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Reforms to learn mother tongue in SG | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| WANNABEAFREAK Diglot Senior Member Hong Kong cantonese.hk Joined 6637 days ago 144 posts - 185 votes  1 sounds Speaks: English*, Cantonese Studies: French | Message 9 of 13 21 January 2011 at 6:03am | IP Logged | ||||||||
What if you are in a mixed family? What if you are 3rd generation singlish speaker with no mandarin. I have found there that entire families will just speak singlish to each other and I can't understand what the hell are they talking about. I learn my language, and you learn your language and he learns his language is simply meaning we are never going to integrate and be harmonious. People will stick in their communities and groups. Their definition of mother-tongue based on skin or origin is ridiculous. I could be 4th generation singlish only speaker and just because my appearance is chinese, my mother tongue is classified as Chinese Mandarin. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
 newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6189 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 10 of 13 21 January 2011 at 6:52am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Singapore just started giving mixed children more flexibility in defining their ethnicity. It seems like these children will have a choice of mother tongue.
Clearly the lingua franca English. If people aren't going to integrate, it's not due to the language but to their ethnicity.
I find it pretty logical though I think they should allow the student to choose their second language. My guess is that most people would choose their mother tongue anyway because that is what they identify with and also what they are most likely to be exposed to. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| QiuJP Triglot Senior Member Singapore Joined 5665 days ago 428 posts - 597 votes Speaks: Mandarin*, EnglishC2, French Studies: Czech, GermanB1, Russian, Japanese | Message 11 of 13 21 January 2011 at 6:42pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
In some sense, this is true regarding language education in Singapore. Take for example, in the case of a ethic Chinese Singaporean who went though the school education and wants to go overseas to pursue his/her education. If he wants to go to China for university education, he has to obtain HSK certificate to prove his ability in Chinese (Mandarin) even though he is a native speaker. If he wants to go to a English speaking country for university education, some institutes wants him to take TOFEL even though he has studied English as first language (L1) in his schooldays. I really do not what are the reason for these language policies.... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| mrwarper Diglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Spain forum_posts.asp?TID=Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5036 days ago 1493 posts - 2500 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2 Studies: German, Russian, Japanese | Message 12 of 13 21 January 2011 at 9:17pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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As long not a lot of red tape becomes a part of the process/much time is wasted, I don't see the problem in my level of proficiency at any particular type of task being tested before admittance anywhere. Why? Simple: because if I'm really ready to do <whatever>, I'll pass, provided we're discussing reasonable tests, etc. And so I fail to understand why anyone who is ready to do something is against reasonably proving it beforehand.
It's exactly the same with languages, native speakers or not (yes, you know I like emphasizing that - I know too). And it's a headache that people are not tested. My students' students (some of which are my students as well) are mostly natives whose level of competence in their mother tongue is never doubted. And yet many of them have a hard time in their first years at uni and often complain that they need to learn a lot of 'strange' new words (technical jargon, anyone?). What these kids have is lack of competence in their own language (specifically lack of vocabulary in most cases, but not the only problem), and obviously nobody told them before along their education, or they wouldn't complain about trivialities like having to take an occasional trip to the dictionary as everyone else. But that's what you get when mother language teaching is dumbed down: now we have spelling bees too, when 15 years ago anyone would have laughed at the mere idea. On the other hand, it is true that if Singaporean students leave school not speaking proper <whatever> something should be done. Of course languages are communication tools and after school children should be able to use them to communicate effectively. But that's obvious. I wonder why nobody noticed that classes failed to do that in the past. Maybe it's because they didn't? (going out on a limb here since I've never been to SG - but I think mother tongues are properly learned 'in a natural way' everywhere and schools only reinforce that language building through serious study). Making mother language teaching 'more interactive', 'dynamic' and other BS just for the sake of it or 'not being boring'* sounds exactly like the kind of crap that has been done here and in English speaking countries where no proper grammar is taught ever. The results? Look around. *That's the impression I got from the article. They never say 'we have this problem so we're trying this thing', so it looks like they want to look 'modern' and that's it. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| noriyuki_nomura Bilingual Octoglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 5150 days ago 304 posts - 465 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin*, Japanese, FrenchC2, GermanC2, ItalianC1, SpanishB2, DutchB1 Studies: TurkishA1, Korean | Message 13 of 13 22 January 2011 at 2:11pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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One thing which I find bizarre or even ironic in Singapore's education is the recognition of certain language certificates.
A few years ago, I enquired on behalf for a relative regarding the admission criteria to the local polytechnics, as to whether it is possible for him to take the Cambridge certificate in proficiency C2 level as part of the entry requirements for English language, instead of retaking his O levels English (which he unfortunately failed), we were informed that they do not recognise nor accept the Cambridge certificate of proficiency C2. This is kinda ridiculous, especially given the fact that most international universities in the world accept this qualification as having met their entry requirements. On the other hand, I don't think that all Singaporeans speak English deplorably (or Chinese/Malay/Tamil for that matter). There are Singaporeans who can speak both English and their mother tongue language well. And personally, I am for Singlish, and find it inevitable that languages spoken in a country will tend to evolve gradually and possibly deviate from the 'standard language' spoken in the country of origin. Take latin America, Australia, New Zealand and Taiwan for instance. Edited by noriyuki_nomura on 22 January 2011 at 2:12pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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