The true nature of Singapore's bilingualism.

To truly see what a country is, you have to ask outsiders how they see it. Those who have been brought up in a country cannot truly see what it is they live in. So, how do overseas people see Singapore's self-professed bilingualism?

Well, not perhaps in the way you might expect. Today, I had a conversation with an expat teacher about this. He was telling me how his student, a native of Mainland China, had complained to him about the language use of Singaporeans. This student was very puzzled. He said: "Before I came to Singapore, I thought my English was good - but when I tried to speak to Singaporeans in English, I couldn't understand their replies. Then I thought I should speak to them in Chinese, so I did so. But then, I couldn't understand their replies in "Chinese", either."

I was not surprised to hear this. Yet, it does speak of the true nature of the linguistic situation in Singapore. The Singaporean system has failed to produce citizens able to converse, to an international standard, in ANY language. A Chinese boy who had learnt Standard English in China, was unable to understand Singlish, at all. He had also, obviously, acquired Standard Mandarin - but couldn't understand Singaporean efforts at that, either. In fact, he described the Singaporean Chinese as "really bad".

To me, it seems strange that Singapore tells itself that it is a bilingual nation - and has an education system that ostensibly instils bilingualism - when people from overseas don't even see it as being capable in any language, at all. There is something wrong, therefore. Would it not be better to aim to be competent in ONE language, than incompetent in TWO? I think competent monolingualism is far superior to incompetent bilingualism. If, for instance, Singaporeans were masters of English, or masters of Chinese, they would, at least, be on a par with the British/Americans/Canadians etc. or the Mainland Chinese, on their own territory. As it is, the language that most - and I say most, because there will be exceptions - Singaporeans speak is unrecognizable by native speakers of the languages that Singaporeans are told that they are able to speak.

A clear policy on language learning is necessary. One policy that would improve matters greatly would be if ONLY NATIVE TEACHERS of languages were allowed to teach in Singaporean schools. This means that ONLY British (or other native speaker) teachers should be allowed to teach English - and ONLY Mainland Chinese teachers should be allowed to teach Chinese - and only Indian natives should be allowed to teach Tamil - and so on. In this manner, the students would be assured of the opportunity to learn a language to a high standard instead of being cheated of the opportunity, by teachers who are essentially ignorant of what correct language usage is.

I don't imagine that this policy will ever be enacted (perhaps because Singapore is already "No. 1" in everything and does not need to improve etc. etc...), but I can at least suggest that it is done, to the betterment of the future of Singapore.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.)