My fascination with the English language began for me from a very young age, as my parents spoke to me in English since birth.
Singapore or I fondly call lil red dot, was once a British Crown Colony. We achieved our Independence on August 9, 1965.
Our lil red dot was originally a collection of migrants from China, neighboring Malay states, India, Portuguese etc. Technically, our national language is Bahasa Melayu and this explains why our National Anthem is in Malay and still sung in Malay.
With our founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew being an accomplished lawyer from Cambridge, he had the foresight to know that English is the language that we must be all educated in – as if like our first language.
With PM Lee Kuan Yew, he took us from a 3rd world nation to a first world nation status and along the way, he recognized the emerging power of China and the business opportunities within.
This then made him spearhead all to learn and speak Mandarin. The migrant population from all over China spoke in different dialects such as Teochew, Hokkien, Hakka or Hai Lam. We as citizens, benefitted from his wisdom in economic and social policies.
To ensure that we all spoke in unison and in one understandable language, the Speak Mandarin Campaign was launched in the 1970s and today, everyone speaks Mandarin as schoolers take it as their second language option alongside Bahasa Melayu and Tamil. Our second languages or mother tongues are now formal languages and not dialects. Seniors speak it naturally without lapsing into their dialect from the onset.
Malays, Chinese, Indians and others are all learning Mandarin. I know of a Turkish man who speaks fluent Mandarin.
Expatriate families want to enrol their children in our local school system as it is that good!
When Mr Lee Kuan Yew first banned all dialect broadcasts on air and radio in dialects, people howled “blue murder” as they lost their comfort in a dialect they used daily. On hindsight, if he was not adamant about it, today, our progress would not be what it is today. He did good although his style is always with a heavy hand, like a father wanting good for us, his children.
These same people who grumbled and were angered with him queued for more than 18 hours to file past his cortege when he lay in state at Parliament House when he passed away in 2015, to pay their last respects. Many cried as they knew and understood now, what his intentions were back then. We did not know, but he did!
As a child, I read voraciously and was always out to read more. My greatest “English” teacher was Dame Enid Blyton and of course “Dicky” – the dictionary. I read all of Dame Enid’s tales, including Famous Five or Secret 7 series. I remember she shared in her writings, the British flowers mentioned and also the fairies, elves and imps!
I learnt that the pen is mightier than the sword and that a written piece of work can be done in different tones when read by reader.
For example, when it is a speech, a message or a foreword for a journal or even a book or if it is to be written lightheartedly – I recognized the different uses of syntax and how to deliver succinct write ups or even to be mischievous, deliver words with no meanings! I call this verbosity at its best to numb the morons who know nothing about English but just needs to be impressed.
Whilst I also learnt dialects (hard not to as work travels take me to different parts of China and Hong Kong/Macau), I never forgot the importance of a proper language.
The downside to learning a decent language is that the cultural aspect of migrant dialects is lost by the second generation. Today, children do not know how to speak dialects and it is a shame as I find this very useful when speaking in “code” to communicate to the other party during a meeting so that others in the room do not understand. Or when travelling in different English speaking countries, I have a comfortable language to comment to the other companion when bargaining for goods!
Yes, I love the English language and having studied in USA, I was delighted when I topped my Test of English as A Foreign Language (TOEFL) scores – same percentile or even better than native speakers.
I am proud to share that our lil red dot syllabi for math, history and science is also widely accepted by countries such as USA and UK.
And, my first draft is usually my last draft unless, I am factually joining excerpts of text messages LOL!
