Recently, our ex prime minister and founding father of modern Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew has introduced a new campaign that advocates the importance of bilingualism in Singapore. As part of the new campaign, He has launch a new book which provides an account of his challenges in implementing bingual policy since the very beginning of Singapore's history.
Singapore's governing body has been most succesful in inducing we, citizens to take up and even flourish in the international language, English for the past few decades. Such a success story is evident in schools, in homes and all around Singapore where the sight of a young kid spouting english is prevalent. We are so 'successful' that our governing body has saw the need to reverse the 'speak english' policy to promote the 'speak chinese' counterpart.
Why is that the case? Given the pace at which China is growing and the simultaneous downfall of western countries, we may see the tide of global influence turning in the near future and the corporate language changing to Mandarin instead. Our government could see that coming in the next 10-15 years. Hence, there is no better time than NOW to prepare our kids for the greatest challenge of the century; to perfect the chinese language so as to tap on the huge china market. ( we may all end up working under a china boss).
Most of the effort of the bilingualism campaign is channelled towards educating our young ones at a tender age. This is because, language learning is most effective when carried out right from the 1st day of birth. A language spoken in the early days of a children's life will most probably stick with him/her throughout his life.
As a case in point, legendary investor, Jim Roger who has now settled down in Singapore, started educating his daughter in speaking fluent chinese language from the time she is able uttered the 1st word. He demands that her chinese home teacher who stays with them speak to her daughter in chinese everyday while he converse in english with her daughter. Before she even entered kindergarden, she could articulate in both languages, english and chinese with eloquence. Not bad for a caucasian whose father didn't manage to pick up mandarin.
