Proficiency in mandarin is essential if you want to maintain a
competitive edge over PRCs, many of whom are learning to speak
English. And stop deluding yourself, there are plenty PRCs who
speak and write better English than we do.
"SINGAPORE is on the right track in its efforts to get its students
to be proficient in English but it must maintain its edge as a
bilingual society, said Mr David Graddol, an authority on English
language trends.
Indeed, the monolingual English graduate - the 'monoglot' - will
face a bleak economic future, as bilingual or multilingual workers
are preferred by companies aiming to globalise.
Mr Graddol is the author of English Next, a report commissioned by
The British Council.
In an interview with The Straits Times, he spoke of a massive
increase in the number of people learning English and reeled off
some impressive figures to make his point.
Two billion - that is how many new learners of English are being
added, up to the end of the next decade .
More than half of all primary school children in China are now
learning English, and the number of English speakers in India and
China - 500 million in all - exceeds the total number of mother
tongue English speakers elsewhere in the world.
The reason for what Mr Graddol called an 'explosion' is that
English is no longer a foreign language for most people. It has
become a near universal basic skill, like learning how to use a
computer.
Projecting into the future, in the context of unrelenting
globalisation, he said soon it is the polyglots who will have
significant competitive advantages over the monoglots.
'The competitive advantage of speaking just English will ebb away,
because soon, everyone will speak English. Advantage can be
maintained only by having other skills, such as speaking several
languages,' he said, adding that policymakers elsewhere are now
looking at Singapore and Finland as models to follow.
Mr Graddol, whose three home- schooled children learn English,
Italian and French, said when one acquires a language, he or she is
also likely to develop cultural awareness, which will be a skill
much valued by employers.
'It enables people to build rapport with their clients and helps
them avoid the social and business faux pas that can cost them
lucrative business deals,' he said.
Several employers here agreed with his view. They said that as they
set their sights abroad, they look for workers who are proficient
in other languages on top of English.
Said Mr David Leong, managing director of regional human resource
company PeopleWorldwide Consulting: 'Increasingly, we have
employers choosing the bilingual or multilingual candidate over
those with just good English.'
Mr Stephen Forshaw, spokesman for Singapore Airlines, said the very
nature of airline operations requires one to be able to communicate
well, often in more than one language.
'Our customers come from all points of the globe and many of them
prefer to communicate in their native language. Being able to do so
makes them feel very much at home and it is one of the ways we
provide that personalised service which customers look forward
to.'
He added: 'SIA has been fortunate beneficiaries of the Singapore
education system, in that almost all our recruits can speak at
least two languages: English and the mother tongue, which caters
for a large proportion of our passengers.'''
(Straits Times, 15 Dec)
