Choosing English as working language ensured SG survival
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SINGAPORE: Singapore's former Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew, has spoken of how the choice of English as the country's working language has ensured the country's survival.
Launching the English Language Institute of Singapore on Tuesday afternoon, he said that had the nation not chosen English as a working language, it would have been left behind.
Mr Lee said: "When Singapore became independent in 1965, we had a population that spoke a range of different dialects and languages. This was a result of the colonial education system which favoured the English-speaking, but allowed vernacular schools with different mediums of instruction to co-exist.
"Political and economic realities led us to choose English as our working language. 75 per cent of the population then was Chinese, speaking a range of dialects; 14 per cent Malays; and eight per cent Indians. Making Chinese the official language of Singapore was out of the question as the 25 per cent who were non-Chinese would revolt.
"In addition, the geographical reality was and remains today, that Singapore would be economically isolated from the wider world if Chinese was chosen. And China then could not be of much help to our economic development."
He explained that the choice of English as Singapore's "lingua franca" gave all races equal opportunities through a common language to learn, communicate and work in.
Mr Lee added: "We kept our original languages by our policy of bilingualism, allowing opportunities for people to study their respective mother tongues. This built a sense of belonging to their original roots and increased their self-confidence and self-respect. Thus, a united multi-ethnic, multi-lingual people ensured Singapore's survival. Had we not chosen English, we would have been left behind.
"We are the only country in the region that uses English as our working language, the main medium of instruction in our schools. This has given our young a strong advantage of growing up in a multi-cultural multi-lingual society, all speaking the international language of commerce and trade, English, and their mother tongues, Chinese, Malay, Tamil and others as their second languages."
Mr Lee added that it has also benefited Singapore economically. As an English-speaking society, Singapore has drawn foreign talent to its shores as they found it easier to work and live in the country and remain plugged into the global economy.
He said: "There is an intense worldwide competition for talent, especially for English-speaking skilled professionals, managers and executives. Our English-speaking environment is one reason why Singapore has managed to attract a number of these talented individuals to complement our own talent pool.
"They find it easy to work and live in Singapore, and remain plugged into the global economy. Singapore is a popular educational choice for many young Asians who want to learn English, and they get a quality education. This has kept our city vibrant."
Mr Lee said one of the challenges ahead is to decide whether to adopt British English or American English.
He said: "I think the increasing dominance of the American media means that increasingly our people, teachers and students will be hearing the American version, whether it is 'potatoes' or 'tomatoes'. They will be the dominant force through sheer numbers and the dominance of their economy.
"I believe we will be exposed more and more to American English and so it might be as well to accept it as inevitable and to teach our students to recognise and maybe, to even speak American English."
Turning to the future, Mr Lee stressed that communication skills are one of the most important competencies needed in the 21st century workforce.
He said Singapore has built a good English language foundation for its students, with achievements in international benchmark tests like the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and Progress in International Reading Study (PIRLS) being well documented.
But he felt that Singapore can do better and must help every child to attain higher standards in English. Singapore's best students must also be able to hold their own internationally.
For this, Mr Lee added that the home background played an important role in developing good English language skills.
So to maintain the high standards of English competency in Singapore, he said there is a need to ensure that from the time a child steps into kindergarten, he is exposed to good English.
Mr Lee said: "Our schools must provide a rich language environment. There must be a strong reading culture where children can access and enjoy good books. There must be a culture of oracy. Opportunities must be given to students to speak in English. Students must present information and ideas, to clarify and to debate robustly with each other in English."
Also, developing a high level of English language competency in students cannot be the work of the English teacher alone.
Mr Lee said that it is the responsibility of every teacher who teaches subjects in English. They must use good English when they question, speak and write in the classroom and they are the best role models for children, if the young are to be effective communicators.
-CNA/ac -
Originally posted by QX179R:
Making Chinese the official language of Singapore was out of the question as the 25 per cent who were non-Chinese would revolt.
Then you use english, wouldn't the 75% chinese revolt?
Between 25% revolt and 75% revolt, you chose to risk 75% revolt? That's bullshit Harry Lee.
And english would still be an alien language to the 25%. It's not their language. Both english and chinese are alien languages to the 25%. So you are saying they will revolt for chinese and not english?
Your little historical fairy tale is not logical Harry Lee.
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I rather have 3 lingua franca, namely Malay, Tamil and Chinese dialects rather than 1 lingua franca which is a foreign English language.
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Harry Lee and his peranakan associates' mother tongue is english, that is the true reason why they impose english as the dominant language in this country where only the british colonialists and the peranakans were the main english speakers.
The rest of his little story is make believe. Only simple minded people would believe in Harry Lee's little fairy tale.
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But I admit that English was critical in making Singapore attractive. Besides, for all those saying that Mandarin should have been adopted, why is it that these are usually the group that bashes China and PRC...
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Originally posted by Toiletries:
But I admit that English was critical in making Singapore attractive.
It doesn't have to be dominant language, it can be secondary language. Anyway I don't buy the idea that english makes Singapore "attractive". English as dominant language in Singapore makes me want to vomit.
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ccb
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Harry Lee concocted a fraud in saying that english is "neutral" language and thus can be used as official language since the 25% non chinese won't revolt.
In the first place Harry Lee failed to mention the fact that his mother tongue is english and thus he and his baba friends would benefit from the policy.
In the second place, Harry Lee's argument is illogical in that he would rather use a language that only about 5% of people in Singapore understood to act as the "official working language" and thus alienate the rest of the 95% non english speakers.
This is illogical. You cannot find a state in the world that pursued such policies besides Harry Lee's Singapore.
He would go to such lengths as to deny the most obvious, the most logical, the most simple solution by using mandarin as the dominant language and instead push for english.
Of course, knowing that Harry Lee is a Hakka peranakan baba and that english is the mother tongue of the peranakans in Singapore would go a long way in clearing the matter up as to why he is so insistent on using english as the dominant language.
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Lao Lee should save dialects from being extinct.
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Originally posted by Brain Freeze:
Lao Lee should save dialects from being extinct.
He would be the last guy in Singapore that I would choose to save dialects. He was the chief figure in suppressing dialects in Singapore.
Somehow he has an irrational hatred of dialects. It is probably due to the insecurity and inferiority that he feels as someone from a minority group, an outsider, ruling over a majority dialect speaking group. Their dialect languages had to be suppressed. They must forget their mother tongues and speak english.
In this he is similar to Chiang Kai-shek, who also suppressed dialects in Taiwan.
If Taiwan were a province of China, long-time residents in Taiwan would speak Taiwanese. This may seem counter-intuitive, but if you think about it, it would also be true. I met a Taiwanese immigrant to the US when I arrived in Princeton, and one day, he said something really interesting to me. He told me, "I want to learn Taiwanese." I didn't attach much importance to it at the time, though I was surprised that he didn't know it, but now I think it's a reflection of the problems of identity, history, and politics in Taiwan.
Of course, this Taiwanese friend is descended from a "mainlander," those people who fled to Taiwan after the the CCP soundly defeated the Nationalists. So some would say it's understandable that he doesn't know Taiwanese.
Wrong. Let's look at my personal history as a comparison. My father is from Hubei province, and my mother comes from a Hakka family in Guangdong, so they spoke Mandarin at home. I was born in Guangzhou and lived until I was 5 in a college campus, where everyone spoke the official dialect, Mandarin. Yet even then, I understood Cantonese. After that, I moved to Zhanjiang and went to a public school there. After one month, I could speak Cantonese even though the official language in school was Mandarin. My father never learned Cantonese because he went to Switzerland and then immigrated to the US after a few years in Guangzhou, but my mother, since she lived in Guangdong province her whole life, even though Hakka is her native dialect, spoke perfect Cantonese.
Now let's look at my Taiwanese friend again. His GRANDPARENTS fled the Chinese mainland and went to Taiwan. If we make the same comparison with my life, then we can assume that it'd be at least reasonable if his grandparents never learned Taiwanese, but he is a second generation already, and he still doesn't know.
If Taiwan were a real province and had been integrated into the mainland, Chiang Kai-shek would never have needed to suppress the Taiwanese dialect to such an extent. I mean, on the mainland, a lot of TV, all movies, music, government communications, and all schools use Mandarin, and yet people who live in a province that speak another dialect would learn that dominant dialect naturally in one generation.
The fact that some "mainlander" Taiwanese still don't know Taiwanese is a testament to Taiwan's legacy of suppression and Chiang's own insecurity.
I hope that made as much sense written as it did in my head.
https://blogs.princeton.edu/studyabroad/2007/10/if_taiwan_were_a_province_of_c.html
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...Speaking dialects (other than Mandarin) or Japanese in official occasion is generally banned in Taiwan from 1949 till 1986.
When KMT arrived in Taiwan with 2 million mainlanders in 1949, they encountered a number of problems:
1. The local Taiwanese were quite japanized after almost 50 years of Japanese colonial rules. They spoke Japanese, Hokkien or wore Japanese clothings.
2. The 2 million mainlanders spoke different Chinese dialects, causing communication problems to occur.
3. There was an urgency to de-japanize the local Taiwanese and sinicize the Taiwanese.
4. Mandarin became the main tool to create a 'cultural unity' and to overcome the communication problems and to sinicize the Taiwanese population. Other dialects were suppressed in Taiwan. For instance, if you speak a Non-Mandarin dialect in school, you will be fined and penalized. Speaking dialects were seen as "uneducated".
However after the removal of martial law in 1987 followed by democratization of Taiwan, there is a rise in the movement for protecting and speaking "mother tongue". However, this pertains mainly to native dialects of Taiwan such as Taiwanese Min Nan, Hakka, aborigine languages, which are supported by the Taiwanese government.
While some of the young mainlander Taiwanese can still speak their own dialect (such as Wu), there is hardly an incentive for them to speak. Most of the mainlander Taiwanese (of Wu heritage) I know today spoke Mandarin as like their native language.In general, the following language direction occur in Taiwan:
1. 1949-1987 - Mandarinization of Taiwan and suppression of other dialects in Taiwan
2. 1987 onwards - Rise of Taiwanese Min Nan, Hakka and other aborigine dialects due to government protection. Mainlander Taiwanese are assumed to speak Mandarin as their native 'mother tongue' and there were no incentives to promote other dialects such as Wu, Shandonese, Sichuanese, causing these dialects to be almost dying in Taiwan... -
Under Harry Lee's PAP regime, the dialect chinese in Singapore is in a unique position.
When they enter the education system, they are forced to learn not one but two non-mother tongue languages - mandarin and english.
I believe the language policies of Harry Lee have all been largely a failure due to his political motivated policies of suppressing some languages and then pusing for some languages to be spoken while not making the effort to reform language policies in school to fit those goals.
That is why today, after 45 years of independence as a state, the language problem is still in a mess and all sorts of half hearted policies to push people to speak this or that language has all not produced results.
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I think it was a good move to promote English and Chinese. While suppressing dialects doesn't sound optimistic, it does bode well for the country's future. Come on, we can still pick up dialects from our parents and grandparents, and I'm sure we can pass it on! If all the Chinese in Singapore spoke their own dialects, we'll be divided and communication would have been difficult. There was a need to have a more unifying language that could also work for our economy. As much as I dislike Mandarin, it is the language that is so crucial today. I have had the privilege of learning Cantonese from my parents, and I can also speak English, Chinese and a bit of French. I think we must agree that the government has at least succeeded in making us conversant in both English and Chinese! Guys, stop being so negative about things! :)
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Originally posted by nfshp253:
I think it was a good move to promote English and Chinese. While suppressing dialects doesn’t sound optimistic, it does bode well for the country’s future. Come on, we can still pick up dialects from our parents and grandparents, and I’m sure we can pass it on!
If all the Chinese in Singapore spoke their own dialects, we’ll be divided and communication would have been difficult. There was a need to have a more unifying language that could also work for our economy. As much as I dislike Mandarin, it is the language that is so crucial today.
I have had the privilege of learning Cantonese from my parents, and I can also speak English, Chinese and a bit of French. I think we must agree that the government has at least succeeded in making us conversant in both English and Chinese!
Guys, stop being so negative about things!
To learn Cantonese just from one's parents is not the same in fluency level as learning Cantonese from a syllabus level and national level. Just pointing out this fact to you.
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it is also the responsibility of the government to ensure racial harmony via multi-lingual society ....equal emphasis given to other mother tongues...
english alone will cause greater divide to a pluralistic society...
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Originally posted by Dalforce 25:
Then you use english, wouldn't the 75% chinese revolt?
Between 25% revolt and 75% revolt, you chose to risk 75% revolt? That's bullshit Harry Lee.
And english would still be an alien language to the 25%. It's not their language. Both english and chinese are alien languages to the 25%. So you are saying they will revolt for chinese and not english?
Your little historical fairy tale is not logical Harry Lee.
Then are you saying that Chinese should have been the working language? Do you want a Singaporean version of LTTE like LKY said?
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Saying English as the working language is just a smoke screen, for the creeping Sinosization of Singapore, which is evolving by means of ethnic majority.
How did the PRC who don't know a word of English get in to Singapore to work?
The Banglas and the Tamils at least know some English.
But then Race, Religion are OB. You can't tackle a problem unless you acknowledge (talk about) it first.
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Originally posted by mancha:
Saying English as the working language is just a smoke screen, for the creeping Sinosization of Singapore, which is evolving by means of ethnic majority.
How did the PRC who don't know a word of English get in to Singapore to work?
The Banglas and the Tamils at least know some English.
But then Race, Religion are OB. You can't tackle a problem unless you acknowledge (talk about) it first.
What does OB mean?
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He's half right
Not english lah, we use singlish lah..not english lah
it's damn funny when u come across two chinese speaking "singlish"
it's like..imagine on the street u come across two dogs meowing at each other
or two cats woofing at each other
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Originally posted by mancha:
Saying English as the working language is just a smoke screen, for the creeping Sinosization of Singapore, which is evolving by means of ethnic majority.
How did the PRC who don't know a word of English get in to Singapore to work?
The Banglas and the Tamils at least know some English.
But then Race, Religion are OB. You can't tackle a problem unless you acknowledge (talk about) it first.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia -An OB marker, short for "out of bounds marker", is a term used in Singapore to denote what topics are permissible for public discussion. The full form of the word is rarely used. The term "OB markers" was first used in 1991 by the then-Minister for Information and the Arts George Yeo to describe the boundaries of acceptable political discourse.
OB seemed only in Singapore, that's a little strange, and it's heading the right direction in Spore.
well! race and religion are never OB if you have the know how and a magnanimous heart. There is no problem in race and religion in my life, besides over-emphasis and lack of trust in spoken and writing in politic.
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even if we take english as the main language we neednt have to remove all the dialects programs right? we didnt need to remove all the chinese schools right? see whats happening to singaporean chinese now? so many cant speak chinese and dialects properly.
and the most frustrating thing is its only happening to chinese. i dont see it affecting the malays and indians at all.
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It's very important to save the dialects from being extinct soon.
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Originally posted by dragg:
even if we take english as the main language we neednt have to remove all the dialects programs right? we didnt need to remove all the chinese schools right? see whats happening to singaporean chinese now? so many cant speak chinese and dialects properly.
and the most frustrating thing is its only happening to chinese. i dont see it affecting the malays and indians at all.
British English or American English - means be British or American, any different. If you choose British, the American may not be happy, and if you choose American, the British may not be happy. So it is better to remain status quo on english as Spore has been doing so well because of loving-kindness and compassion in all that made it works.
Singlish is good cos it is middle path between American and British, it allows chinese to embrace as well. Indian and Malay feel friendlier as they could associate their Malay_ish, Indian_ish and Chinese_ish as that of Spore_ish english. It affects the teachers and ministery of education that needed to adjust for nitty-gritty, and in may mentally unsound for them. May all be safe and be happy :) -
Exposure to American English may be inevitable, but we are still proud members of the Commonwealth. Therefore, only the Queen's English is acceptable, and nothing else.
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Originally posted by iveco:
Exposure to American English may be inevitable, but we are still proud members of the Commonwealth. Therefore, only the Queen's English is acceptable, and nothing else.
Amercian has no issue with Britian, it is the Queen that makes both glues with delightful future
