http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking+News/Singapore/Story/STIStory_525192.html
I was opposed to any proposal of reducing weightage of MT ...
I came to Singapore at the age of 9 and had to learn Mandarin AND English from scratch.
I had no tuition, just endless rounds of practice and practice.
There were also Mandarin (dubbed & subtitled) dramas & films on TV from HK, Taiwan and Japan. For a time, I was also following the TV weekly magazine to read up on the synopsis of series.
Of course, there were also 西游记 and 三国演义 - beginning with the comics versions of course, not to mention 金庸 ...
Like many others I think, I also heard my share of boogeyman stories about ethnic Chinese being disgraced and looked down by fellow Chinese and by other races for not knowing Chinese.
For a year in secondary school, I had a very encouraging Mandarin teacher (蔡老师，谢谢您!)who motivated us to speak and to write beyond the syllabus. Twice, one of my class essay was included in the school Chinese essay publication, a proud feat if I may say so myself, given that the other essays selected were by champions in Mandarin or students from HK.
I continued to read Chinese books here and there, and then came CHF.
Last week, I received an email from GZ, sent to CHF'ers, urging us to join the petition against any reduction and write to the PM.
I must say while the decision announced today coincided with my desire, I do not feel any sense of victory that some have expressed online.
It's a bit of a déjà vu of the AWARE and CSE saga of 2009.
Battles were fought with strong sentiments from parties at extreme opposition to each other.
And in the middle, people like me who see valid concerns from all sides feel hollow even if the outcome was one that we preferred, because we saw that there was no mutual understanding and progress towards resolving real underlying issues.
Unlike some who are against the proposed weightage change, I do not feel so strongly that Chinese identity must be protected or is under siege as such. I do not think the purpose of Chinese as 2nd Lang or even 1st Lang is to perpetuate the Chinese identity.
Nor do I think that it must be maintained just because subsequent generations will become hopeless in Chinese or lose their roots otherwise.
Not only do I think striving for such goals are futile, I do not think they are the right goals in the first place. Such sentiments parallel the movements in France and Quebec Canada to protect the French identity and culture, but I disagree that identity and culture have to be protected in that sense and in such a way.
Ironically, it was through CHF that I broadened my perspective on what it means to be Chinese, and it goes beyond knowing the Mandarin.
While I do not think a person of Chinese descent who can't speak any Chinese language should be classified as a Chinese, I also don't think anyone should have their ethnic designation imposed upon them by the government.
As an ethnic identity, Chinese is first of all very broad, and historically, did not have a common language, only a largely-common written script. Even then, many terms in various dialects cannot be written without customisation of the written script that would not be recognizable outside that dialect group.
Just as the concepts of Hua people, Han people, Tang people etc., evolved through history, so would the concept of Chinese.
One's ethnic identity is as much what one makes of it as it is defined/shaped by one's predecessors, but it should never be what is dictated by outsiders.
Constant review and modification to how Mandarin is taught in schools to pupils with different background, aptitude and grasp of the language is the right step - but while the theory is sound, I believe the implementation will be a lot harder to get right.
As of now, the teacher-pupil ratio makes it all but outright impossible for the teacher to cater to the vast spectrum of needs of the students.
Equipping the teacher is the other major challenge.
Ideally, I'd like Singaporeans to learn at least 3 languages in school, but being a husband of a teacher, I am all too aware of resource constraints in schools.
I feel languages that remain relevant will continue to thrive because it has something to offer, despite what detractors might say.
These detractors are like the detractors against religion, who had been insisting since the French Revolution that religion is irrelevant and will die out, unable to see beyond their own parochialistic view of the world.
What has happened in history clearly shows that abolishing institutionalised religion which was used as a tool for the elite will only facilitate the emergence of the original essence of the religion.
It is quite natural that when something seems successful, it will attract those with ulterior motives to try to make use of it. Thus we observe corruption setting in in churches and other religious institutions around the world throughout history.
Putting aside the digression about religion, I feel that many sought to impose or demand certain rigidity about ethnic identity that is actually an anathema to what I think ethnic identity should be about.
