Let me share how the people learn Chinese here in China.
My 2 young children attend international school here but they are learning Chinese lessons taught by the local Chinese teachers . Here in China, the children learn through spelling and dictation as well. (Their local schools are worse. Their learning is even more rigorous. In local schools, all other subjects other than English, are taught in Chinese.) Also their textbooks are filled with words which have very small prints as they have many chapters to cover and would be extremely thick if they choose to adopt the font size we use in Singapore textbook. Initially when I was here teaching my children, I really find it difficult to read as we are so use to big prints. The words introduced were also difficult. (Somehow the system here is they will throw you to the deep end of the pool and you either sink or swim.) I was worried it will kill my children’s interest in learning the language. However, my worry was unfounded as it is a matter of getting accustom to it. Somehow young children can adapt themselves better than we think. Some of my children’s Caucasian and Indian classmates can even speak Chinese and write Chinese as well as the Taiwanese. They do not use English to teach Chinese but somehow these young children naturely immerse themselves in the Chinese language. The Chinese teachers will not speak to the child in English otherwise why would the English speaking child want to take the hard way of expressing himself in Chinese ?

Many of these children have parents who do not speak Chinese or speak the language sparingly. However they have Chinese maids who speak to them in only Chinese at home and they play with classmates from Chinese speaking countries. Also the local Chinese here speak mostly Chinese and inorder to get around, food, transport, etc. it is necessary to know the language.

In Singapore it is different. English is our working language. Most people feel English is THE language to master.(It is only until recently that we find the strong need to improve our Chinese standard with the growing strength of China.) Thus many parents speak to their children in English and they learn the language naturally. When we use the language daily, it becomes easy. If we are not speaking Chinese as much, we are not providing our children with good enough environment to practise using the language. Expecting the children to master Chinese merely from the couple of hours of learning in school and tuition and more tuition each week will only make the poor child hate the language. Thus, I feel we should aim at creating an environment for children to start using this language more and not just blaming on the teaching method at schools.

Parents who feel Chinese is important should start speaking more Chinese to their children at home etc. Parents should set good examples by picking up Chinese and speaking this language at home. If they feel Chinese is important then they should be speaking it themselves.

The younger Singaporeans should not be misled by these wolves in sheep’s skin. Before you adolate with all the praises about the achievement Singapore has acquired during his tenure of office, weigh these against other aspects and unsavoury alternative news which have not been reported by his state controlled media.

LKY had to learn Mandarin to get through with his learning of Japanese during the occupation years. The reason was very simple – he acted as an “interpreter” for the Japanese Army administration. In our present days interpreter = informer. Our President Nathan was also in the employ of the Japanese during that period – he was a Imperial Japanese police officer (you can see a clear picture of him in Kempetai uniform at http://www.yeocheowtong.com).

When the Japanese occupied Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew reportedly said he began realising the importance of learning Chinese characters through the numerous Kanji used by the ruling Japanese colonisers. Apparently, the few years of Chinese education he had undergone in his earlier childhood hardly inculcated any cultural affinity for Chinese characters at all other than perhaps what he has called the madness of “tingxie” and “moxie”. Still he sent his three children to go through just that from primary one all the way to secondary four.

Given the historical circumstances of colonial subjugation during his formative years from childhood to early adulthood, there is nothing usual about Lee’s disdain or even contempt for the Chinese language and culture. Many in his generation who called themselves “King’s Chinese” often adopted their British colonial masters’ attitude of regarding all local Asian languages and cultures such as Malay, Chinese and Tamil as inferior to English. In fact, these handful of people among the general Chinese community in British Malaya tend to look down on the vast majority of their fellow Chinese descendants who are newly-arrived immigrants from China. They consider speaking English with a British accent to be a hallmark of cultural and intellectual sophistication.

Many “King’s Chinese” even called England their “zhujia” (ancestral home in Mandarin Chinese) and sang “God Save the King” no less fervently than the British “Angmo”. They identified themselves as British rather Asian and look up to the “Angmo” they see in the newspaper, magazines and movies as role models to emulate. The British colonial rulers were very successful in inculcating their “Angmo” superiority mindset among those who consider themselves to be “King’s Chinese”.

However, Dai Nippon Teikoku (Great Imperialist Japan) delivered a devastating blow to such colonial mindset when it’s lightly armed imperial army came sweeping through the Malay peninsula without much resistance from the more heavily armed British armed forces. Many young “King’s Chinese” from Lee’s generation were given a shocking lesson from the historical reality of such a humiliating defeat for their beloved British empire. Many young “King’s Chinese” began learning Japanese and Kanji to begin serving their new colonial masters; Lee became an interpreter for the Japanese rulers while thousands of other Chinese youths voluntarily risk their lives and limbs fighting against the Japanese invaders in the Malayan jungle.

When Pax Britannica ruled supreme, people such as Lee sang “God Save the King” and mastered the English Language; when Pax Nipponica ruled supreme, they sang “Kimi Ga Yo” and learned Japanese and even to write the Kanji they had earlier learned to dislike at home or in school. For people such as Lee, languages are a means to wield political and economic power. Any language will do so long as it can help people like him stay in power and in control. It’s the same old pragmatic mindset characterized by a famous modern Chinese saying “black cat or white cat … a good cat is one that can catch mice …”, isn’t it?

Freedom of speech?

Democracy?

Why is my comment?

How come being removed?

State Media also never do that to me.

Ha ha ha!

Why?

Got go ask SDP bo?

Or they are only capable to handle wet market?

You beloved Dr Chee can speak Mandarin bo?

Ha ha ha!

Wet market aunties!!!

Meanwhile, the real mother tongues of Peranakans, Portuguese Eurasians and Chitty Indians are quietly facing extinction. We should be considered semi-indigenous as our culture is unique to this part of the world.

Once they are gone, there’s no going back.

Naturally, learning Chinese, or any language, is no exception. LKY cheerleads China and the Chinese language because of the potential economic benefits (key word: ‘useful’) it’ll bring to Singapore. Hey, how about letting the kids learn the language simply because of interest, without coercion, and without giving a rat’s ass to any macro socio-economic objectives?

Keep in mind this is the same LKY who, not too long ago, suspected Chinese-speaking folks were closet commies. Refer to the Nanyang University incident. Or for a more recent example, Tang Liang Hong the evil Chinese chauvinist. LKY sings a different tune and does his usual politically expedient thing. Small wonder he’s in this business for so long.

I have made a great life for myself in Singapore, and I’ve been through the Singapore education system all my life, with exchange programmes in France and a post graduate degree in Australia. So I’m not blinded by the PAP or anything…… My parents came from very humble backgrounds and made something out of their lives and didn’t whine and bitch.

Now they are very upper middle class, and I am by no means earning a crap salary even when compared to someone of my level in Australia (which for some reason some Singaporeans think is heaven on earth) or the UK.

I hated learning Chinese from Primary school to JC, but can now do consultancy work for Chinese clients without much problems. In fact, I am VERY grateful I went through those painful Chinese lessons, because it is such an invaluable skill today. To all you parents who migrated because your children couldn’t cope with Chinese, I really cannot understand why. Did you seriously want to deprive your children from learning such a useful language? If your kids were crap at science would you have migrated too?

People – stop bitching about how the PAP has made your life awful. We all have choices and we all can choose to work with the system we have. I know people who went to poly and are earning $100k a year before they turn 27. Unfortunately I’m not one of them, but if your life sucks, don’t blame the government yeah….