Bilingualism in Singapore

Our Singapore government possesses great foresight. The education landscape in Singapore provides opportunities for students to learn the English language and mother tongue proficiently. Be it Mandarin, Bahasa Melayu or Tamil, these will come in very useful on the global stage.

China and India are economic super-powerhouses. Singapore is surrounded by neighbours that use Bahasa Melayu as their official language. Being able to speak their language will put us in good stead in business dealings.

Exams were hair-tearing experiences. Though my eldest son got an A1 in his GCE O-level Higher Chinese examination, he did it through sheer hard work by memorising model compositions. Getting the ‘A1′ on his result slip was like a ‘mission impossible, successfully accomplished’. He thought that would be the last he would ever see of the Chinese language. How grossly wrong was he!

When he went to the United States for his tertiary education at two world-renowned Ivy League universities, he saw that many westerners were scrambling to sign up for Chinese classes. They knew that mastery of this language would put them ahead of their peers when they started work. It was then that he realised it would be embarrassing if he, as a Chinese, is unable to speak proficiently in his mother tongue. Since then, he has decided that he would read Chinese books on topics that interest him.

Understanding the importance of Mother Tongue

Many parents would agree with me that it is difficult to convince our children, from young, of the importance of learning their mother tongue well on the basis that it would come in useful in future.

Recently, I spoke to a very experienced Chinese language teacher from one of our top secondary schools. She is from China, but has been teaching in Singapore for the past 20 years. She shared that the reason our local students do not appreciate the Chinese language is that they do not see the need to use it at all. They have this simplistic thinking: “The world is so BIG; I don’t have to work in China at all or I will choose an occupation that does not require me to use the Chinese language.” As seen from my son’s experience, how wrong such thinking can be!

Exposing a child as early as possible to a second language would make them less prone to rejecting using the language as they grow up. In addition, having a conducive environment is a very important factor for successfully learning a language. Had I been able to find a pre-school for my children that allowed me to choose the medium of instruction, I believe they would have had a greater appreciation for the Chinese language and become more proficient in it in their later years in school.

Singapore’s Founding Father, the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew, had suggested that there is a need for pre-schools that allow parents to choose between sets of curriculum that are structured with either English or mother tongue as the primary medium of instruction.

Echoing this sentiment, Mind Stretcher has starting pre-school programmes on weekday mornings which allow parents to do just that! This would plug the gap and enable children to be proficient in both languages, whether they come from an English or Chinese speaking background.

This article is the fourth of a six-part series on ‘Raising A Wholesome Pre-schooler’ .