Singapore’s bilingual policy: a success or setback?
December 2nd, 2009 | 
Author: By Nicholas Tan
Long regarded as the crux of Singapore’s financial, political and national success, the bilingualism policy has come under the limelight recently, all thanks to Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s apology for his mistakes in the policy.
When the policy was meted out four decades ago, Mr Lee said: “if we were monolingual in our mother tongues, we would not make a living.”
Nobody can deny the fact that as a result of learning our sciences and mathematics in English, we can go almost anywhere to further our education and earn a living as a scientist or a lawyer. MNCs and research companies have no qualms about setting up regional bases here and directly contributing to our economy. However a further prognosis of Mr Lee did not quite materialize. He predicted that ”Becoming monolingual in English would have been a setback.
We would have lost our cultural identity, that quiet confidence about ourselves and our place in the world.” Regrettably, the younger generation has already shown signs of that much unwanted setback despite NOT being monolingual. We might, with some difficulty, claim to be bilingual but we are definitely not bicultural. The younger generation has lost interest in the Chinese language because of the way Chinese is taught in schools: rigid, boring and meaningless. Chinese literature and culture are out of the question if students loathe the medium of instruction. It is hardly perplexing that most of us know nothing about cultural heritage and identity.
What might be happening? A fundamental principle of our governance is that education keeps up with economic growth and society. Consequentially, we learn a language if it is beneficial to the country, regardless of personal interest. For instance, we learn mother tongue to promote communication and economic cooperation with other countries.
The Chinese language is emphasized in particular because the government wants Singaporeans to leverage on the rapid growth of China. The problem occurs when the pressure on students comes in the form of ‘forced’ learning of the written and spoken forms of Chinese over a short period of time in order to ‘keep up with the economy’. Our ‘comprehensive’ Chinese education lasts from primary school to pre-university education (JC/polytechnic), after which hardly anyone reads or writes Chinese anymore. At best, we use a mixture of Chinese and English in our daily conversations in addition to losing almost all writing and reading skills. Is this the kind of attitude and level of Chinese literacy desirable in a population expected to deal with native speakers of Chinese?
It would be exaggerated to claim that we are all jaded victims of the bilingualism policy, for I consider myself a relatively grateful survivor of the policy. I enjoy speaking and writing Chinese and it still surprises me how some of my peers abhor the language.
Learning Chinese was not enjoyable because one had to go through the rites of dictation and ‘ting xie’ year after year. It was a chore, a pain, but it gradually became bearable as I was moulded by being around Chinese-speaking friends and grew to like Chinese music and Taiwanese entertainment shows. These seem like trivial and silly reasons but they all point to the fact that to learn Chinese, one has to enjoy the process. Make it ‘fun’, as Mr Lee Kuan Yew puts. However, learning Chinese should not be achieved by removing the arduous process of ‘ting xie’ and ‘mo xie’ (it’s not madness, really.) Instead, the focus should lie on inculcating interest in the language out of a school setting.
Family and friends play an important role in shaping one’s attitude towards the language. For example, it helps that families try to speak Chinese at home to help students habituate into speaking mandarin. It is not easy to create a whole new environment around the student, one that facilitates enjoyable learning of the language, but learning a new language is not meant to be effortless.
The top PSLE student this year came from Guangzhou in 2006 and began learning English here. She attributed her success to ‘library trips and encouragement from family and friends to speak English’. Furthermore, she admits that there were no short-cuts to learning a language. Her achievement proved that language learning is hard work; lowering standards or removing burdensome procedures of writing do not solve the problem. I also caution against excessive use of English in teaching Chinese because the two languages are very different in nature and by using English, we are conveying the message that there are ‘equivalents’ in Chinese for everything in English and vice versa.
They all sound more like restrictions than advice to learning a new language. Well, not every individual has a flair for language learning and we have all come to realize that some people are more bilingual than others. Apart from the dearth of a conducive environment for learning Chinese, more commonly there is a lack of motivation. It is impressive to read about people who push themselves to the limit to learn 8 or more languages, all out of passion, but it is idealistic to expect such ardor in our students. Why not separate students into groups of ‘I love Chinese’ and ‘I just want to get it over and done with’? It would be nice to reward passionate learners with the chance to learn more and guarantee release for the uninterested after imparting the most essential ‘knowledge’.
We need to replace the image that Chinese is just another subject one has to mindlessly memorize for twelve years before throwing it away with a precious gift of heritage. For the few who have suffered under the bilingualism policy such that their talents went unrecognized and emigration was the only way out, it is sad to see them forsake valuable cultural assets for the development of their limitless aptitude.
In the earlier years of Singapore’s independence, the situation was reverse. There was a greater proportion of mandarin-speaking families and we were figuring out ways of better grasping the English language. How did we become better at English over the years? Encouraging families to communicate more in English and gradually shifting from Chinese-medium schools to English-medium schools were some contributing factors. As much as these changes improved our English, they reduced Chinese and other mother tongues to mere subjects like mathematics. Could there be a similar reversal in favour of the Chinese language? Bilingualism was borne out of Singapore’s need to operate globally and ‘retain’ cultural identity; it is time we put more effort into its second objective.
About the Author:
Nicholas was born and bred in Singapore. Like most other Singaporean males, he ad undergone primary, secondary, JC education and full-time national service. Currently, Nicholas is an undergraduate of the University of Western Australia.
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i certainly agree that the teaching of Chinese, or any language for that matter, needs to be more than just memorising and rote learning. i hated Chinese all the way up to the middle of Sec 3. and then i had a new Chinese teacher take over my class in the middle of Sec 3. he’s a very strict teacher and had high expectations, not only of our results, but also of our behaviour.
however, he also knew how to make learning fun. he would teach Chinese using pop songs, through talking about movies (Chinese and English movies), by telling stories, sharing about China, its culture and traditions, its history and development. all this was more than 14 years ago. and because of this one teacher, Chinese lessons actually became the highlight of the day for me. more importantly, i started to love the language. and that was the case for many of my classmates and juniors who were taught by this teacher, including some of the ‘bananas’ (i.e. yellow on the outside, white on the inside, referring to people who, even though are Chinese, are very westernised and have completely lost their ‘Chinese-ness’).
now, even though i don’t use Chinese that much, and consequently my standard of Chinese has deteriorated from my schooling days, i am still relatively proficient in the language.
there is value in knowing another language. and definitely so with Chinese, especially if you are of Chinese heritage. so i would say that, conceptually, there is nothing wrong with the bilingual policy. but, in many cases, this policy was not well implemented.
i hope the people at MOE looking into this as well as our Chinese teachers will learn from the mistakes of the past and improve.
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The new solutions that they proposed are meant to be used to fix current problems.
Current problems = problems that LKY has spent 30 years to create.
Chinese education has never gone into the wrong path – they just faught battles that they could not win.
Because LKY does not want them to win!
Got it?
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After few decades, the old fart then admitted the huge mistake he had made. But in all these decades where were all the moronic Ministers, Perm Secs, education experts and the chinese business tycoons in the Chinese Business of Commerce. How could they not know that our bilingual policy implemented by the self-proclaimed god was all along a huge mistake. Or were they too scare of him to point out his mistake.
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They are said to be non-mediocre.
It is a Big disappointment that after so long is there admitting of flaws.
Stop-at-2 is another well known issue.
what’s going on?
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The loss of Chinese culture suits LKY , how would he as a non speaker be able to dominate if everyone was truly fluent in Chinese ?
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@ rc on Wed, 2nd Dec 2009 6:11 pm
“i hope the people at MOE looking into this as well as our Chinese teachers will learn from the mistakes of the past and improve.”
The usual end of the line of “politically correct” platitude like those often found in letters to ST Forum
MOE is now encouraging teaching of Mandarin using English so kids will learn Singlish Chinese – a slight improvement on Singlish.
Stupid MOE could NOT get it right from decades ago and still clueless of what is wrong. In China, I hear Chinese kids spoke of “bananas” and “eggs” (outside white, inside yellow) and they speak Chinese translation of English – word for word.
In our case, it will be the reverse of “great fun” learning Chinese using English. In 30 years time, we would again be tallying up our stupidity. You bet!
Autocracy in PRC and Singapore both has very damaging consequences of enduring policy errors.
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Compare the older Singaporeans and the younger Singaporeans. Those under the old Education system speaks much better English though somewhat disgraceful in their own mother tongue. However, they are effective in an important language.
Younger Singaporeans tend to be half past six in both languages and ineffective in their communication.
When non-educationists meddle with the education system, they screw it up. Their involvement from a political and economic perspective ignores the fundamental fact the education is about developing each child to their full potential and not as a cog in the economic machinery. This demands highly trained teachers who must first love their students, and then consider how they will be effective in a future economy, not the other way round.
Teachers tend to be robots acting out the demands of the political masters who of course have more than one axe to grind. Is the whole education system geared towards buttressing the PAP leadership, a hunting ground for future leaders of the party rather than of Singaporeans? The scholarship system invariably is the breeding ground of PAP leaders who are beholden to the party first and Singapore second. Singapore is being sacrificed for the benefit of the party, as in so many other civic areas in Singapore.
When will the PAP put Singapore first. If you ask me, what is good for the PAP is not the same as what is good for Singapore. This is a misconception that the PAP strives to promote but alas the veneer of deception is wearing thin.
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Why, up-till-today, majority of the Singaporeans are still blinded by this “dirtiest-oldest-man’s deceptive policies?
What ever policies he proposed, supported, endorsed, approved and last but not least, push-through relentlessly, with unforgiving implementations and change swiftly if those policies do not work, only benefit him and his cronies directly, as the policies filtered-down, it MAY benefit others indirectly!!!
Do not ever forget, changing all Chinese-Medium-School in the early 70s to English as the main instruction for teaching is also his “PET” project!! How about this group of misfortune so-called Chinese educated citizens who may aspire to be a reputable lawyer and end-up an accountant or worst can not even makes it to the institute of higher learning, due to poor command of English!!
Have you ever seen or heard the Chinese lawyers in China or the lawyers in Taiwan speak other languages besides than their national language?
So, now, why is the hurry for this ODM to proclaim learning of Chinese/Mandarin as important and unforgiving, since Singapore’s administrative language is English?
Isn’t it obvious that this so-call “legendary-figure-of-Asia” is just an opportunist and nothing else? He will twist and tweak whatever policies/facts/figures as long as it benefits him at the expense of steadfast Singaporeans slogging assiduously for this brunch of miw ingrates!
How despicable the miw are??????
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most people are benefited bilingualism policy ,about 90% can speak.however due to authority ,limit,cumpulsory the use of speak english.They use of a lot of philippino ,who are mono lingo.In the end ,华一 become useless
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There would be various outcomes if we had pursued our language policy differently. That we can only say on hindsight. The main problem is when one man thinks his opinion should overide everybody’s and he will not accept differing opnions from those in the relevant field. Saying sorry after 30 years only rubs in the salt further, be it for those facing difficulties in Chinese language or the for Chinese educated in those days. There was simply no flexibility in terms of teaching and learning. Considering that our only resource is in our people, we were very quick to stereotype, to divide and categorise, leading to divisions in years to come.
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@ Wee SK on Thu, 3rd Dec 2009 12:23 pm
Come next election, make our votes count. TIME TO CHANGE, DEFINITELY.
Nothing else matters.
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With China being the next econnomic gaint in the foreseeable future it would be foolhardly to disregard Chinese (Mandarin). We do so at our children’s peril and loss of competitiveness.
Today, most universities abroad already have a Chinese department within itself. And many foreigneres are picking up the language.
In fact, CCTV on the web gives free Chinese tuition and the teacher, a young Canadian male, is so eloquent in both English and Mandarin.
The Chinese rote learning method must CHANGE in our schools. The Ministry must innovate platable and sustainable pedagogies eg Montessori for English, for our bilingual students. We’re somewhat accountable to their parents who’re the paymasters.
Make Chinese come alive in schools and out there. It’s not too late.
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IMO, we have come to this state as far as this issue is concerned not because we refused to learn Mandarin, or as some people alleged, some of us despised Mandarin or the Mandarin-speaking or that it is seen as a second-rate lingo.
The issue must squarely be that of poor/inappropriate methods of instructions because of high and unrealistic expectations which kills our interest in learning the language because of the bane it has become and the enforcement of certain policies in the misguided red herring belief that it would help learning when in fact the very opposite effect may very well have been the case!
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I like my dialect because it is my mother tongue. Mandarin is just an official language in China and it is not even recognize as mother tongue in Chinese society like Hong Kong and Taiwan. So the learning of Mandarin can only be for commercial reason. Otherwise, it will have the same fate as the dialect in Singapore.
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MaiHum on Fri, 4th Dec 2009 5:37 am
“So the learning of Mandarin can only be for commercial reason.”
I would replace the word “commercial” to “communication”.
In reality, English is such a vogue lingua franca in China now. You see Chinese side often inks contracts documented in English comfortably whilst English speaking foreigners inks contracts documented in Chinese with considerable fear of doubts and trepidation of future interpretations.
WE DON’T UNDERSTAND THE NUANCE. If Mandarin is intended to be learnt for commercial reasons, it has to be a small and beginning step of a much larger package of understanding Chinese culture, philosophy and literature. Until the latter is achieved, the learning of Mandarin is only communication AND VERY POOR AT THAT AS WELL EVEN IF YOU DID MASTERED BOTH CONVERSATIONAL AND WRITTEN CHINESE.
Consider the real life experience of the unfortunate 64-year old Singaporean marrying a 40 year-old Chinese prostitute. She asked for money to start a business “selling socks” is her way of meaning of undressing her stockings in selling sex!! Likewise, a young couple on steady dates in China meeting their prospective in-law for the first time home “dinner” could be met with a reception of highest quality “Yu-Long” tea and bananas an ‘entree”. Do anyone here eats cold bananas taken from the fridge with hot Chinese tea – be it first grade for distinguished guest? IT EMEANS NO NEED TO STAY FOR DINNER -IT WON’T HAPPEN, THE PROSPECTIVE MOTHER IN LAW HAS SENT THE MESSAGE THAT THE COUPLING IS INCOMPATIBLE OF HER APPROVAL.
NOW GET LOST!!!
If we don’t understand their culture, foolish love-lorn would be staying all evening waiting for dinner not served and not even prepared in the kitchen with long stories of talking “co$ks” in the lounge room.
And if we don’t learnt their culture, we really should forget about doing business. Just learn Mandarin for COMMUNICATION reasons. And if it is communication, we invested in the past a lot of angst, rote and revulsive hate learning of this language which would only really be useful if we work for a MNC in China communicating with Chinese counterparts. But that economic pie will soon end. There are far more PRC now living and working abroad, gained commercial and technical skills abroad that in a few years time.
We WONT BE NEEDED when this group returns to China and worked for these MNCs.
In simple truth, we WASTED 30 YEARS of so-called bi-lingualism learning IN FOOLISHNESS of narcissism the HARD WAY.
We now need CREATIVE WAY of learning the language for communication and HARD WAY OF LEARNING THEIR CULTURE by living and working in there for a while – a lot of time lost and sacrifice have to be made before real money comes in if any in business.
There is no short-cut nor pretence of genius superiority facade we too often displayed here. I bet, a lot of private contempt in some quarters best DIPLOMATICALLY not spoken publicly.
We are like a frog in their well and don’t know how to swim, barely floating alive.
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Why has the emphasis on learning Chinese become such a major issue in Singapore these days. What about the other so called “official” languages. Is it not just as important to learn Malay as a mother tongue as we are surrounded by about 300 million Malay speaking neighbours whose economies are also expanding. And what about about India, the rising powerhouse, why are we not encouraged to learn Hindi as well ? Why are there no SAP type of schools for them too ?
Finally,is the reality of “Third China” (a term used in the 60’s)here already ?
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because newdawn Singapore has never had a ‘regardless of race, language or religion’ attitude it was all lip service.
The chinese are the majority, have been. will always be. Other races never mattered before and they won’t matter now.
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Who care about culture when coming to do business ? As long as they can make money from you, even you cannot speak a single word of Mandarin, they will try their every mean, including getting an interpreter, to work with you. Another wrong assumption is that many thought that Chinese in China know a lot about Chines culture. But in fact, how many Chinese has read “四书五经” ？ The communist China has abandoned most of the Chinese culture and I was once told by a mainland Chinese that it is sad that moral value of most today Chinese are built on material gain “道德建立在金钱”。
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