese dialect and its high time that we bring back those dialect speaking chinese shows – does not every think that its ridiculous to list one in the NRIC as a teochew or hokien etc etc and not being able to utter a few words of them or understand them.

The grandiose speak Mandarin campaign has estrangled many 3 generations family members dwelling under the same roof whereby the grand children cannot communicate with the grand parents and vice versa .

DIialects spaeking as in Mandarin speaking is the quintessence of being Chinese – in fact, of being a chinese and every ounce of it and whats they are supposed to be ….

My second language should be Thai as my paternal and maternal grandmothers and the others of that generation use it as their first language. but, I did not really have a second language. I spoke colloquil Hokkien and some Malay and write some Malay. Then I spoke colloquil Lao and it is somehat like Thai. I would love to speak Thai with my old Thai relations but they had passed away.

Mandarin should be my second language but I picked up a bit fro the tv and could use only about 40 words. I went to China four times and picked a few more words but I had to give up the China trips because I knew so little Mandarin. To me Lao is easier as I live in a basically Lao village.

If you are not good in Mandarin it may mean that you should give it up as you may be gifted in other languages and you can speak other languages fluently.

I speak five languages and write three.

Hope MM hears me.

I just wonder why recenlty MM seems to like to appear so much as those he is the PM. What had happen to our PM? Is he not still not capable enough to run the country or he is weak in health as you can see his hair is getting more white. Anyone comment on this?

To those who moan about the teacher teaching in the target language (like LKY), that is usually how languages should be taught. It’s called the direct method.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_method_(education)

The idea of using a student’s MT to teach a second language is the grammar translation method, a method that is outdated and fairly ineffectual.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammar_translation

The modern approach to language teaching is the CLT. It is heavily used in colleges, including NUS.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communicative_language_teaching

The problem with Singapore’s bilingual policy is that the students are expected to
be academically proficient in both languages, something that is rather hard to achieve. Being conversant in two languages isn’t hard. Being able to write an 800 argumentative essay in either language is another matter altogether,

I’m usually a strong critic of PAP..but don’t blame them if you as a chinese have problem understanding chinese.

Unless the problem arise because your mother tongue is something else.

quote// Even though Singapore adopted the “jian pi zi” (short-form) Chinese language characters, they still made no sense to me.// unquote
——————————————–

two quick points:

1. ‘jian PI zi’? did u mean to say ‘jian BI zi’?

2. ’short-form’ sounds strange. i think u meant ’simplified’.

Brilliant mind. Enjoy. Comical at later part . . .

http://www.razor.tv/site/servlet/segment/main/news/local/Newsplus/38982.html

Before he dies he has to confess and apologize to the many innocent
persons he threw in jail under the ISA. They and their families and friends
whose lives were so terribly affected, without so much as the batting of
an eyelid, no tinge of conscience.

He has to “go down on his bended knees” and beg for forgiveness from
those he has wrong for five long decades. He has to do this not just to
salve his own conscience but to stop those who have threatened to piss
and shit on his grave.

This is the least of concern: Chinese language learning.

How he treated the people using ISA should be of concern.

It is like now, people has exposed his faults and he choose to apologise for the lighter error to cover his ass.

This is typically PAP and LKY.

Will Singapore become a monolingual country after the old man admission of mistake in Bilingualism.

In the past, people go to work speak in English but when they reach home they speak in mother tongue or mandarin. As time progress, they speak English at work and then at home. However they still speak Chinese when they go out to eat. Lately even the food court people speaks English. PRC got scolded for not knowing English, soon they must learn English. Yet there were a lot of people watch the Chinese programs on TV, will one day even this will disappear and we completely use English.

Will old man regret once again for abandoning policy?

That’s what happens when you have omniscient dictators making policy. No checks and balances.

Dictatorship is an extremely efficient way of implementing policy. Unfortunately, it does not ensure that the policy is correct. Witness Robert Mugabe.

Well, after 40 years of this myth that Mandarin is anybody’s mother tongue can we now revive the dialects in which our culture reside? Didn’t someone say that a language is merely the dialect of the folks who control the army and navy? (He said this before the Wright bros)

I actually don’t understand what is WRONG with learning two languages.

The more languages you learn, the more people you can connect with.
I like the fact that I can speak English, Mandarin and a little Malay, Hokkien.

Ironic and complicated as it sounds, I think LKY is wrong when he said he was ‘wrong’.

Notwithstanding the jubilation over the fact that he admitted to a wrong,
i think most people agree that being bilingual is a good thing.

This article has no substance.
It attacks the policy.
Singaporeans who took and passed A-Level Chinese have proven they can learn Both Languages.

The policy is effective.

But i not sure why many times those who passed A-Level Chinese could not respond in chinese but english when i talk to them in chinese.

I am sure A-Level chinese was high standard right?

Ajax on November 19th, 2009 2.28 am

MM Lee should do a Kevin Rudd and make a public apology to the people for the all the misery we all suffered.

Haha..If that happens..I will consider not peeing on his grave when he die..Seriously, he doesn’t have that courage. Want to bet?

IF the policy is FLAWED,
would not the 80 + People’s Representatives have spoken up about its FLAWS?
Why now only?

Hey, these 80+ PR’s are not for show you know? They are excellent leaders you know? Though paid well and some handsomely, they very busy also you know?

42) haunted library on November 19th, 2009 8.24 pm
two quick points:
1. ‘jian PI zi’? did u mean to say ‘jian BI zi’?
2. ’short-form’ sounds strange. i think u meant ’simplified’.

1. ermm… You are also wrong. it’s jian TI zi. “简体字“
2. Yep. “simplified” chinese is the correct term. It would then become the direct translation of the chinese characters I typed, “simplified form”

The question now is – what is wrong with our educational methods through which chinese is being taught that makes it so tedious to learn?

Why is it only Singaporeans that are facing such a problem, whereas our neighbours in Malaysia do not and some can speak better mandarin than some of us?

People in other countries like Russia, Germany can speak 2 or more languages beside English.

The govt should review its teaching methods but w/o sacrificing the language and killing it that our younger generation end up being even more half past six with our languages as we already are currently.

Being able to speak and read it at working level is not enough if the next generation of Singaporeans is to remain competitive in the face of these new citizens coming from China. Being able to write it is just as essential.

I am a Punjabi Sikh. My younger brother an ex-army major speaks and write good mandarin, which he picked up during his army days. He was under no pressure to pick-up mandarin, but he was able to do it because he wanted to converse with his man in mandarin.

What LKY did, fool that he is,was to force it down the throat of the Chinese, who gave in barely without a whimper.

I agree with Andrew that if people are free to choose whatever language they want to learn, who knows we might have produced great Chinese scholars to rival those from China and Taiwan

And by the way, i hope i dont sound boastful, i am tri- lingual; i can read and write in English, Bahasa Melayu and Punjabi (Gurmukhi) and i can speak good Hokkien and Cantonese and a smattering of Teochew and Tamil.

The point i am making is that as long as you dont force it down people’s throat, people can pick up any language and excell in it, like they do in the free western countries.

Pardon, i forget to also include Hindi in my speaking ability. Cheers.

Look at our inter-schools mandarin speaking debate, our top students cannot hold well in their fort without one PRC speaking in reference of the chinese thousands years history, cultures, wisdoms, idioms etc.

Not even our Media Corp local comperes can be up the mark, till date except only guo liang or quan yifeng to host the other shows…….. real sad……. can our $million education minister care to comment…..why …… looking back at the education policies implemented……and so call every speak mandarin campaigns…….why

last but not least, how many of our $million cabinet ministers are able to…… so to speak…….real sad.

[...] education: To Bi or not to Bi – TOC: MM Lee’s admission – a good time for govt to reflect on policy – Die neue Welle: I am Singaporean II: Bilingualism is Bad(?) [Recommended] – Urbanrant: Why I [...]

hello 52) lobo76 on November 20th, 2009 3.59 pm

oops, thanks for pointing out (my mistake in ti3/bi3)!

If all you are looking for is an apology, then perhaps you are letting your emotions run too wild.

The articles and responses here fail to appreciate how deeply political language policies are in any country. Missing also is an understanding of Singapore’s educational history.
The PAP’s language policy has always been bilingual policy. This was the legacy of the report of the All Party Report on Chinese Education (1956), where Mr Lee Kuan Yew was a member. This report formed the blueprint of PAP’s educational policy when they came to power in 1959. What changed over the years was that in the early years of independence, the focus was on an “English knowing bilingualism”. Besides the English Language, Mathematics, Science and technical were emphasized as they were deemed useful for Singapore’s industralization. The Chinese community decried the drop in standard of mandarin (yes, mandarin was the medium of instruction in Chinese schools) from the 1960s and 1970s.
Today, English is the medium of instruction for all schools in Singapore. However, before 1987, there were Chinese, Malay and Tamil medium schools. Besides the trade unions, the Chinese school students were instrumental in PAP’s rise to power in 1959. The split within the PAP in 1961, resulting in the formation of the Barisan Socialis, crippled the party. The Barisan Socialis (BS) had great appeal amongst the Chinese educated, but they (BS) were deeemed as pro-Communists. The PAP had to rebuilt the party from stratch, and they found an ally amongst English educated populance. An example would be the attitude of the Straits Times, which was anti-PAP before it came to power. In the ‘battle for merger’ with Malaysia, the Straits Times became increasing pro-PAP. We all know that the PAP emerged victorious in the fight. A number of the Barisan Socialis MPs and supporters who were detained for suspected Communist and/or pro-Communist links were Chinese educated. This cast an unfortunate shadow on Chinese schools in Singapore, as they were deemed to be too political and pro-Communist.
The English educated and Chinese educated viewed the bilingual policy differently. I shall not elaborate on the problems that bilingualism had on the English educated as most of the people who read theonlinecitizen are very familar with the impact of this policy. To the Chinese educated, the way bilingualism was implemented led to the decline in the standard of Chinese in Singapore. A lot has been written on this in the chinese newspapers, as well in academia. For instance, Dr. Lee Guan Kin of NTU has written some articles in English on this issue (she publishes mostly in chinese). Dr Huang Jianli, historian in NUS has written on the activism of the Chinese school students in the 1950s and 1960s.
The speak mandarin campaign (1979) and the introduction of SAP schools (1978) represent a swing in the PAP’s emphasis from an English knowing bilingualism, to one that emphasizes the learning of mandarin as the mother tongue for all Chinese. We are feeling the effects of these initiatives today.
MM Lee’s apology has to be understood in the context of Singapore’s educational and and recent political history. We need to know this historical context in order to better understand the bilingual policy today.

A disproportinate amount of time was spent on Chinese which resulted in chinese tutors coffers being filled to the brim and the childrens attempt to live and enjoy a child’s life completely drained and dehyrated.
Who will give them back their childhood?? All this because of the stubborn policy stuffed down our throats by numerous ministers of education who did what was expected of them. Our education policy changed with the seasons-a few made it and have become robotic in their thinking and will in all likelihood ‘pontificate’ in a few years time when they become ministers etc. This cycle will go on ad nauseum for years to come.

Language usage as seen in the pragmatic manner of the Leadership is(was) that it must have the greatest commercial value, in short; a business language. And this is how it is explained, the political developments and connotations that lead the Vernaculars to their impotence today, have little or no relevance to the younger generations; may i subjectively put it as after Year 1965.

The Over Fifties in Singapore are likely to have better understandings of the Language Situation and would also have their pro and anti reasons for the Langauage Policy as implemented by Lee Kuan Yew. One aspect is very clear, majority of the pro vernaculars(Mandarin, Malay, Tamil and Arabic etc) were(are) the view that the English Language was used as a significant weapon to rid or reduced the Political Opponents to PAP.

The Pro English Language Segment was bought over by the belief that English was the more practical language medium, seasoned and convinced by the century old British Rule; this belief was reasonable.
The Anti English Language Policy Communities then were the more conservative and culturally fidel lots who take their cultural roots and values as the main ethos in their livings. It was also true that they were less acceptable of the PAP Leadership then which resulted in the need for the Vernaculars to be relegated for resistances to the PAP to be reduced or crippled.

In any case, i opine that MM Lee is innately in love with the English Language as seen in the fact that whenever and wherever he had the opportunity to talk about langauge, he will exhort people to learn English, be it in China, Malaysia, Thailand, Japan and everwhere else. Maybe he is genuinely Anglicized while he was studying in England or that that he truly feels that English is the Superior Language. Whichever way he thinks; i think he should respect the choice of the others in this very personal issue.

patriot

MM Lee admits he’s wrong : does that mean he’s REALLY wrong ?

With MM Lee’s about turn, the table’s now turned into the blame game. Everyone who’s ever flunked their Chinese lessons crawl out of the woodwork to blame their chinese teachers, blame boring lessons, blame everything and everyone except themselves for their inability to master Chinese.

Pedagogy trends in language come and go, teachers can use English to teach chinese in school, use I.T, use other creative and interesting methods but at the end of the day, the question teachers will ask themselves is : My innovative methods may interest my students, but can these methods make him DO WELL in the EXAM ?

Is teaching Chinese interestingly and doing well in exam mutually exclusive ?

The bottom line is Singapore’s exam based system makes it difficult to really teach for learning, not just teach for passing exams.

My experience with Chinese mirrors yourself, even though i got enough tuition to do HCL. However, I can’t understand all this self-righteous anger at the policy. Speaking from experience, even though I HATED HCL lesson, I’m forever thankful of the basic proficiency of the language that the Singaporean education system gave me.

And can anyone here deny the importance of bilingualism? A command in Mandarin is not just essential for pragmatic business reasons, it is also essential for communicating with fellow Singaporeans, especially those in different stratas of society. Unless you plan to spend your whole life in your ivory tower communicating with people from similar backgrounds, a second language is nigh-essential.

And just like English, Math and Science, a government is justified in compelling the populace to study something if its importance is so self-evident. I was horrible at Science, but the basic Scientific education i received is was indispensable. I agree that the MOE has made huge mistakes in the application of the policy. Teaching Chinese through rote-learning has been manifestly unsuccessful, and students should not be denied entry to a local university for failing Chinese. But I do not see how poeeople can deny that SOME compulsory education in the language can be abandoned.

*But I do not see how people can deny that SOME compulsory education in the language CANNOT be abandoned.

oops. Looks like my grounding in the English Language hasn’t been stellar either. lol.

I did well in both languages! Thanks to MM’s vision and direction. What a leader!

We love and respect his leadership!