Op-Ed Contributors

Potholes on the road to bilingualism

By P N Balji (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-08-19 09:04

Children who couldn't cope went overseas, some never to return.

That is the first lesson for China if it wants to take up Lee's suggestion on understanding the world without translation: Let the parents see the benefits, economic or otherwise, of taking up a second language.

The other lesson is to make sure that language teachers make teaching fun, exciting and meaningful. Most second language teachers in Singapore were purists and wanted to teach the language the dogmatic way. The result was a student population that dreaded classes.

Over the years, Singapore has finally understood how misguided it was in pursuing a bilingualism policy rooted in ideology. We have young Singaporeans who studied a second language just to pass the examinations and resented using it in their post-school lives.

My two children are living examples of this trend. Both scored distinctions in their second language examinations but hardly use it anymore, let alone understand it.

What a shame!

China's parents should not be made to feel this way many years down the road.

A forward-looking bilingual policy with the soft approach of showing parents the value, both economic and otherwise, of a bilingual education and providing the right type of teachers can help China avoid the costly mistakes Singapore has made.

P N Balji is the director of the Asia Journalism Fellowship, a joint initiative by Temasek Foundation and Nanyang Technological University.

(China Daily 08/19/2010 page8)