Choosing English as working language ensured SG survival
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Originally posted by troublemaker2005:
bird langauge must learn. eveyrwhere people know bird language and wen u know it you can bird it out everyday anywhere with everyone, well...maybe not everyone fancy tokin bird lan though
What's the point of making Malay our national language of Singapore when we don't even teach it to everyone? Rather pretense.
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I am not much of a fan of LKY, but I agree it is essential to have English as our main language.
This decision on his part is really a no-brainer. I don't believe there is anything to debate for this. How else to ensure smooth communication between a multi-racial country?
We could have ended up exactly like Malaysia. With 3 races deeply segregated in such a tiny country, chaos WILL ensue.
Imagine how difficult it would be for our citizens to understand what's going on in the rest of the world if our command of English were poor. We will not even be here on SG Forums entering our comments in comprehensible English.
How do you like talking to Bangladeshi construction workers? You DON'T. That could be the state of things among locals simply because you cannot understand your indian or malay friends, if English weren't our main language.
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Originally posted by Alloy13:
How else to ensure smooth communication between a multi-racial country?
But 75% of Singapore population is chinese. I consider using mandarin as dominant language to be no-brainer.
75% chinese BUT use english as dominant language I don't consider that to be no-brainer.
In fact you must come up with a lot of propaganda in order to sell this illogicality to the 75% chinese population.
75% chinese; use mandarin as dominant language, there is no need whatsoever to use false propaganda to sell the idea.
If Malaysia, 75% malay, there is no propaganda necessary to sell malay as dominant language. But if Malaysia 75% malays and you use english as dominant, you must come up with propaganda to sell.
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Originally posted by Dalforce 25:
But 75% of Singapore population is chinese. I consider using mandarin as dominant language to be no-brainer.
75% chinese BUT use english as dominant language I don't consider that to be no-brainer.
In fact you must come up with a lot of propaganda in order to sell this illogicality to the 75% chinese population.
75% chinese; use mandarin as dominant language, there is no need whatsoever to use false propaganda to sell the idea.
If Malaysia, 75% malay, there is no propaganda necessary to sell malay as dominant language. But if Malaysia 75% malays and you use english as dominant, you must come up with propaganda to sell.
Seems like you only understand 'no-brainer's (for obvious reasons), and can't think clearly or deeply enough to see why English was the right choice.
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Originally posted by Siliconchip:
Seems like you only understand 'no-brainer's (for obvious reasons), and can't think clearly or deeply enough to see why English was the right choice.
How is english right choice? I see no reason whatsoever how on earth english as dominant language in Singapore can be right choice.
I think english as dominant language is totally and completely the wrong choice in Singapore.
"I said that using a certain language to create a culture, the culture created can at best be a commercial culture, or technology culture, or we may call it pasar culture.
It has no roots, and identifies itself with a certain material interest. It is the product of expediency.
"It is like duckweed, floating at the harbour. When it absorbs fertilisers, it will flourish very quickly. But once it rains and floods set in, it will perish,"http://ourstory.asia1.com.sg/independence/ref/plen3.html
"The dignity of a nation is determined, above all, by how people preserve and respect their language," Emomali Rakhmon said in a televised address late on Wednesday.
http://tajikam.com/forum/index.php?topic=5302.0
Tang found himself not merely participating in politics, but running for election. His reasons for this decision were very much based on his concerns over what was happening to the Chinese community and other minority communities, in Singapore.Non-English speaking Singaporeans, including Chinese, Malays and Indians have, he says, been discriminated against unnecessarily under the PAP policies, particularly, for example the Chinese-educated, the Buddhists, the Taoists, the Hindus and the Muslims. The discrimination, he says, takes various forms: Nanyang University was restructured;there is no Chinese-language business paper; there is discrimination in the intake of university students, in the engagement of university lecturers and school teachers, in the manning of positions in the army and police forces, and an absence of representation of the non-English-speaking Singaporeans in the decision-making process and in many top government posts. These are just a few examples.
"Once in a blue moon," Tang says, "when world conference on Confucianism was held in Singapore, the PAP would seize the opportunity to launch its massive propaganda to the outside world and hood winked the Chinese communities around the world, especially those scholars in China, into believing that Singapore promotes Confucianism. This is just another fraud."
Later, he adds, "Confucianism is not taught in schools – only Confusionism!"
Tang has been accused of being a Chinese chauvinist because of his comments on education and language. He has been misquoted and his words taken out of context when he tried to describe the richness that words from different languages have to offer.
"Take the word ‘equity’," he says. "That one word – you can write a book on it. You cannot translate it verbatim into Chinese. It means fairness. It also has legal and technical meanings. It means also having clean hands and a fair mind. It is not possible to translate it into one word. On the other hand, the Chinese word ‘xiao’ is usually translated as piety, or filial piety. But that’s just a small fraction of the concept. You can translate the concept, but not word for word. They distorted my view by accusing me of believing that ideas can only be expressed in Chinese. I have never [been] opposed to learning English." By knowing only English, and not knowing Chinese language, Chinese people miss out on the richness of culture that might be available to them. This loss helps no one. "The Chinese stand to lose by not knowing his own language and culture," Tang says. "Their loss is not a gain to the other races." -
Originally posted by Alloy13:
I am not much of a fan of LKY, but I agree it is essential to have English as our main language.
This decision on his part is really a no-brainer. I don't believe there is anything to debate for this. How else to ensure smooth communication between a multi-racial country?
We could have ended up exactly like Malaysia. With 3 races deeply segregated in such a tiny country, chaos WILL ensue.
Imagine how difficult it would be for our citizens to understand what's going on in the rest of the world if our command of English were poor. We will not even be here on SG Forums entering our comments in comprehensible English.
How do you like talking to Bangladeshi construction workers? You DON'T. That could be the state of things among locals simply because you cannot understand your indian or malay friends, if English weren't our main language.
Why bring up Malaysia? The people of Malaysia, who are the Malay, Indian and Chinese, use Malay as the common language. Whether there is segregation or not, does not have any correlation with the issue of language. It is not that there is no common language in Malaysia.
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Originally posted by BanguIzai:
The people of Malaysia, who are the Malay, Indian and Chinese, use Malay as the common language.
That is a correct and wise policy. Malay rulers controlled that country at the time and are still controlling Malaysia and they correctly chose malay as the dominant language in Malaya.
That is a completely correct policy and I totally support it.
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Originally posted by Dalforce 25:
That is a correct and wise policy. Malay rulers controlled that country at the time and are still controlling Malaysia and they correctly chose malay as the dominant language in Malaya.
That is a completely correct policy and I totally support it.
Me too.
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My position regarding language use in Singapore is same as Tan Liang Hong:
I have never [been] opposed to learning English."
By knowing only English, and not knowing Chinese language, Chinese people miss out on the richness of culture that might be available to them.
This loss helps no one.
"The Chinese stand to lose by not knowing his own language and culture," Tang says.
"Their loss is not a gain to the other races."
There will still be a role for english in Singapore, maybe as secondary language or something else.
English speakers like the peranakans - Tony Tan, Lee Hsien Loong, Harry Lee Kuan Yew etc, their mother tongue english won't be suppressed. English won't be annihilated from this island. There will still be english.
But english cannot be the dominant language. That is not logical, despite all the PAP propaganda.
No minorities will suffer, all languages, all cultures will be respected. There will be no suppression or repression of any culture or language, although some necessary adjustments like de-westernisation, de-anglicisation will take place.
Since all these western and anglo elements of Singapore society are alien imports, I think their root will be weak and there should be no big problems regarding de-westernisation, de-anglicisation.
Singapore will have to rely on its own local, native cultures and not on alien imports.
A stronger national state will be the only result of such a policy.
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Originally posted by BanguIzai:
What's the point of making Malay our national language of Singapore when we don't even teach it to everyone? Rather pretense.
Our national anthem is in Malay, as well as the military marching commands. -
Originally posted by iveco:
Our national anthem is in Malay, as well as the military marching commands.
That will stay forever. -
Originally posted by iveco:
Our national anthem is in Malay, as well as the military marching commands.Only in this two usages, is still rather pretense.
As a national language, a "National Language", is not even recognised as a working language!