Topic:
It is difficult to be bilingual in Singapore.
a)Do you agree? Why/Why not?
b)What can we do to improve?
Share your views and feelings in the 'Comment' link below this post.
Remember to leave your full name.
Click on the audio clip here and select the entry:
29. Bilingual (11/09/08)
(*Quicktime is needed)
It features a radio talkshow on the topic and you will be hearing some Singaporeans share their views and thoughts about the topic.
Listen to the clip to help you extend your perspective on the topic.
You do not need to quote what has been shared but feel free to comment on their feedback. You should also share your own thoughts.
You can limit your discussion to Mandarin as the other language besides English.
Comments should be entered before 5pm on 23rd March (Mon).
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43 comments:
I agree that being bilingual in Singapore is quite difficult as most of the singaporeans speak english with their family members instead of their mother tongue. Due to the constant use of english and the not much usage of their mother tongue, this cause children nowadays to focus more on their english language instead of their mother tongue, thus causing them to lose interest on this language. I think that we should conduct more lessons on the children's mother tongue, and relate to them the importance of their mother tongue and the fun of learning their mother tongue. they should also know more about their mother tongue which has a long history, as it might interest them.Doing this might make Singapore closer to being a bilingual society.
I agree. Singapore has been a very westernized country throughout the years. Even some Chinese teachers have accustomed to using English to explain some words. Some teachers have also missed the appreciation of English or Chinese Language,so students have lost interest in the languages. Students tend to have interest in only a language.
Parents can communicate with their children bilingually to improve their languages. When it comes to watching television programmes, parents can standardize their children to watch both English and Chinese channels. Teachers can also be professionally trained in Chinese or English.
i agree that being biligual in singapore is quite difficult.Most of the singaporeans nowadays speak english at home rather than chinese to their family members,this causes some children to lose interest in that language and therefore their results in this language deproves.i think we should encourage te parents to talk more to us in chinese at home and also watch more chinese television programmes.the school should also organise more chinese related activities and learn more about chinese and the culture which is more interesting...
I agree that being bilingual in Singapore is difficult. Well, lots of people speak English instead of Chinese. Some thought that Chinese is a lot more difficult than English. Nowadays, students always speak English. They speak English during Chinese lessons and even ask teachers questions in English! Some of the students in our class do that too. Chinese teachers intend to use English to teach if they do not know how to say a word in Chinese. Anyway, Singaporeans are using Singlish, not English at all! I think teachers can conduct more Chinese lessons or even tell them the importance of both English and Chinese. Parents can also communicate with their child in Chinese more often. They can also encourage their child to read Chinese newspaper or storybooks to improve their Chinese. Even European countries think that Chinese is important. We are really lucky to have the chance to learn both Chinese and English. So, we must learn both well.
I agree that being bilingual in Singapore is really difficult as most families speak in english nowadays.Students often find that chinese characters are hard to write and have no patience to learn them.What can parents do is to let the children know the importance of chinese and make learning fun,then deepen their interest by sharing with them ancient chinese history.In my opinion,we should learn any language and not limit ourselves only with english.
I agree that in Singapore it is difficult to be bilingual as most of the singaporeans speak english at home more often then using mother tongue. As in the past most parents' english are not good so they would want their children to use english to communicate. Thus, this became common in most families nowadays. I think that in order to get back the interest of the children into speaking mother tongue is not impossible. But teachers would have to figure out interesting ways to make children want to learn mother tonge and would want to use it to communicate. I think that if more people are using mother tongue then Singapore would become a bilingual country sooner or later.
I agree that it is difficult to be bilingual in singapore.Families nowadays prefer speaking english to mother tongue.I think that it is important for parents to speak bilingually to their child as this will interest the child to speak bilingually and to improve his/her languages too.Teachers should also play a part in helping the students to speak bilingually. During mother tongue lessons,teachers should only focus on using mother tongue.Schools and parents should also educate the students to know the important of speaking bilingually.
I agree that being bilingual in Singapore is quite difficult because a lot of parents in Singapore speak english to their children and only a few speak mother tongue. This cause the children to lose interest in this language. Once they lose interest interest in it, they will find it very hard to learn it well as they dislike it. I think the teachers and parents should cooperate together and make their children more willing to learn this language. They can teach them through fun games or other things.
We can also encourage parents to speak more chinese instead of english as this will also encourage their children to do the same thing as well.
I agree. Most people, no matter old or young, seem to prefer conversing in English to mother tongue. Some of the teachers and students like to replace English words with Chinese words or the other way round. Both of the languages, to me, are equally important, hence, I feel that neither of them ought to be forgotten. I would suggest that during the respective lessons, we would strictly converse in the respective language. Another way would be that parents should converse with their children in simple Mother Tongue or English.
I think that it would be a bit hard for us to be bilingual but to be effectively bilingual would be a great challenge for most Singaporeans. The problem with most Singaporeans these days is that we normally speak in English only. But, to really think about it, how hard is it to speak in both our mother tongue and English? I think that the main reason that the young children in Singapore are not speaking in their own mother tongue is because parents nowadays usually speak to their child in English and hence causing their child to lose interest in their own mother tongue.
I think to interest a child in learning or speaking their mother tongue, parents should speak to their child in both English and Mandarin .The main reason that makes a kid interested in mandarin is probably their exposure to the language and I agree with what a parent over the radio broadcast said to converse with them in mandarin. It will indirectly help the child to be interested in this language and make the child want to learn the language. I strongly feel that the Mandarin lessons in schools should be conducted in a more interesting way so as to make the kids interested. Making the child know the history and importance of learning their mother would also make the child want to learn their mother tongue.
I agree that being bilingual in Singapore is easy but being effectively bilingual without adding singlish is the problem! Although some of us speak in two languages, we are not excellent in it. For example, people in China who are absolutely good in chinese, are very interested in learning english. In the end, some of them who are successful became effectively bilingual. How did they do that?
The problem with most Singaporeans is because that they have somehow lost interest in learning chinese. They think that is hard to write and figure out how to read the words. Unlike english, sometimes you can make out the pronunciation from the spelling of the words and it is easier to write. Although we may know how to write the chinese characters, we may not know which stroke comes first, which stroke comes later.Parents speak in english than in chinese more often too. Most of the times, I think that it is probably the surroundings that the child is in that affects his/her thinkings. We must listen or watch both news/shows in both languages. Over the years, the child may think that it is not so hard learning chinese and may find interest in it that pushes the child forward in learning it.
I strongly agree that being bilingual is difficult for Singaporeans. It is easy for other people but not for us as we do not even put effort into speaking good english or chinese without mixing them up-we speak singlish instead. A lot of parents speak to their children in english, even when they know that that would affect their use of chinese. We also speak to our friends in english, only in chinese during chinese lessons. This results in decreasing the use of chinese language. Some people think that chinese is not an important subject and do not treat it seriously. I think that we should treat everything we do or learn seriously and put in our effort. We could also speak chinese frequently and not only in chinese lessons. We should learn to be bilingual not because our parents push us to do so, but because we were willing to.
I strongly agree that being bilingual is difficult for us.It is very easy if our parents speaks english and chinese as we need them to communicate with them. But in some families, people only communicate with each other using english or chinese only. Hence, they only communicate with people using the language they use in their families. Also, some people put in all their effort to learn to be bilingual hence they find it very easy to learn it. Most of the Sinagporeans have difficulties in learning to be bilingual as we often mix english and chinese together, thinking that it is very cool. Some children in Sinagpore have grandparents who speaks in other language like : Tamil, Malay and many others more. Grandparents must also learn to be bilingual to communicate with their grandchildren to ask them about their school works and many more to have better relationship with them. We could pay more attention in classes and join more activities too. I think Sinagporeans could learn to put more effort in their processes in learning to be bilingual and I think they could be bilingual like other country ,China, who is trying to encourage students to learn english too.
I agree that being bilingual in Singapore is not easy as most children, even teachers speak english at home.Although we can communicate with each other with both languages, we are not perfect at them. Usually, I will speak to my friends and family members in a mixture of english and mandarin. I believe that children are not interested in chinese as chinese characters are quite hard to write I think that we should master our chinese well as people from other countries may laugh at us saying that we are chinese and yet we cannot speak mandarin well.
I think that we should watch news daily.If you say that you do not have time to watch them, you could on your radio and listen to how deejays communicate in mandarin or English as you do your work.At the same time you will be able to enjoy some songs you like and also listen to the news , so that you will know what is happening around the world. Chinese teachers could cut out some interesting articles from the newspaper and share it with the students, the teacher may even like to ask the students to reflect on it.The teachers could do this once in a week.I hope that by doing this, children could be effectively billingual.
Singapore is a multi-racial society. We all mostly can speak english and our mother tongue. Thus, I feel that it is not difficult to be bilingual in Singapore. Since we can speak two languages, all we have to do is train ourselves to be good at both languages and not just concentrate at being good at one.
As our Minister Mentor Mr Lee Kuan Yew stated on 17th March 2009, "If you want your children to master Mandarin, speak to them in Mandarin. Don't worry about them learning English. They will pick it up in schools,they will meet friends and take exams in English. They will master English.
If we follow as he says, it is easy to be effectively biligual. It is true that it can help if parents speak to thier children in Mandarin at home. This can improve their Mandarin. In school, we mostly communicate to out teachers and friends in English. By speaking in different languages, we would soon be effectively bilingual.
To improve both languages, we can watch news to listen to how the newsreader speaks. We can also read more storybooks and the newspapers to know how to use the appopriate words when speaking and writing.
I agree that it is difficult to be bilingual in Singapore. It has many reasons. But the most common problems are that children does not speak chinese at home with their parents. They also think that there are many characters in chinses words and that they are lazy to remember them. Parents could often encourage them to learn chinese and also communicate with children using chinese. It can increase the knowledge of the children to chinese so that they would not avoid chinese.
I agree that it is difficult to be bilingual in Singapore. One of the reasons is that most of the parents or their family speak to the children in either their mother tongue or english only. And some of the parents are from China and they didn't know much english, so they cannot communicate with their children in english to encourage them to speak in english.
As english is the most common language used and is the language which unites the different ethnic groups in Singapore and children are taught in English in every lesson except chinese lesson at school, they developed more interest in english than their mother tongue, which is chinese.
And naturally the presence of other languages has influenced the English of Singapore. The influence is especially apparent in the kind of English that is used informally, which is called Singlish.
The gorvernment can introduce more programmes about mother tongue or english. I think they can also teach the children more about mother tongue's history and culture. These history and culture might interest them and make them feel like studying mother tongue or english.
I agree that being bilingual in Singapore is quite difficult as most family speak in English nowadays. Many Students also dislike Chinese as they find the Chinese characters complicated and difficult to write. I think parents should try to use both English and Chinese to communicate will their children. Parents should allow their child to read both the English and Chinese newspaper. Teachers can also help by making the Chinese lessons fun and interesting.
Being bilingual is basically whether you want to or not. We have the capability to speaky bilingually, but the problem is, we do not want to. There are many ways people like us can encourage others to speak bilingually. it is not a case of 'can or cannot', but rather, ' want or not'. Chinese is being less reinforced in our daily life nowadays. That, I feel, is the root cause of less Singaporeans speaking bilingually.
i agree because most ppl mix english and mother tongue to converse with one another. i also find it quite hard to speak PERFECT ENGLISH sometimes and i have to mix both languages.
i think teachers should teach using the apporiate languages and not to explain in other languages unless they get a little desperate to use other languages to explain.
I strongly agree. Being bilingual is hard. Most of us are strong in either English or Mandarin. Also, English seems to be more important than Mandarin. In schools, all the subjects except Chinese are taught in English. In the workplace and social settings, people communicate in English as Singapore is a multi-racial country; English is a common language among the different races.
I think parents should speak Mandarin to their children from when they are very young as this will build a strong foundation for them. To sharpen our Chinese skills, we can read more Chinese newspapers/books, listen to more Chinese audios and of course, watch more Chinese shows.
To improve our English, we should try not to mix dialects and Singlish into our speech. We should speak proper English, that is grammatically correct and in complete sentences.
In school, we can organize “Speak only English” or “Speak only Mandarin” days. These campaigns will help us pupils to become more comfortable with speaking both languages and not sticking to the one that we are more comfortable with. To foster interest in the languages, schools can also educate the pupils on the history and culture of these languages.
I believe if we all put our minds into making ourselves bilingual, we can do it!
Being bilingual in Singapore is quite hard as most people nowadays speak mostly english. However, since we learn chinese in school, it should not be quite a problem to master both if we are patience. Another way to learn chinese is to watch chinese films. We can also read the subtitles if we do not understand it. Parents must also speak more english/chinese to their children depending on what they are weak in to sharpen their skills.
I agree that being bilingual in Singapore is quite difficult.Children tend to use english to communicate with their parents or friends.They think that chinese language is more difficult to learn.However,if u try to communicate more in chinese,u might find it interesting.Parents should also speak more in chinese to them.
Some teachers might also have set a bad example by using engish to explain the chinese words during chinese lessons.Parents play an important role in the interest of the children in the chinese language.Parents should organise some quizzes in chinese and maybe give them some presents if they get the answers correct.
Of course,do not get the children too interested in chinese that they neglect their english studies.
I too agree that being able to be bilingual in Singapore is difficult as you can see that most of the Singaporeans today are all speaking in english than in Chinese.Most importantly, this affects the learning of Chinese. For instance, if we speak English too often, our Chinese will definetly not be as good. But if we speak in both languages, we will get a balanced result.What i suggest is that we should ask parents to try to communicate with them in Chinese sometimes or on some particular days. And that people will lose interest in the subject Chinese is also because that probably they find the words difficult to write or remember.Well, all my suggestions might help Singapore to be a better and bilingual country.
I agree that being bilingual in Singapore is quite difficult. Most Singaporeans speak english nowadays, be it at home, at work or in school. Because of that, people lose interest in chinese over the years.
I think that we should conduct more lessons on the history of China(because that's chinese origin),and encourage them to watch not only english, but also chinese shows/movies. Such actions might bring Singaporeans closer to being effectively bilingual. Parents should also help by speaking more chinese/english(depending on which language they're weaker in) to sharpen their skills(not to say that all parents do not do that. Some parents do help).
I agree that being biligual in Singapore is quite difficult as most people, including me, speak in English to their family and friends and some of them do not use Chinese at all other than in Chinese lessons. Sometimes, people think that the Chinese culture is very boring(I sometimes think that too) and they have totally no interest in Chinese. I think think that that kind of thinking is wrong, as each different culture has its boring and interesting points. Some children(like my brother) think that Chinese(and Han Yu Pin Ying) is very difficult and do not want to learn it. I'll suggest that they break up the words so it'll be easier for them. What's the point of learning Chinese if you don't use it at all?
I agree that being bilingual is a little difficult for some people but not so if you speak both languages well. We will mostly speak English instead of Chinese as we use more English in education and also when we are at home. For Science, English and Maths we use English, not Chinese. Being bilingual also depends during at a young age, whether you speak either language or both. For me, I used to be weak in Chinese when I was young. Then I began to speak more chinese as I went for chinese classes, my chinese gradually improved.
In my opinion, we should speak both languages equally well at home or even outside.
I disagree that being bilingual in Singapore is difficult. We learn chinese in school and usually speak English at home. It is only difficult to master the language well.
Even if being bilingual in Singapore is difficult, we have no choice as it is very competitive. A classic example: my father and I went to the Malay barber and there were PRCs(Peoples Republic of China) working for him. He sat there with an exercise book saying out loud the chinese characters and their hanyu pinyin. He is a trilingual bcos he could speak Malay, Chinese and English. I think we should all be bilingual.
I agree that it is difficult to be bilingual in Singapore as we communicate mostly with our friends or family in english but sometimes, we even tend to mix english and chinese together.
I do agree that chinese is hard to learn, but as long as we put in the effort, i am sure that we will be a great bilingual speaker.
I think that parents should encourage them to speak chinese by bring them to the library often to read chinese books to make them improve.
The teachers could also organise some games related to chinese, that would be really fun and interesting. The Children would be able to learn more stuffs about chinese in them.
I agree. Singapore is a English speaking country. Many people in Singapore are also from an English-speaking family and would be difficult to learn a new language and excel it. I think that people think that English is more commonly used around the world and want to perfect/excel in English before learning another language.Even Chinese teachers use English to explain certain words.
I have questioned friends about which subject they dislike most. Not surprisingly, it is Chinese. Although, it is taught in schools, the complexity of that language will allow students or even adults to lose interest in the language.Teachers enforce the rule of speaking Chinese in chinese lessons. This would allow students to communicate more in Chinese.Teachers should also organise more interesting Chinese activities to increase interest of pupils. Slowly, Singapore would surely be a bilingual country/society.
I find that being bilingual is difficult as most people usually speak english or'singlish'.THe media should have more chinese shows to allow them to understand chinese better.The community should also organise more interesting chinese activities for children age 9-12.
The Wyverns
sorry! Shaun entry continues...
Also, we can have educational lessons to educate both the young and old.We should also read more chinese books to improve your language.
To my opinion, being bilingual is indeed difficult for most singaporeans. Most families in Singapore tend to stick to one particular language for their own communications, thus the next genaration will carry on speaking frequently in that language. Once the child get used to this language, he or she will have the opinion that that is his/her main language. They will lose interest to the other languages they are supposed to know well and soon, sad to say, singaporeans might not beecome a bilingual country if this problem carries on.
Having to know two languages is very helpful to many in future. Singapore is a multi-racial country. To communicate properly, I think that it is necessary to master at least two languages, your mother tongue and english, both equally important. Parents should speak to their children in both languages frequently. We children should cooperate with others too. We have to learn our main languages well and use them accurately. Watching the live broadcast ornews will also help to solve this problem of the use of languages.
I believe schools can too do a part. Teachers can teach students in a more interesting way and make lessons emphasise on one particular language. I commented on this because I noticed that some teachers will explain a word with the definition of another language. This is not supposed to happen. I will suggest for students to check the dictionary everytime they are in doubt. When you learn a language, learn it in that language.
Let's hope that Singapore will get closer to being a hundred percent bilingual contry throughout the years.
I agree that being bilingual in Singapore is quite difficult. Most of the children do not speak proper English or Chinese and they do not make an effort to do so. Neither does their parents. Either they just use both languages or they speak "SInglish".
Schools and radios can organise more lessons or talks on how to speak proper Engish or Chinese and train the students to do so. They can also set up a reward system to let the students have a motivation to speak proper languages. After a while, they may get used to it and start using their new "skills" in everyday life.
I agree that being bilingual in Singapore will have some difficulty as nearly most os the Singaporeans only speak english with their friends and famalies members. English language may be good for communication but the usage of mother tongue must not be detest.
People think that the usage of mother tongue is either confusing or complicated to be learnt. The importance of learning mother tongue is equal to learning english.
To improve on our mother tongue, we could organise some events and encourage more people to participate by erolling classes to learn mother tongue. I highly encourage family members to communicate with their children in mother tongue more often. Like this, Singapore will be a bilingual country and besides learning this two languages, people can master other languases which they like.
I agree that being bilingual in Singapore is diffcult as people working normally speak and type english on their documents.Most of singaporeans tend to speak only one language at home.People tend to mix both languages together when they are talking among themselves.I think that parents should encourage their children to speak different languages on certain days or weeks.Children can also learn more about Chinese watching news and other programmes relating to chinese.Also we can read chinese newspapers to learn more about chinese as chinese newspapers provides chinese characters and you can read it to learn more so it help on both.Teachers should also teach students about the history of Chinese Language and its interesting past and how long is the past of it.After learning the past of the chinese, i am sure that children will be willingly to learn chinese as forcing them would let them more reluctant to learn after learning about its interesting past.
I do not agree that being bilingual in Singapore is difficult.We are blessed with the ability to learn English and Mandarin in school.We are also exposed to both languages through books, newspapers and also the media.
Our government is also putting in a lot of effort to promote mandarin by launching speak mandarin campaign as more and more Singaporeans dislike mandarin.
As a Chinese in Singapore, i feel that learning both languages is essential.We need to use English to communicate to our non-chinese peers.Knowing Mandarin is also essential as it would be ashame if u do not know your mother tongue!!
I think it is very difficult to be bilingual in Singapore as kids are struggling with their mother tongue in schools and adults are also struggling in the working world. we ca read Chinese newspaper everyday. Chinese teachers can have more training and teach their pupils more things. The government has launches a 'speak mandarin' campaign to advise people to speak mandarin. Parents should speak mandarin and their children should reply them in mandarin too. Watching mandarin films, listening to music or reading Chinese books an also help in their mandarin. Set aside a few minutes to have a good conversation in mandarin. I think that mandarin is very important so i will definitely follow the advice given.
Thanks for all the sharing. I must say that I am impressed with the level of analysis and thought put in by some of you.
I think you know my story - I am supposedly an effectively bilingual person, yet the truth is far from it. =)
I feel that it is not difficult to be biligual in Singapore.
Throughout the nation, we have people comunicating with many different languages. Besides our mother tongue, we are also speaking foreign languages like Japanese. If this is happening, how difficult is it to be effectively bilingual when some of us are already trilingual?
Besides that, most of us speak in our mother tongue or dialect when comunicating with our grand parents and parents. We are already well trained in this area.
Moreover, the community centers island wide are offering several language courses which are economical and availible all the time. Even the elderly are taking them. With the goverment encouraging "Life-long learing" and so many oppotunities to become effectively biligual, it is extremely easy to be bilingual.
So, all we have to do is sign up for some of these couses to be effectively bilingual!
I agree that singapore has been a very westernized country throughout the years.There are chinese teachers that are using engiish to explained some words.Due to the use of english and the shortage use of mother tongue,cause them to focus more on english and lose interest on mother tongue.I think that we should conduct more lessons on mother tongue.Parents can comunicate with their childen an d let them to watch both chinese and english programmes to gain interest in mother tongue again.
I agree it is difficult to be bilingual in Singapore as most people speak English at home.Some even speak dialect at home and they seldom speak Mandarin at home.That is why now a days children have phobia with Chinese.I think to improve in Chinese and be good at English, parents should try to talk to their children in Mandarin at home.In school,the teachers will speak to them in English.Children should speak more and watch more Chinese shows or read more Chinese story books.Parents should also encourage them to read more Chinese newspaper.Actually, we should be very thankful to have our school teachers to teach us both language and we should treasure it.
I agree that being bilingual in Singapore is difficult as most of the singaporeans speak english. Nowadays,peoples believe that english is their main language and they do not focus more on mother tongue. While they do not focus, they will gradually lose interest on mother tongue and do not know that mother tongue has a long history. In my opinion, they should condut lessons relating to mother tongue. At the same time, they shold also focus on other studies. People should know that mother tongue has a long history and doing this may make Singapore closer to being a bilingual society.
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