I read the papers this morning and rolled my eyes so far back till the colleagues peeped at what I was reading to see what could cause such a reaction. Oh dear me. There was a quote from an article in Today that sent shivers down my spine-
"Mr Lee also said that while he started wrong, "I'll put it right, and it's not completely right but I will get it right if I live long enough." "
Aiyoh! Is he ever going to retire and behave like any other sweet old man who is a doting grandparent?! He should really really let it go. Further lines gave cold comfort. He should have listened harder then, isn't it? Not to his aides, but to the young children who are sitting in the classroom and resent learning the language.
"He also admitted that he was wrong to insist on bilingualism in the early years. "At first I thought, you can master two languages. Maybe different intelligence, you master it at different levels." But his conclusions after over 40 years are different. Reiterating a point he has since made several times, he said: "Nobody can master two languages at the same level. If you can, you're deceiving yourself." He added: "Successive generations of students paid a heavy price, because of my ignorance, by my insistence on bilingualism. And I wasn't helped by the ministry officials, because there were two groups, one English speaking, one Chinese teaching." "
It's easy for me to criticize, but let's think at a lower level before expanding it to the national level. How many adults actually listen to the children and are able to discern the little ones' real concerns in their (music, ballet, art, calligraphy, judo, yoga, pilates, etc) classes amidst whines and whims? Since when do we ask the young ones if a certain curriculum and pedagogy suit their needs? Allow me to make a sweeping statement- appropriate curriculum and pedaogy have always been dictated by certain guiding principles; pedagogy committees don't exactly go out to survey students to ask what they want or what they think they would like to see in schools. Perhaps we do have more enlightened educators nowadays who are better attuned to learning development trends. Still, we face the perennial argument of the quality Singapore's public schools vs (non Singapore) international schools in all fields.
What is especially scary, is how he more or less admitted that the bilingual policy was pushed through at his insistence. What happened to making team decisions and group wisdom? Our bilingual policy should be made into a case study for our policy makers, a lesson of what to confess and what not to after 40 years at the helm of any organization.
21 comments:
the real price the country pays for insisting on bi-lingulism is that the population ends up being proficient in neither language.
i like the o;d days when one is a first language of instruction, the other is second language. the second language did not require a compulsory pass.
A tale of two cities - I would gladly send my kids to your public schools! :)
I completely disagree with him on biligualism being wrong. Coming from Canada, bliligualism is official in the Federal government. Implementation has been rather poor. I am only somewhat bilingual (English and French).
However, to suggest that people cannot learn two languages proficiently is absurd. My kids are trilingual (English, Spanish and French) and have no difficulty in any language. I speak to them in English, my wife in Spanish and they get French at school.
Yes, they are a little further behind in reading and writing English and Spanish than someone schooled in those languages, but I have no worries about them catching up - since they read books in all three languages.
I wanted them (especially my daughter) to learn a fourth language (Japanese or Mandarin). For a while, my daughter was picking up some Mandarin from a friend, but then they had a falling out.
aiyahh stupid rule.
i had good grades in all subjects except for chinese, failed. cannot get anywhere. can't afford private or abroad so stuck during then, suffered mental anguish. irreversible damage. demn it.
different topic.
people who set rules should have conscience. like taxi stupid rule can only stop at stands. all the ahmah and tourists stuck during heavy rain no taxi can stop.
ohhhh man, don't get me started. I was thinking if i should write something bout it on my blog. i was one of the first few 'victims' of this #@$!@?! policy. my whole life changed cos of me flunking chinese. i was basically denied a higher education by the govt.
there was a time when i would imagine 'what if'...but my life has been good so i try to 'comfort' myself by telling/reminding myself that i have done things that I have always wanted to do, accomplished some of my dreams, am content etc. If I was good at mandarin, my life would definitely turned out differently, mebbe for the better, mebbe for the worse...no one knows.
yah, mebbe i'll write something bout it one day
Maybe because I come from a mandarin speaking family, I don't see why bilingualism is not possible. You don't to be very good in both. At least he got the part about getting students interested. I really hated how chinese was thought in school. Pure rote learning, and only for the sake of passing exams. Takes all the joy out of it. (And yeah, i did really badly for chinese. Like bottom of the entire school.) I'm just doubtful of how he thinks it can be accomplished, and even more so of the bureaucrats' implementation.
And no no to his "further inputs"!
sinlady: well. it's not difficult actually. but not everyone can do languages. the same way as not everyone can do mathematics. it's a sound policy, but the implementation falls really really short.
jomel: that, is another story altogether- a complete dissertation on education policies and language use in schools. SIGH. big sigh.
tuti + cavalock: see. that's the failing of our bilingual policy system. it killed many many many. to many, there isn't a point in mandarin. the other friends hightailed out of sgp and did other languages instead. we blame it fully on the teaching methodology and teachers who couldn't understand nor bridge the gap between english and chinese 'thinking'. i swear there is a certain way i think in English, and another way i think in Chinese. and another in Thai.
richard + wildgoose: knowing him and his definition of bilingualism, i betcha none of us truly are. in our country, a smattering grasp is not bilingual. he asks for nothing but near perfection- to be effectively bilingual. we can learn 2 languages. we can even speak it. but we are still NOT considered bilingual. not in terms of fluency, eloquency, command and grasp. but yes, it's a good policy, altruistically. but the methods we use to teach it are terrible. so within families, it's up to the parents to decide how many languages/Asian dialects to learn.
actually Imp, my sigh is bigger than big! If I could afford international school, my three kids would enrol, stat!
...If you can, you're deceiving yourself."
Ummmm, no I don't think I'm deceiving myself, thankyouverymuch, Mr L. At the risk of coming across as conceited, I'm pretty confident about my mastery of 2 languages. The other languages are at "working knowledge" level, and that's good enough for me.
Admittedly, my kids are currently less proficient in their "father" tongue than if they only had that one language to contend with, like their peers. But I believe it'll eventually even out in the end.
And I should quantify that Mandarin is not one of the languages I mastered, thanks to the policies and methods of the day. Feh.
wtf lor, when is he & his 'uber-intelligent' cockster cabinet going to end all these imbecile monopolization? Yet now he's trying to change the idea of having bilingualism ?! How far has this 'legendary' MM been absurdly thinking ?! He's becoming uber senile! If others don't read carefully they might have thought he's trying to teach us to become racists! So if we fail to comprehend in 'puurfect' Mandarin/English, we're considered losers? Have he ever notice that there are species who can speak flawless diverse languages? Are they deceiving themselves? I'm feeling anguish! How Uniquely Singapore eh? I feel very motivated to learn Tamil and Polish soon!
We did English (not creative, lots of grammar) as first language in secondary schools in the 1960's.
In the "old days" learning Chinese was rote-learning & quite a bit of translating classical (wen yen wen) into traditional Chinese and most students passed the subject-which was not easy!! A fail (less than 50% of combined 8subjects) at the year-end exam would mean you exit from the school system permanently. What was there to like about any subject (or language) for that matter, you worked to stay in school-best incentive ever ;)
And Bahasa Kebangsaan (thankfully a non-exam subject) was compulsory for all non-Malays.
jomel: we singaporeans can't put our children into the variety of international schools available here. unless one spouse (preferably the dad is a foreigner).
kachunknorge: ya! mastering 2 isn't a problem. i don't think so either. we all can. just whether we want to. ironically, school killed my interest in Chinese. while i can do it at a decent working level, my other languages are so better better than mandarin/chinese. eioow.
mochalatte: i wish he'd stop making pronouncements like that. i wish the media would stop picking it up. i mean, his words are just words, not doomsday pronouncements or hints to policy changes!
I saw this too and was like, good grief, NOW they decide it was a mistake.
I HATED learning Mandarin in school - and I wonder whether it was largely because we were forced to learn it. When I had to learn to speak it for work, it was actually much less painful - and I think I was far more fluent because I wanted/needed to learn to communicate.
Europeans as a whole seem much better with languages than we are. I have several European friends who are so fluent in English that you forget it's not their first language. Then again, I also think that the European/Romance languages do derive from the same root language, so it might be easier. Mandarin is a whole different kettle of fish.
anon@10.22am: i'd have loved to do bahasa in school! i wonder which idiot came up with the idea that if you fail your 2nd language, you'll flunk out of school despite the rest of the As. that is totally totally DUMB.
dawn: i bet you that you speak more mandarin (and more fluently) as an adult more than your 12 years of formal education in it altogether. it's like Thai, i suppose. learn Thai and you'll sort out Indochina. European root languages are easier, especially the writing. The speaking now, is in another different league again.
I spent many years of my children's school life writing to the MOE to basically say exactly what he is now admitting....neither of my children appreciated their 2nd language (or mother tongue as they wish to call it) when it was forced down their throats...they only picked up the ability to speak the language without problem, after they left school and there were no expectations or pressure. Definitely not MM's standard of bilingualism but heck, who cares. They are effectively trilingual with an excellent command of one language - English. I too wanted to do a post on my blog but whats the use....all our education policies have been at the expense of our students....trial and error...now when the children of people in higher places struggle with the subject, the revered MM comes to the rescue! Thank you for letting me vent ;p
You can be effectively bilingual but for fark's sake, pls do away with this stupid MOTHER TONGUE policy. If I want to learn Polish as my 2nd language for whatever reason, don't force me to take Chinese just because I have a Chinese father or have "Chinese" in my IC.
I know of friends who got into huge fights with MOE over this; they are Peranakan and was told they had to take Chinese.
My boss is Belgian and he speaks French and English with equal fluency. Who knows if he can speak Dutch too! I think it's not unusual for Europeans to be bilingual, trilingual or even quad-lingual if you are brought up in a conducive environment.
aiyaah read again my blood boil.
he ruined my life.
Makes you wonder what other policies got pushed through without thought for the people affected by them. I'm kind of surprised (and glad) MM came out and admitted he was wrong though.
1) Huh, I think my Mandarin now is better than when I was in school!
2) This is in reply to your previous post: you know what merlion means, right? hahahaha
belinda: that policy has turned off 2 generations of students to our mother tongues and wondering why on earth we have to do it. we don't have to be china-ready goodness. our brilliant education system has turned us into West-ready anyway!
tuti: don't think don't think!
eveline: agreed. i don't know who in the world think it's a damn good idea that we must all speak our mother tongue. wtf right? that is so frog in the well. the mother policy is so clearly politically motivated.
dawn: the idea of a bilingual policy is sound. but man, the interpretation and implementation are so draconian! of course lah, at this age, he's admitting to everything and saying anything till i wonder if he's even making sense for himself or trying to 'advise' future generations. OH, don't even get me started on our manpower and foreign labor policies.
kachunknorge: ahahhaha!!
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