Should we make Chinese harder ?

-StarDust- SG

Nowadays like what my mother said ( chinese educated), Singaporeans have weak chinese foundation.

I lastime know a frenz who had difficulty even writing his chinese name.

Why dont singapore Government increase the level of chinese language.

If not, nextime our Chinese will be laughing stock.

FireIce SG

our chinese no good is not solely govt fault.

it starts in the family.

~PEPPER~ SG

our chinese no good is not solely govt fault.

it starts in the family.

More family speaks English?

angel7030 SG

You mean chinese man not hard meh??? quite ok lah

~PEPPER~ SG

SOme singaporean the chinese sux.

TTFU SG

Please make it softer

Vote PAP OUT to Save SG SG

There are two main reasons why mandarin standard and malay, tamil is dropping, but the state media and PAP govt insist on not discussing them.

They are:

(1) English is dominant language in society and,

(2) Medium of instruction of Education system in Singapore is english.

The above are the two main reasons for decline of mandarin, malay and tamil in Singapore society.

Another way of looking at the problem of decline of mother tongue in Singapore is to ask why more and more people are using english and not mother tongue?

In other words, PAP's policy of "bilingualism" is bullshit.

This can be clearly seen in that one language - english - becomes dominant and the others decline.

There's no such thing as bilingualism.

Vote PAP OUT to Save SG SG

Ukraine vows not to repeat Ireland's language 'mistake'

Language rights are a major political issue in Ukraine where Russian is denied official language status despite the large proportion of the population for whom it is a mother-tongue.

Recently elected Ukraine president Viktor Yanukovych came in for criticism in Moscow this month after announcing he would not promote Russian as a second state language.

Mr Lytvyn said: “We must not repeat the Irish mistake. Nowadays, the English language is dominant in Ireland. So if the Russian language would be recognised as a second state language in Ukraine, in such circumstances the Ukrainian language will be moved to the periphery.

“That is why I am convinced that Ukraine should have only one state language. At the same time, the rights of the Russian-speaking population in Ukraine should not be violated.”

Ukraine has a population of 46 million: “The majority would consider Ukrainian as the mother-tongue but a great amount of the population speak Russian. The Russian language dominates on the TV programmes and in the mass media in general. A certain psychological barrier exists when the Russian language is considered to be the most prestigious one.”

When it was pointed out to him that native Irish-speakers were a small minority in Ireland and therefore recognition had to be given to English, he replied: “There were not many French-language speakers in France in the 19th century but they [the population] were forced to speak French at that time.”

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2010/0325/1224267013992.html

Kawac151 SG

SOme singaporean the chinese sux.

Yeah. me.

Vote PAP OUT to Save SG SG

Yeah. me.

You spend more time in school writing and speaking in english or mother tongue?

Kawac151 SG

You spend more time in school writing and speaking in english or mother tongue?

My english is ok. It's my Chinese that suck.

TooFree SG

Standard Chinese for Chinese should be sufficient for daily conversations. Higher level Chinese should be left to those who prefer to major in Chinese studies in their University.

We should try to make Chinese a language fun, enjoyable and stimulating to converse in proper sentence structure.

Effie chuang SG

2 factors we need to rethink here:-

1) English as the dominant language in Singapore - is premised on LKY's view that it is vital to Singapore's survival, English is the international language and we need to access markets in the west.

Will English continue to be the dominant international language, in 50 - 100 years' time? Historically, a language can continue to dominate only insofar as the countries/regions that speak the language remain a powerful player in the global stage. Once a country is in decline, its language and culture will invariably follow suit.

I see a possible situation where Chinese language could become a dominant international language alongside English, if China continues its path of development. China is widening its sphere of influence regionally - both economically and culturally. The Chinese are going to expect the west to speak Chinese to trade with China, while at the same time, some Chinese will learn English to communicate with the west.

Conclusion: - English though still important, may no longer be as important as we assume it is. eg. Hongkong, Taiwan & South Korea. LKY's view is outdated.

2) We are a multi-racial country, English has to be our official language and medium of communication.

Chinese can be used more widely alongside English. Why should that be wrong? In secondary schools, students could be given the option of choosing either English literature or mother-tongue literature (in my time, there was only English literature for the majority, unless you are in the SAP schools studying higher Chinese)

Allow the Chinese/Malays/Tamils to set up mother-tongue universities (self-funded with government grants) if they want. I am sure the Chinese will be able to source for sufficient funds to revive the old Nantah.

FireIce SG

why are we oni looking at the commercial value of a language but not its cultural importance?

angel7030 SG

money talk mah and most important mah, culture without money talk what?? earn commercial money first, culture comes later.

angel7030 SG

Standard Chinese for Chinese should be sufficient for daily conversations. Higher level Chinese should be left to those who prefer to major in Chinese studies in their University.

We should try to make Chinese a language fun, enjoyable and stimulating to converse in proper sentence structure.

I learn chinese from my PRC gals, pure and fun

angel7030 SG

Today even singapore Uncles are taking higher chinese courses from PRC gals, at a very high cost. But as long as they get fun out of chinese, they are motivated to learn, some even went to china with them to take special courses...OMG!

Vote PAP OUT to Save SG SG

why are we oni looking at the commercial value of a language but not its cultural importance?

You ask a good question FireIce.

Learn language for commercial reasons is a propaganda pushed by PAP to manipulate population to accept suppression of dialects and english as dominant language.

It can only be pushed by people such as Lee Kuan Yew who themselves do not speak mandarin or dialect and only english.