# Singapore's Bilingualism Failing? **URL:** \ **Category:** Open Forum\ **Created:** [December 5, 2024, 5:08am UTC](https://tw.forumosa.com/t/singapores-bilingualism-failing/246895 "2024-12-05T05:08:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![hansioux](https://forumosa-12829.kxcdn.com/user_avatar/tw.forumosa.com/hansioux/32/253648_2.png) [@hansioux](https://tw.forumosa.com/u/hansioux)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2024, 5:08am UTC](https://tw.forumosa.com/t/singapores-bilingualism-failing/246895/1 "2024-12-05T05:08:05Z")
I recently read about how bilingualism is failing in Singapore. The majority (around 60%) of young people can only speak English because their parents, most of whom are bilingual, only speak English at home. The monolingualization is worse for kids from otherwise would be Indian or Malay speaking families. Part of the problem is of course English being given a prestige status in education, business, and government, but a major part of the problem is that the second language the Singaporean government wants people to speak is Mandarin, which is not the language that Chinese Singaporeans used to speak. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/Fqky6AL0OPo/maxresdefault.jpg "1979年李光耀最後一次用閩南語發表講話，談新加坡的語言和種族政策") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fqky6AL0OPo) Here is a video of Lee Kuan Yew asking people, in Hokkien, to stop using Hokkien or Hakka in 1979. His logic is that people in Mauritius converse in Creole, and taught French and English at school, and in the end they speak all 3 terribly. However, is that really a bad thing? The problem with Mauritius is that geographically it isn’t particularly well positioned for international trade, not that they had too many languages. Singapore was already doing relatively well in the 1980s, and most of them don’t speak RP or Mandarin particularly well, and it didn’t hurt them then. Is Singapore headed for a monolingual society like Taiwan, and Taiwan’s so called bilingual roadmap sounds painfully similar to Singapore’s, how will it ever succeed when the “bilingual society” they are modelling after seems to be ephemeral. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Milker](https://forumosa-12829.kxcdn.com/user_avatar/tw.forumosa.com/dr_milker/32/181996_2.png) [@Dr\_Milker](https://tw.forumosa.com/u/Dr_Milker)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2024, 5:11am UTC](https://tw.forumosa.com/t/singapores-bilingualism-failing/246895/2 "2024-12-05T05:11:24Z")
I don’t know…seems like a lot of Singaporean Chinese speak pretty decent Mandarin. ---
**Author:** ![hansioux](https://forumosa-12829.kxcdn.com/user_avatar/tw.forumosa.com/hansioux/32/253648_2.png) [@hansioux](https://tw.forumosa.com/u/hansioux)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2024, 5:13am UTC](https://tw.forumosa.com/t/singapores-bilingualism-failing/246895/3 "2024-12-05T05:13:41Z")
> [@Dr\_Milker](#): > > a lot of Singaporean Chinese speak pretty decent Mandarin. I wonder what’s percentage of young Chinese Singaproean can speak Mandarin conversationally, and how does it compare to young Chinese Malaysians. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Milker](https://forumosa-12829.kxcdn.com/user_avatar/tw.forumosa.com/dr_milker/32/181996_2.png) [@Dr\_Milker](https://tw.forumosa.com/u/Dr_Milker)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2024, 5:18am UTC](https://tw.forumosa.com/t/singapores-bilingualism-failing/246895/4 "2024-12-05T05:18:08Z")
Yeah, those would be interesting stats to look at. I almost always speak to Singaporean Chinese (and Malaysian Chinese) in Mandarin because listening to Singlish is just so damn grating. 😅 ---
**Author:** ![hansioux](https://forumosa-12829.kxcdn.com/user_avatar/tw.forumosa.com/hansioux/32/253648_2.png) [@hansioux](https://tw.forumosa.com/u/hansioux)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2024, 5:21am UTC](https://tw.forumosa.com/t/singapores-bilingualism-failing/246895/5 "2024-12-05T05:21:31Z")
> [@Dr\_Milker](#): > > because listening to Singlish is just so damn grating That’s the other thing. Plenty of Chinese Singaporeans (and Chinese Malaysians) speak flawless English, but are most of them just kids from well to do families that could provide the additional language exposure required to get them to that level? If bilingualism is really working like how Lee Huan Yew was promising in that video, everyone in Singapore should be speaking “standard English” and “standard Mandarin”, whatever those mean. Or maybe that’s a thing of the past, and most people in their 20s these days speak excellent English but can only speak broken Mandarin and their Hokkien would be non-existent? ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Milker](https://forumosa-12829.kxcdn.com/user_avatar/tw.forumosa.com/dr_milker/32/181996_2.png) [@Dr\_Milker](https://tw.forumosa.com/u/Dr_Milker)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2024, 5:25am UTC](https://tw.forumosa.com/t/singapores-bilingualism-failing/246895/6 "2024-12-05T05:25:20Z")
> [@hansioux](#): > > Plenty of Chinese Singaporeans (and Chinese Malaysians) speak flawless English, but are most of them just kids from well to do families that could provide the additional language exposure required to get them to that level? Well, I don’t know if I’d call it flawless, especially when it comes to accent, but the wealthy and highly educated do of course speak much better English. > [@hansioux](#): > > Or maybe that’s a thing of the past, and most people in their 20s these days speak excellent English but can only speak broken Mandarin I’m more exposed to middle-aged Singaporeans, but the younger Singaporean Chinese I have talked to were fine at conversational Mandarin…it was by no means broken. ---
**Author:** ![TT](https://forumosa-12829.kxcdn.com/user_avatar/tw.forumosa.com/tt/32/271883_2.png) [@TT](https://tw.forumosa.com/u/TT)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2024, 5:26am UTC](https://tw.forumosa.com/t/singapores-bilingualism-failing/246895/7 "2024-12-05T05:26:29Z")
> [@hansioux](#): > > recently read about how bilingualism is failing in Singapore. The majority (around 60%) of young people can only speak English because their parents, most of whom are bilingual, only speak English at home. The monolingualization is worse for kids from otherwise would be Indian or Malay speaking families Is there anywhere that has a bilingualism policy which expects and achieves 100% bilingual fluency? Certainly Canada’s bilingualism isn’t 100%. But, everyone has the choice. The education system more or less gives everyone the opportunity (imperfectly) to become bilingual. Plenty of people I went to school with did immersion in grade school (certain subjects taught in French), and kept taking French electives in high school (mandatory classes finished in Grade 9). They graduated with good enough French to get federal jobs without needing more training. Some of them use it Every product had bilingual information, every federal government service is available bilingually (rural Yukon won’t have bilingual staff for every provincial service, but should have printed stuff and websites in both languages). I see Taiwanese bilingualism failing largely because the government doesn’t seem to feel it applies to them, when it should apply to them first and foremost. What is the actual policy in Singapore? ---
**Author:** ![hansioux](https://forumosa-12829.kxcdn.com/user_avatar/tw.forumosa.com/hansioux/32/253648_2.png) [@hansioux](https://tw.forumosa.com/u/hansioux)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2024, 5:55am UTC](https://tw.forumosa.com/t/singapores-bilingualism-failing/246895/8 "2024-12-05T05:55:14Z")
[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/z8AqIgWrhqc/maxresdefault.jpg "Can Singaporean Chinese Speak Chinese? (Prank)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8AqIgWrhqc) Based on this video, most people are much more comfortable speaking English. The girl at [2:20](https://youtu.be/z8AqIgWrhqc?si=Lq2u-T7ElY2DpUSz&t=140), and the dude at [3:12](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8AqIgWrhqc) are probably the only ones thatＩwould say have decent Mandarin skills. The two girls that are pretty decent at [4:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8AqIgWrhqc) are Malaysian. The dude at 4:40 sounds like he’s straight up from China. The kid at 5:10 is frigging awesome if he is born and raised in Singapore. ---
**Author:** ![hansioux](https://forumosa-12829.kxcdn.com/user_avatar/tw.forumosa.com/hansioux/32/253648_2.png) [@hansioux](https://tw.forumosa.com/u/hansioux)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2024, 5:57am UTC](https://tw.forumosa.com/t/singapores-bilingualism-failing/246895/9 "2024-12-05T05:57:09Z")
> [@TT](#): > > Is there anywhere that has a bilingualism policy which expects and achieves 100% bilingual fluency? Good point, but maybe that has more to do with history than actual policy. ---
**Author:** ![Low-Speed-Rail](https://forumosa-12829.kxcdn.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/ba8739/32.png) [@Low-Speed-Rail](https://tw.forumosa.com/u/Low-Speed-Rail)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2024, 5:59am UTC](https://tw.forumosa.com/t/singapores-bilingualism-failing/246895/10 "2024-12-05T05:59:05Z")
It’s about time Singaporeans stopped speaking chinese dialects like Mandarin and started speaking the global prestige language of planet earth: English (aka standard indo-european) ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Milker](https://forumosa-12829.kxcdn.com/user_avatar/tw.forumosa.com/dr_milker/32/181996_2.png) [@Dr\_Milker](https://tw.forumosa.com/u/Dr_Milker)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2024, 6:00am UTC](https://tw.forumosa.com/t/singapores-bilingualism-failing/246895/11 "2024-12-05T06:00:37Z")
> [@hansioux](#): > > Based on this video, most people are much more comfortable speaking English. The interviewer’s Mandarin sucked too. 😅 ---
**Author:** ![qbert](https://forumosa-12829.kxcdn.com/user_avatar/tw.forumosa.com/qbert/32/236297_2.png) [@qbert](https://tw.forumosa.com/u/qbert)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2024, 6:04am UTC](https://tw.forumosa.com/t/singapores-bilingualism-failing/246895/12 "2024-12-05T06:04:43Z")
> [@hansioux](#): > > > [@TT](#): > > > > Is there anywhere that has a bilingualism policy which expects and achieves 100% bilingual fluency? > > Good point, but maybe that has more to do with history than actual policy. Quebec? I don’t know - genuine question. Lots of Americans are fluent in English and Spanish. ---
**Author:** ![hansioux](https://forumosa-12829.kxcdn.com/user_avatar/tw.forumosa.com/hansioux/32/253648_2.png) [@hansioux](https://tw.forumosa.com/u/hansioux)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2024, 6:07am UTC](https://tw.forumosa.com/t/singapores-bilingualism-failing/246895/13 "2024-12-05T06:07:44Z")
> [@Dr\_Milker](#): > > The interviewer’s Mandarin sucked too. The little kid at 5:10 took a while to process the question not because the question was in Mandarin, but because the interviewer’s Mandarin is terrible. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/oPfWpBg16xU/maxresdefault.jpg "新加坡人竟然都不會講華語了?? | Can Singaporeans Speak Chinese?") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPfWpBg16xU&t=200) This is a youtuber from Hong Kong who spoke all 3 languages (Cantonese, Mando, English) perfectly, like the most posh a Hong Konger can get. I time coded to an older man from a Cantonese family who went to a Chinese school growing up, and spoke the most amazing Taiwanese Late Immigrant accent I’ve ever heard a Singaporean do. He says he try to speak to his children in both English and Chinese. Most bilingual experts suggest one person be responsible for speaking just 1 language to the kids. The Malaysian student immediately after that guy considers the Chinese curriculum in Singapore too easy. ---
**Author:** ![hansioux](https://forumosa-12829.kxcdn.com/user_avatar/tw.forumosa.com/hansioux/32/253648_2.png) [@hansioux](https://tw.forumosa.com/u/hansioux)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2024, 6:08am UTC](https://tw.forumosa.com/t/singapores-bilingualism-failing/246895/14 "2024-12-05T06:08:41Z")
> [@qbert](#): > > Lots of Americans are fluent in English and Spanish. Not because of the policy though. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Milker](https://forumosa-12829.kxcdn.com/user_avatar/tw.forumosa.com/dr_milker/32/181996_2.png) [@Dr\_Milker](https://tw.forumosa.com/u/Dr_Milker)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2024, 6:09am UTC](https://tw.forumosa.com/t/singapores-bilingualism-failing/246895/15 "2024-12-05T06:09:31Z")
> [@hansioux](#): > > because the interviewer’s Mandarin is terrible Yeah, his accent is atrocious. ---
**Author:** ![OysterOmelet](https://forumosa-12829.kxcdn.com/user_avatar/tw.forumosa.com/oysteromelet/32/219695_2.png) [@OysterOmelet](https://tw.forumosa.com/u/OysterOmelet)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2024, 6:13am UTC](https://tw.forumosa.com/t/singapores-bilingualism-failing/246895/16 "2024-12-05T06:13:29Z")
I met a Singaporean tourist while I was in São Paulo. She only knows a little Mandarin. No Hokkien at all. But she’s been to Taiwan many times, so apparently enough to get by. ---
**Author:** ![hansioux](https://forumosa-12829.kxcdn.com/user_avatar/tw.forumosa.com/hansioux/32/253648_2.png) [@hansioux](https://tw.forumosa.com/u/hansioux)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2024, 6:15am UTC](https://tw.forumosa.com/t/singapores-bilingualism-failing/246895/17 "2024-12-05T06:15:30Z")
> [@TT](#): > > Is there anywhere that has a bilingualism policy which expects and achieves 100% bilingual fluency? How about the Philippines? Maybe not 100%, but I would guess pretty darn near 80%. ---
**Author:** ![tango42](https://forumosa-12829.kxcdn.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/82dd89/32.png) [@tango42](https://tw.forumosa.com/u/tango42)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2024, 7:21am UTC](https://tw.forumosa.com/t/singapores-bilingualism-failing/246895/18 "2024-12-05T07:21:29Z")
Singapore studies English and mandatory one other language in school. Not sure what grade level they stop the mandatory part. ---
**Author:** ![TT](https://forumosa-12829.kxcdn.com/user_avatar/tw.forumosa.com/tt/32/271883_2.png) [@TT](https://tw.forumosa.com/u/TT)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2024, 7:26am UTC](https://tw.forumosa.com/t/singapores-bilingualism-failing/246895/19 "2024-12-05T07:26:23Z")
> [@qbert](#): > > Quebec? I don’t know - genuine question Nope > **[Quebec moves to protect French language and restrict use of English](https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/25/quebec-french-language-protection-law-english#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=17333835318842&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com)** > > Premier says ‘we are proud to be a francophone nation in North America’ but English-speaking critics threaten legal action ---
**Author:** ![qbert](https://forumosa-12829.kxcdn.com/user_avatar/tw.forumosa.com/qbert/32/236297_2.png) [@qbert](https://tw.forumosa.com/u/qbert)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2024, 7:57am UTC](https://tw.forumosa.com/t/singapores-bilingualism-failing/246895/20 "2024-12-05T07:57:11Z")
It hasn’t worked out with your _compatriotes_ in Louisiana at all. My cousins speak English with a very weird accent, but sadly, no _Francais_. (Weirdly, I’ve had the experience with Frenchmen that they turn up their noses at my being an American, but as soon as I mention that my grandpa was a Cajun, they immediately become bosom _compatriotes_. Oh well, _laissez les bons temps rouler_) [Next page](https://tw.forumosa.com/t/singapores-bilingualism-failing/246895.md?page=2)