Sunday, October 9, 2011

Sad: Father of Singapore, who ordered citizens to learn English as first language, now urges them to re-learn Mandarin in order to take part in world economy


If America is to have a hope of competing with China in the future, we need a pro-business government. Instead, we have the most anti-business government in American history, class warfare and an Occupy Wall Street movement of business hating radicals.
(Yahoo News)- At a dialogue on Friday with 4,000 ethnic Chinese entrepreneurs, Lee said, "I think it's a mistake. They will learn English in school anyway and they should keep up their Mandarin at home so that the child will naturally speak Mandarin and find it easy in school."

At home, Lee prefers to speak to his grandchildren in Mandarin as it ensures that they are conversant in the language which is becoming increasingly important.

He is concerned that some 30 years after English was officially made the first language, many are losing touch with speaking Mandarin.

Lee said that Chinese Singaporeans who gave up Chinese were losing "something very valuable", and would also not be able to take advantage of a rising China and its attractive market of 1.3 billion people.