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Mr Lee Kuan Yew on Bilingual policy | ||
Tags: Language Politics | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| 1e4e6 Octoglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4289 days ago 1013 posts - 1588 votes  Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Italian Studies: German, Danish, Russian, Catalan | Message 17 of 21 02 April 2015 at 8:45pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I believe that there are special characters that some use for Hokkien that are created,
similar to how they created some for special Cantonese words, but I am not sure that this is followed so much in Singapore as it is in Taiwan. I think there is one main difference between Singapore and Hong Kong, that Singapore do not hate the Communists like Hong Kong. Singapore use, after all, Mao's simplified characters like the PRC do. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| QiuJP Triglot Senior Member Singapore Joined 5854 days ago 428 posts - 597 votes Speaks: Mandarin*, EnglishC2, French Studies: Czech, GermanB1, Russian, Japanese | Message 18 of 21 03 April 2015 at 7:31pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Yes, there are special characters for all Chinese Dialects. This is confirmed in my methods for the dialects of Cantonese, Hokkien, Shanghainese targeted for Mandarin speakers, which are produced in China. You are wrong that Singapore do not hate the Communists. In fact, Mr Lee arrested all the people suspected to be Communist during the initial years of his rule. Rather, it was the economical benefits that make Mr Lee approach China as early as 1976. Then, China was very poor and her economic closed to the rest of the world, like North Korea today. However, he believed that once China carried out reforms, its economy will be too big to be ignored. Mr Lee, himself is anti-communist and have great relations with US leaders. Edited by QiuJP on 03 April 2015 at 7:33pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Medulin Tetraglot Senior Member Croatia Joined 4667 days ago 1199 posts - 2192 votes Speaks: Croatian*, English, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Norwegian, Hindi, Nepali | Message 19 of 21 07 April 2015 at 7:54am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Anti-communist or not, Singapore of today is much more of a police state than PRC is. Tom[ei]to, tom[a]to. In the case of Tamilians in Singapore, the two language policy was more than a failure, it made Tamils shift to English as their L1/home language. This is different than in Malaysia, where language usage is not experimented on, and even though Tamil is not one of the official languages there, the number of speakers of Tamil is not shrinking unlike in Singapore. No policy can mandate language use. Edited by Medulin on 07 April 2015 at 7:58am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| shk00design Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4443 days ago 747 posts - 1123 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 20 of 21 07 April 2015 at 4:54pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Canada is a country where 2 official languages are recognized as official. If you live in the English speaking
parts of Canada, you will be required to take up French until your high school years when you have a choice of other (Latin, German, Italian, etc). If you are in the French speaking parts of the country, you are required to take English until your high school years. The Canadian government promotes bilingualism and the local school boards pay for English & French teachers. Canada is no closer to having a majority of the people being bilingual in English & French. On the other hand, Canada is a land of immigrants. Many people are bilingual in English and their native languages (Polish, Ukrainian, Portuguese, Italian, Chinese, and so on) which are not 1 of the 2 official languages but not many are bilingual in English & French. Ultimately, success in language learning and maintaining languages begins at home. The government usually spend a lot of taxpayers' money in languages classes, but if the language you learn in class is not the one you speak at home, you are not likely going to maintain it. What people do at home with their own time is more important than government policies on language or funding language classes in schools. Edited by shk00design on 08 April 2015 at 4:56pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| 1e4e6 Octoglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4289 days ago 1013 posts - 1588 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Italian Studies: German, Danish, Russian, Catalan | Message 21 of 21 07 April 2015 at 8:45pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
I kan vouch on first hand experience that both Singapore and Canada have a hell of a lot more successful bilingual speakers due to their policies than the USA and UK, who have deplorable (lack of) language learning policies which results in a population close to completely ignorant that anything except English is important or even exists.
So you do not think that those with less money (who also pay taxes, by the way) deserve less than those who can afford Eton and Harrow? I went to state schooling for most of my life. One big advantage is that it was free (and in University the fees are capped). If you want a country that spends close to nothing on languages in schools compared to other developed countries (and even developing countries), that would be the USA, where some places do not even require learning a foreign language in secondary schoolfor even one semester. They are not exactly the beacon of polyglottery...
So if chlidren are not interested in maths, maybe the government should cancel the maths curriculum because arithmetic is just a drag and is just not important? Or cancel the science classes because, it just is not worth learning the government science curriculum, because they can "learn" from some of their parents who think that global warming, ozone thinning, and evolution do not exist? With regards to the language curriculum, how are children supposed to be bilingual at home if they are in my case, who want to learn languages at primary or secondary school age, but who grew up monolingual Anglophone by speaking only English at home? Edited by 1e4e6 on 07 April 2015 at 9:07pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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