To master Chinese or English?

last SG · 2004-11-27T19:19:04+00:00

nonsense. i don't think it's impossible to master both languages well. as long as you put your heart in it, you can master anything!!!!

Gordonator SG

Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, the person who introduced bilingualism more than 40 years ago, advised chinese parents to choose whether to let their children master English or Chinese.

he said in parliament yesterday, "You make up your mind... But remember, the more English, the less chinese; the more Chinese, the less English. There is no such thing as 100% English, 100% Chinese."

give your point of views. Idea

monkeybusiness SG

i prefer writing and read english but i prefer speaking mandarin Razz Mr. Green

Qitai SG

I like the way it is - both. Maybe the Chinese speaks better mandarin than me, and the ang mo speaks better English better than me. But I am the one who can speak to both of them.

In fact, I love to study a few more languages if possible. Nevermind every single one of them is sh1tty. I feel good as long as I can speak in different languages.

monkeybusiness SG

same Very Happy
me slowly learning jap language liao Mr. Green

robertteh SG

By his latest revelation, MM Lee indirectly or directly admitted that he did not realise learning both English and pushing learning of mother tongue to the hilt of making a good passing as a university admission criteria would indeed cause dilution of both English and Chinese.

Today, he finally has to rectify that fundamental error of judgment.

When I had to switch from Chinese to English education after secondary level some years ago, for economic reason, I found it extremely difficult (not so smart) to learn English and so had to forego Chinese (including reading of Chinese newspaper) so as to concentrate 100% on learning English.

In the same way, if we are to compel the child to learn both he will most likely not learn both well.

Such compulsion would also seriously hamper mastery or effective learning of science and technological diluting excellence needed to produce an highly knowledgeable work force of tomorrow.

In theory, it is desirable to learn both. In practice forcing on children to learn both will be at the expense of either of them and also of science and technological mastery.

So, do we want education for all round knowledge acquisition and application or do we to go overboard with learning two languages with penalty to create problems for children in other areas of excellence? Idea Idea Idea

cutepixie SG

i think english is more important. unless u are living in a country where everyone speaks chinese or you intend to do business with china men.

Gedanken SG

Speaking for myself, I have little practical use for Mandarin except when ordering food at hawker centres. That said, I have taken a personal interest in brushing up on my Mandarin just for the sake of it. I’d agree with robertteh that making of a subject compulsory is the easiest way of killing one’s interest in said subject. Jow that I don’t have to study mandarin, I can actually do it and enjoy it.

ditzy SG

Knowing both languages has been an advantage to me in my life and still is. Laughing

poon cho tang SG

i enjoyed learning the chinese language and had a hard time grasping the engrish language though

monkeybusiness SG

i m just the opposite...me only like to speak mandarin...write and read prefer english Mr. Green

laurence82 SG

me ok with both….although i am more towards english, my teng nan also passable..

dumbdumb! SG

well. finally good ol' Lee wake up his idea. but put me through so much hardship to pick up chinese. lol

but he's right though.. cannot 100% both english and chinese.. for me, is 70% english, 30% chinese.

well, i'm glad the younger generation don't have to get screwed up like us old birds yea?

greengoblin SG

I believe that English will be a more viable language to learn. This is for economic and social and racial cohesion reasons perhaps. I believe that most of us can see that whenever we converse in our mother tongue, we inadvertently alienate our friends who are of different race. Furthermore, most of the subjects that we learn are written in English.

In retrospect though, it is viable to learn Japanese too..... it helps understanding some movies better Mr. Green

shade343 SG

well..I actually agree to this, I noticed that when I like English, I tend to hate chinese. Perhaps this could be due to the fatc that most of my friends prefer speaking to me in english rather than chinese. But ever since I started learning Japanese, I seem to have a sense of renewed respect for my chinese Very Happy So Perhaps it is possible to master both English and Chinese but if you are able to do that, you belong to the Bilingual Elite.

the.raven SG

just 50 50 can liao la....I hate languages, they are a waste of time.

oh look I learn shakespeare!! I caneth speaketh liketh thiseth!!

sgdiehard SG

MML had special one to one tuition in Chinese by a chinese linguist in the comfort of his home, but he does not have the environment where he has to speak chinese. But we don have the one to one tuition and we are often in environment where we have to speak chinese. So I really dont know if old man's experience is relevant to me.

The main problem with most of us is that we grew up thinking in english and we do mental translation when we speak chinese, that is difficult. Our parents used to think in chinese dialects and they also have problem learning english initially till they started thinking in english.

Gobemen likes to attach a number to everything. Language learning should be fun and fun cannot be measured by numbers. The fun in learning english and chinese are different as the culture are different and each should be allowed to develop in its own pace. How to say this is 60% and that is 40%? Is this percentage of usage or competency in the language? if you language competency is low then do you use more to improve otherwise this competency will drop further??

In europe, most people speak at least 3 languages, and english may not be one of the them. I think singapore should encourage the learning of all our official languages, including tamil and malay. There are also big economic value in these two languages as India and Indonesia economy improve.
In this case other races will not feel alienated.

SnowFlag SG

Actually, most of us managed to be bilingual. Cool

SnowFlag SG

Remember that MML is a politician. He isn't a educationist. What he say now can be wrong too. Cool

Look at the people around you for answers. Hear more comments by ppl.

dumbdumb! SG

learn enough to communicate. enough la.

but master one language is good. the other, just make sure u can at least read and speak?

but i kinda read in a newspaper report that language learning require certain part of the brain, so learning chinese is supposedly as easy as learning english.

but. its the exposure that makes the difference. i'm exposed to english since i was a kid, parents both speak english, only have english newspaper, watch english program. stuff like that.. yea..

exposure la. what makes this so difficult is that you can't be exposed to either languages fairly.. you'll pick up one or the other, like one or the other.. *shrugs*

wisely_xu SG

master both. it is possible as long as we dun stop learning.

english is very impt in modern world.

mother tongue, a personal responsiblity to learn. becasue of our skin color.