Singapore Government Press Release

Media Relations Division, Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts,

MITA Building, 140 Hill Street, 2nd Storey, Singapore 179369

Tel: 6837-9666

 

 

 

 

SPEECH BY MINISTER MENTOR LEE KUAN YEW AT THE LAUNCHING OF THE BOOK �KEEPING MY MANDARIN ALIVE � LEE KUAN YEW�S LANGUAGE LEARNING EXPERIENCE� AT SUNTEC CITY, 2 JUN 2005

 

 

Many Chinese students from English-speaking homes have found Mandarin difficult to master.  I hope this book will encourage them to persevere and learn the language in school, so that they can build on that foundation later in life, especially when they need to use it.  If they lose their facility in Mandarin, they will regret it.  There are great business opportunities with China�s rapid economic transformation.  Chinese tourists and Chinese businesses are coming to Singapore in ever larger numbers.  Singaporeans need to do business with them. 

Recently I spoke to Mr Tony Ong, a Singaporean businessman in his late 30s.  He learnt CL2, and had graduated from an Australian University.  He worked for EDB, then formed a machine tools company.  He sold the company for many million dollars.  Then through this venture capital company, Cogent Financial Group (HK) Ltd, he funded another company that is successful in China.  He told me he was grateful for the CL2 programme in school.  It gave him the foundation to communicate and do business with the Chinese. He recounted that once he went for breakfast in a Chinese restaurant and asked for �zha dan� (炸蛋) (fried egg).  It caused much confusion because �zha dan� sounded like a grenade in Chinese. The waiter politely told him that he should say �jian dan� (煎蛋). The Chinese had a good laugh at his discomfort and embarrassment.  He said that due to his lack of Chinese vocabulary, he had to struggle to interpret what the mainland Chinese were trying to tell him.

Asked what he would do for his children�s education, he replied he would have his children do the bilingual and bicultural programme, but also send them for a stint in a school in China, to learn to speak like one of them in Shanghai or Beijing. 

He speaks Hokkien to his father. He speaks Mandarin and some Cantonese to his mother, who is Cantonese. He speaks English to his wife and his siblings.  He hopes his children will speak to him in Mandarin. He would want his children to speak better Mandarin than him.

English-speaking parents should take note of his views gained from hard experience.  Learn Mandarin when you are young and it will be with you for life.  Leave it too late in life like me, and I have to make continuing efforts to keep my Mandarin alive.

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