SINGAPORE
- Even though Chinese language standards
may have slipped, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is optimistic that Singapore
can achieve about 95 per cent of its desired outcome in mastering the language.
He gave
this assessment of the state of the Chinese language here, in an interview
where he was asked about worries of Chinese standards falling and society
becoming monolingual.
Mr Lee
said he understands such concerns, which are often voiced by leaders of the
community who are Chinese-educated and find today's standards very different
from the early years.
"This
is undeniable. But will we be facing the end of the world because our Mandarin
standards are falling? I don't think so," said Mr Lee, who attended
Chinese schools as a boy.
"Within
the limits of what we can do, we can achieve roughly 95 per cent of the desired
outcome," he said.
There
is room for improvement but Singapore has already put in "tremendous
effort".
The
interview by Chinese daily Lianhe Zaobao is published in a book commemorating
the 35th anniversary of the Speak Mandarin Campaign, which Mr Lee will launch
today.
The
Prime Minister also stressed that while the Government wants to do more to
promote Mandarin, "we must also know our limitations".
As a
multiracial society, Singapore cannot become a place where Mandarin is the main
language, he said. "We have to maintain the social environment in which
English is the working language."
However,
he acknowledged that there is a "tension" between the goals of
keeping English as the lingua franca while encouraging people to speak
Mandarin. "We want to maintain a common space where everybody uses English
and feels comfortable," he said. "At the same time, every race wants
to preserve its own tradition, culture and use of its own language."
The way
to strike a balance is to find suitable platforms to use mother tongues
appropriately, he added.
On the
other hand, there are trade-offs to being bilingual. Mr Lee said the capability
of someone learning only one language will be stronger than someone who learns
multiple languages.
"We
must be bilingual and our standard in the two languages cannot be 100 per
cent," he said.
Singaporeans
will never speak as fluently and as fast as Mandarin speakers in China and
Taiwan, or be as fast as the British and Americans in speaking English.
But
there are benefits to bilingualism too, he added, like having a richer view and
understanding of the world.
Asked
about calls by some Singaporeans for the Government to preserve dialects, Mr
Lee said he understands the sentiments.
"But
to be honest, it is not possible to go back to how things were, nor should we
do so," he said.
Today,
Singaporeans can speak Mandarin because of the effort put into the Speak
Mandarin Campaign, which the Government launched in 1979, he said.
Looking
back 35 years, Mr Lee said its original objective - to encourage Chinese
Singaporeans to speak more Mandarin and less dialect - has largely been
achieved.
The aim
now is to encourage people to practise Mandarin as much as possible in an
English-speaking environment.
"We
still need to do more in this respect."
The
campaign's aim will not change in the short term, but will require new
narratives and approaches to keep it fresh, he said.
Mr Lee,
who reads Zaobao daily but lamented the lack of time and fewer opportunities to
read Chinese books, urged Singaporeans to keep the language alive.
Besides
being able to use Mandarin on formal occasions, he said, "we must also be
able to read articles and Weibo (the Chinese microblogging site) or sing pop
songs in Chinese".
Andrea
Ong
Business & Investment Opportunities
Saigon Business Corporation Pte Ltd (SBC) is incorporated
in Singapore since 1994.
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