SINGAPORE: Having a good command of Chinese is increasingly important in an environment where the use of Chinese becomes more pervasive.
Speaking to students at a forum, Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, Lim Swee Say urged them to take a greater interest in Chinese.
The future of the
world may not necessarily be China-centric, but Mr Lim said China will
be a part of the future, adding that China's growing influence should
not be ignored.
Fielding questions in English and Mandarin, Mr Lim dished out practical advice on how to work with the Chinese.
Mr
Lim said: "Try not to impress the Chinese that you can be as Chinese,
or even more Chinese than them. There are 1.3 billion China Chinese, so
they don't need another one more. For example, I've seen some
Singaporeans going to China try to impress the Chinese when they're
using their language, their knowledge about China and so on. Yes, the
Chinese will be very impressed but what's next? The reason why they want
to engage us is not because they're impressed by our language or our
knowledge of them. But rather, what they're looking to us is to bring
something that they do not know.
"In other words, my own
philosophy is that when I'm in China, I try to let them see the
difference between us. I want them to know that I look at things
differently. I look at the way how technology is being used, the way
business is being run and so on differently. I look at the way we run
Singapore society, community which is different from China. But yet at
the same time, I must be able to speak enough of their language so that I
can explain to them in what way we're different, why we're different
and more importantly, why we can learn from each other and leverage on
each other. In other words, being bilingual, in my view, is very
important.
"If I am monolingual and expert only in Mandarin, I
think I would be limited use to the Chinese because as I said, there are
1.3 billion of them. They do not need one more."
Students asked a
variety of questions, from China's impending leadership renewal, its
rise in economic power, and what Singapore can offer as a small country.
One student asked if China and the West can establish a bridge itself, what advantage does Singapore has.
Mr Lim said the role of bilingual and bicultural Singaporeans goes beyond being a bridge.
He
said: "We're not trying to position ourselves as an effective
interpreter. This is not our role. Our role is to be part of the process
of creating something together. Language understanding in my view is
just a basic necessity.
"The reason why the West is running fast
to learn Mandarin is because they feel that without the language as a
tool, they're at a big disadvantageous position. So they're trying to
minimise their disadvantages. The East are learning fast to learn
English because there're many things that they want to reach out to the
West. They're not able to do so because language is a barrier. That's
why they're learning the languages."
But Mr Lim added that it will take more than just language or culture for both societies to come together.
During
the forum, Mr Lim said explained that Singapore takes an eclectic
approach to ensure it remains successful in the global community.
He
said: "We learn from the best from the West and the East and we put them
together in what we call the eclectic approach. It means you pick the
best features of the world, put them together and adapt to it.
"We
must always make sure that Singapore will be successful. One reason
today why Singaporeans have this high standing in the global community
is because of our success in Singapore. Therefore, let us on one hand
ensure that Singapore will always be successful and at the same time,
making sure that we keep learning the best from the West and the East
and make it something uniquely Singapore. That 'uniquely Singapore' is
really our biggest strength.
"Fifty years from now, it doesn't
matter whether the West can speak better Mandarin, or the East can speak
better English. We'll always have a role to play, in terms of helping
to provide a bridge or more than a bridge."
This is the largest forum since Business China launched the China-Quotient Student forum in 2010.
Business China said this is a reflection of the growing interest in China among youths.
-- CNA
Swee Say urges students to take greater interest in Chinese
Then restore chinese education and change the dominant language in Singapore from english to mandarin.
Will the peranakans like Harry Lee Kuan Yew accept?
If no, then don't come and talk cock.
Originally posted by QX179R:
During the forum, Mr Lim said explained that Singapore takes an eclectic approach to ensure it remains successful in the global community.
He said: "We learn from the best from the West and the East and we put them together in what we call the eclectic approach. It means you pick the best features of the world, put them together and adapt to it.
"We must always make sure that Singapore will be successful. One reason today why Singaporeans have this high standing in the global community is because of our success in Singapore. Therefore, let us on one hand ensure that Singapore will always be successful and at the same time, making sure that we keep learning the best from the West and the East and make it something uniquely Singapore. That 'uniquely Singapore' is really our biggest strength.
No lah. It's because Singapore is controlled by peranakans. Please don't talk nonsense.
But yet at the same time, I must be able to speak enough of their language so that I can explain to them in what way we're different, why we're different and more importantly, why we can learn from each other and leverage on each other.
In other words, being bilingual, in my view, is very important.
Rubbish propaganda such as this, you go and talk to those depoliticised, non political people still can.
Go and talk to those political people, it will be completely worthless.
THE BABAS OF SINGAPORE
What makes Singapore different? The majority of Singapore's population is ethnically Chinese, but Singapore is largely free of corruption, has sound institutions and the rule of law dominates. It's nothing like China.
The answer lies in a historical division in Singapore's Chinese community between the babas and the sinkeh.
The sinkeh, comprising the majority of the city-state's population, were the recent immigrants from China, or whose parents were born in China. They spoke Chinese, lived like Chinese and considered themselves overseas Chinese. In Indonesia, such Chinese were called the totok.
The babas, on the other hand, also known as Straits Chinese, were Chinese more in name than practice. They were the descendants of the very early Chinese immigrants (Hokkiens from the Fujian province) to the straits settlements of Malaya (Penang, Singapore and Malacca). They assimilated with both the local Malays and the colonising British, whom they especially admired. The babas developed their own culture, cuisine and language - Malay liberally sprinkled with Hokkien.
The sinkeh were the traders, the coolies and the shophouse owners. The babas became the lawyers, the civil servants and the politicians; they attended the local English-language schools run in the tradition of the UK's public schools, and Oxford and Cambridge.
If the sinkeh received an overseas education at all, it was in Nanking or another university in China.
Although the sinkeh dominated Singapore's population, it was the babas who dominated public decision-making.
In effect, a baba minority captured sinkeh Singapore, and that minority's attitudes were more those of Victorian England than China.
It was the babas who were the framers of Singapore's rules and institutions.
Many of Singapore's most prominent Chinese have had baba backgrounds. Lee Kuan Yew, who became prime minister of Singapore aged just 35, is the most obvious example.
He claims a Hakka heritage, although his upbringing was that of a baba: at home, he spoke English with his parents and baba Malay to his grandparents. "Mandarin was totally alien to me and unconnected with my life," Lee said of his childhood.
For Lee, Chineseness was an acquired skill and later a political necessity.
He was not brought up as a Chinese with a focus on China, but as a baba who looked to England.
He followed the conventional career path of a baba and went to London to study law. And so Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore became Harry Lee of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. His father had given him and two of his brothers English, as well as Chinese, names.
Did Lee run Singapore as a piece of Asia mired in Chinese ways? No. He ran it in a manner to which a British colonial administrator would have aspired.
That other great framer of Singapore's institutions, Goh Keng Swee, who rose to become finance minister and deputy prime minister, is the epitome of the baba elite. Goh was born in 1918 in Malacca, the epicentre of baba culture, into a baba family. His parents were English-oriented Chinese Methodists.
The baba influence is now more subtle, but still there. Singapore's current prime minister Lee Hsien Loong has the strongest baba pedigree of any of the country's leaders.
http://www.managementtoday.co.uk/news/648273/
http://www.asiawind.com/pub/forum/fhakka/mhonarc/msg01319.html
http://tomorrow.sg/archives/2009/02/17/peranakans__going_the_way_of_the.html
SINGAPORE: Having a good command of Chinese is increasingly important in an environment where the use of Chinese becomes more pervasive.
Speaking to students at a forum, Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, Lim Swee Say urged them to take a greater interest in Chinese.
The future of the world may not necessarily be China-centric, but Mr Lim said China will be a part of the future, adding that China's growing influence should not be ignored.
Fielding questions in English and Mandarin, Mr Lim dished out practical advice on how to work with the Chinese.
Mr Lim said: "Try not to impress the Chinese that you can be as Chinese, or even more Chinese than them. There are 1.3 billion China Chinese, so they don't need another one more. For example, I've seen some Singaporeans going to China try to impress the Chinese when they're using their language, their knowledge about China and so on. Yes, the Chinese will be very impressed but what's next? The reason why they want to engage us is not because they're impressed by our language or our knowledge of them. But rather, what they're looking to us is to bring something that they do not know.
"In other words, my own philosophy is that when I'm in China, I try to let them see the difference between us. I want them to know that I look at things differently. I look at the way how technology is being used, the way business is being run and so on differently. I look at the way we run Singapore society, community which is different from China. But yet at the same time, I must be able to speak enough of their language so that I can explain to them in what way we're different, why we're different and more importantly, why we can learn from each other and leverage on each other. In other words, being bilingual, in my view, is very important.
"If I am monolingual and expert only in Mandarin, I think I would be limited use to the Chinese because as I said, there are 1.3 billion of them. They do not need one more."
Students asked a variety of questions, from China's impending leadership renewal, its rise in economic power, and what Singapore can offer as a small country.
One student asked if China and the West can establish a bridge itself, what advantage does Singapore has.
Mr Lim said the role of bilingual and bicultural Singaporeans goes beyond being a bridge.
He said: "We're not trying to position ourselves as an effective interpreter. This is not our role. Our role is to be part of the process of creating something together. Language understanding in my view is just a basic necessity.
"The reason why the West is running fast to learn Mandarin is because they feel that without the language as a tool, they're at a big disadvantageous position. So they're trying to minimise their disadvantages. The East are learning fast to learn English because there're many things that they want to reach out to the West. They're not able to do so because language is a barrier. That's why they're learning the languages."
But Mr Lim added that it will take more than just language or culture for both societies to come together.
During the forum, Mr Lim said explained that Singapore takes an eclectic approach to ensure it remains successful in the global community.
He said: "We learn from the best from the West and the East and we put them together in what we call the eclectic approach. It means you pick the best features of the world, put them together and adapt to it.
"We must always make sure that Singapore will be successful. One reason today why Singaporeans have this high standing in the global community is because of our success in Singapore. Therefore, let us on one hand ensure that Singapore will always be successful and at the same time, making sure that we keep learning the best from the West and the East and make it something uniquely Singapore. That 'uniquely Singapore' is really our biggest strength.
"Fifty years from now, it doesn't matter whether the West can speak better Mandarin, or the East can speak better English. We'll always have a role to play, in terms of helping to provide a bridge or more than a bridge."
This is the largest forum since Business China launched the China-Quotient Student forum in 2010.
Business China said this is a reflection of the growing interest in China among youths.
Shameless Lee Kuan Yew's propaganda from top to bottom. See also feel like vomiting.
Aiyo, all anglophile western propaganda garbage, how to win my vote like that? Go fuck off better lah.
One hand tell people to take interest in chinese, the other hand tell people we are east west rojak.
No wonder the end result is all garbage.
If the head is rotten, the body will also be affected.
Let a cultural freak like Harry Lee Kuan Yew to run dialect chinese policies, the end result will be rubbish. It is inevitable.
Banana is banana.
Shit is shit. Cannot escape one.
ayia, my chinese very lousy, my teacher even lousier.
gimme good teachers 1st!!
Lim Swee Say kena sai or worse than sai. pui !
i find it very hard to juggle two languages.
damm
Originally posted by Dalforce 1941:
Then restore chinese education and change the dominant language in Singapore from english to mandarin.
Will the peranakans like Harry Lee Kuan Yew accept?
If no, then don't come and talk cock.
come on lah....what does it have to do with peranakans?You damn freaking off topic ehh...
And really,Chinese is important because China is growing fast as in economy so if one day your kids will be working there,they will need to speak chinese so he makes a good point and whatever you think of what propaganda is all rubbish you think you are in the japs occupation?tsktsk...
Originally posted by Summer hill:ayia, my chinese very lousy, my teacher even lousier.
gimme good teachers 1st!!
Ask your school principal to get china teacher bah.....
Originally posted by Summer hill:ayia, my chinese very lousy, my teacher even lousier.
gimme good teachers 1st!!
Ask your school principal to get china teacher bah.....
Originally posted by SBS9252G:Ask your school principal to get china teacher bah.....
my teacher too china and outdated. not forgeting he's boring, lax, outdated.
never see him scold people or lose his cool.
Originally posted by Summer hill:my teacher too china and outdated. not forgeting he's boring, lax, outdated.
never see him scold people or lose his cool.
that means your principal is blind to choose outdated china teacher.
Originally posted by SBS9252G:come on lah....what does it have to do with peranakans?You damn freaking off topic ehh...
In effect, a baba minority captured sinkeh Singapore, and that minority's attitudes were more those of Victorian England than China.
It was the babas who were the framers of Singapore's rules and institutions.
Many of Singapore's most prominent Chinese have had baba backgrounds. Lee Kuan Yew, who became prime minister of Singapore aged just 35, is the most obvious example.
He claims a Hakka heritage, although his upbringing was that of a baba: at home, he spoke English with his parents and baba Malay to his grandparents. "Mandarin was totally alien to me and unconnected with my life," Lee said of his childhood.
For Lee, Chineseness was an acquired skill and later a political necessity.
He was not brought up as a Chinese with a focus on China, but as a baba who looked to England.
He followed the conventional career path of a baba and went to London to study law. And so Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore became Harry Lee of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. His father had given him and two of his brothers English, as well as Chinese, names.
Did Lee run Singapore as a piece of Asia mired in Chinese ways? No. He ran it in a manner to which a British colonial administrator would have aspired.
Endangered species?
For goodness sake, Lee Kuan Yew practically filled the entire cabinet with inbred Peranakans.
For the last few decades in Singapore, the top positions in civil service, statutory boards, armed forces, GLCs have all along been going disproportionately to the Peranakans. That is one reason why Singapore has been run to the ground.
Lee Kuan Yew worked with the Japanese Kempeitai and later the British colonizers to suppress the non-Peranakan Chinese.
That's why he has always been wary of non-Peranakan Chinese and could only entrust power to his own family members and his other Peranakan cronies.
http://tomorrow.sg/archives/2009/02/17/peranakans__going_the_way_of_the.html
And really,Chinese is important because China is growing fast as in economy so if one day your kids will be working there,they will need to speak chinese so he makes a good point and whatever you think of what propaganda is all rubbish you think you are in the japs occupation?tsktsk...
Then why never restore chinese schools? Go english school 90% use english, 10% mandarin, english is dominant in military, in workplace, in civil service, in public areas, how on earth to be fluent in mandarin?
what does it have to do with peranakans?
I think it is time to become politicised.
Originally posted by SBS9252G:that means your principal is blind to choose outdated china teacher.
MOE is the one who recruited them la.
Ever come across China Chinese teacher taught wrong thing. There after I realise not every teacher from China is reliable.
"In other words, my own philosophy is that when I'm look into my CPF account, i feel rich"
so funny, someone hates English and the English language so much that he is propagating to get rid of usage of English in Singapore.
Sibeh siao, not down to earth! Then I don't know why he still types and posts in English. He should be in china forums not here. In SGF we use English most of the time.
Originally posted by winsomeea:so funny, someone hates English and the English language so much that he is propagating to get rid of usage of English in Singapore.
At most english can be a secondary language in Singapore. Peranakans and eurasians still use it as their mother tongue, so even though I do want to exterminate english from Singapore, in practice, it will be unfair to these english speakers. I am not like Harry Lee Kuan Yew who doesn't care whether your mother tongue is exterminated or not as long as it serves his interests.
Even China has this college english test:
So until the anglo saxon dominated world's hegemonic system is destroyed and go into decline, there will still be a use for english.
My hope is that the final annihilation of the western dominated system will take place by 2050.
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/321499/20120329/brics-world-bank-china-russia-india.htm
making sure that we keep learning the best from the West and the East and make it something uniquely Singapore. That 'uniquely Singapore' is really our biggest strength.
Sorry. I am hokkien. I am not a cultureless freak like Harry Lee Kuan Yew. East-West concept is nothing but a bastard concept to me.
Neither east nor west. Just shit.
Like Lee Kuan Yew. I don't want to be shit like him.
He go China, people say he is banana, half ang moh. He go ang moh, people say he is chinese.
Actually he is just shit. Go and follow this shit for fuck?
The correct order is for cultured people teach people with no culture. Not people with no culture teach people with culture. That is the wrong order. That is wrong.
That is against the will of heaven, against the natural order of things.
“Lee is like a banana –yellow of skin, white underneath.”
-Zhou Enlai, Premier of the People’s Republic of China, at the Bandung Conference (1955)
Really cranky! haiz!!!!
Originally posted by winsomeea:Really cranky! haiz!!!!
Have to be politicised a bit more in order to understand.
If I go and discuss this issue with Fang Chuang Pi, he will completely understand.
I no need to talk, he also will know. He one look will know already.
The same goes for Lee Kuan Yew. He one look will know that I am against him.
SINGAPORE is a "freak", because it is lacking in terms of geopolitics, economics, size, population and culture, said former communist leader Fang Chuang Pi, dubbed the "Plen" by Mr Lee Kuan Yew...
Nothing to do with politics. I am talking about practicality.
Eccentric, cranky!!! Haizzz!
Originally posted by winsomeea:I am talking about practicality.
I am also talking about practicality. Singapore is not ang moh country.
You use english as dominant only a small group fluent in it will benefit, the majority( ang moh bo ho) will be alienated.
That is not practical to me.
Some people want to be limo driver but ang moh bo ho also kena rejected. I consider that to be wrong. I don't consider that to be correct.
You are very not down to earth.
English is an international language. Mandarin is getting popular in the world for China is now becoming stronger economy.
Originally posted by winsomeea:
English is an international language.
It can be secondary language. What about those ang moh bo ho?
Originally posted by winsomeea:
English is an international language.
But Singapore is not ang moh. You force it to be ang moh, it will be a freak. It can be secondary language. What about those ang moh bo ho?
Nothing wrong with stressing the importance of language to younglings. The real world advantage it brings is as practical as it can get. :)
Originally posted by soleachip:The real world advantage it brings is as practical as it can get. :)
If ang moh dominant, it will bring disadvantage, not advantage to those ang moh bo ho.
My kek piah drive limo. He said, sau beh jia lor is not limo job. Limo job is to sau hotel,sau tour agency, sau airport.
All wear long steve white shirt and black trousir and shiny shoes.
One month 3k to 5k.
Limpeh want to drive limo, they said limpeh eng boon bo ho so bey sai.
http://sgforums.com/forums/3426/topics/448366
Lee did not agree with your decision to pick Goh.
No, he did not disagree. He said he would leave it to us. His own first choice was Tony Tan. Goh Chok Tong was his second choice. I was his third choice because he said my English was not good enough.
http://www.singapore-window.org/sw00/000310a4.htm
But the problem doesn't lie with ang moh ho or bo ho. The real problem lies in why Singapore is not ang moh country but you need ang moh ho in order to "progress".
The answer lies in a historical division in Singapore's Chinese community between the babas and the sinkeh.
The sinkeh, comprising the majority of the city-state's population, were the recent immigrants from China, or whose parents were born in China. They spoke Chinese, lived like Chinese and considered themselves overseas Chinese. In Indonesia, such Chinese were called the totok.
The babas, on the other hand, also known as Straits Chinese, were Chinese more in name than practice. They were the descendants of the very early Chinese immigrants (Hokkiens from the Fujian province) to the straits settlements of Malaya (Penang, Singapore and Malacca). They assimilated with both the local Malays and the colonising British, whom they especially admired. The babas developed their own culture, cuisine and language - Malay liberally sprinkled with Hokkien.
The sinkeh were the traders, the coolies and the shophouse owners. The babas became the lawyers, the civil servants and the politicians; they attended the local English-language schools run in the tradition of the UK's public schools, and Oxford and Cambridge.
If the sinkeh received an overseas education at all, it was in Nanking or another university in China.
Although the sinkeh dominated Singapore's population, it was the babas who dominated public decision-making.
In effect, a baba minority captured sinkeh Singapore, and that minority's attitudes were more those of Victorian England than China.
It was the babas who were the framers of Singapore's rules and institutions.
Many of Singapore's most prominent Chinese have had baba backgrounds. Lee Kuan Yew, who became prime minister of Singapore aged just 35, is the most obvious example.
He claims a Hakka heritage, although his upbringing was that of a baba: at home, he spoke English with his parents and baba Malay to his grandparents. "Mandarin was totally alien to me and unconnected with my life," Lee said of his childhood.
For Lee, Chineseness was an acquired skill and later a political necessity.
He was not brought up as a Chinese with a focus on China, but as a baba who looked to England.
He followed the conventional career path of a baba and went to London to study law. And so Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore became Harry Lee of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. His father had given him and two of his brothers English, as well as Chinese, names.
Did Lee run Singapore as a piece of Asia mired in Chinese ways? No. He ran it in a manner to which a British colonial administrator would have aspired.
And the truth is finally revealed, no matter how ugly it is.
It is a question of class, ethnic and power conflict.
It is not a question of whether this language is beneficial or not beneficial at all. That is a lie.
That English is a `neutral' language is, of course, an ideological illusion. Since
Singapore was a British colony for 150 years, English was already a common language
among the privileged local population who worked for the colonial administration
and whose children had access to the limited opportunities of learning the language.
This included the first generation of political leaders who, as English speakers, had
access to British university education immediately after the second world war. The
ideological promotion of English as a `neutral' language to all ethnic Asian children
has suppressed this class dimension. The political utility of this illusory `neutrality' is
that it enables the state to articulate, in English, its own interests distinctly, apart from
the interests of all racial groups. It also effects a separation of state/national interests
from those of the racial majority, and prevents state/national interests from being
captured by the racial majority. The position of monolingual Chinese speakers
illustrates this.
http://lukdomen.narod.ru/questia-geopol.pdf
During the 1970s and 1980s, economic development and industrial growth reduced poverty and income inequity and accelerated upward social mobility.
Those with educational qualifications, command of English, and high-level technical or professional skills profited the most from the process.
The upper levels of the society were occupied by a tripartite elite of high-level civil servants, local managers and professionals employed by foreign-owned multinational corporations, and wealthy Chinese businessmen who served as leaders in the associational world of the Chinese-speaking communities.
The first two categories were marked by fluency in English, university-level education, often in Britain or the United States, and a cosmopolitan outlook reinforced by foreign residence and travel...
http://countrystudies.us/singapore/22.htm
It means what?
It means to reduce english to a secondary language and to use mandarin as dominant would touch the economic and political interests of a small ruling elite headed by the peranakan Harry Lee Kuan Yew.
That is why they say take more interest in mandarin but there won't be chinese schools.
Because ultimately, at the core, the question is a political one. Not economic, not educational question.
It is completely political.