Bilingualism is not a mistake

Recently, MM Lee has made a speech about bilingualism being a mistake.

He mentioned that he didn't realise that it was so tough for an English speaker to learn Chinese and that the bilingual policy has been a mistake.

I seriously don't think that it's a mistake. In fact, I think that it's a very sound policy. What's so mistakish about it was the teaching method. I really thought, and still think, that the way Chinese was taught during my time was perfect. Our starting point was absolutely zero. I still remember the first few pages of the textbook at P1: there were about 3 separate pictures about body parts ie. 人，口，手.

From there, we built up our vocabulary, slowly but surely. The learning of language is very different from the learning of Maths and Science. The acquisition of a language may be slow at first, but when the spurt comes along, it just drives you all the way. You'll be motivated to read when you take an interest in the subject and languages, unlike Maths and Science, can improve by leaps and bounds just by reading, and the relevant act of speaking.

Hanyu pinyin was only taught at P3. By then, a substantial amount of characters would have been learnt. Hanyu pinyin was a breeze. It's crazy to learn hanyu pinyin as 'foundation' for learning Chinese. Just because English is learnt through phonics doesn't mean that it is applicable for Chinese. This is exactly what's wrong with the teaching of Chinese. Which idiot actually thought of using hanyu pinyin to teach Chinese?!! It actually hampers the understanding of Chinese as a language and neglects the way the strokes should be learnt.

I've benefited immensely from the biligualism incorporated into our education system. I've always thought it a pity that Chinese is no longer taught the same way as it was. It was effective, unthreatening, and provides comfort zones at different levels, at different points to students. I remember reading a wide variety of original student writings in the newspapers when I was in primary school and aspired to write like that, yet at the same time, knew that I had to develop my own style of writing, subconciously. I never got any of my works published, but I was happy to top my Chinese classes sometimes. And I continued to keep a Chinese diary into my mid-twenties.

One of these day, I might just blog in Chinese. It's a beautiful language that doesn't deserve to be strangled. Yeah, I know it's insulting (to me) that I'm contemplating sending Coco to a Chinese enrichment class. I've deliberately alienated her from learning Chinese for years for fear of her getting confused over the two languages, and trying to get her to be really good in English. To me, English is still a struggle after all these years. Many times, I feel that I'm pretending to be good in English, especially in speaking it, when deep down inside, I feel so inadequate with using the language. It's just not me. It sounds crazy right?

It's my sense of inadequacy that drove me to alienate Coco from learning Chinese from young. I feel that Chinese is an easy language that anybody can pick up anytime, so I deliberately delayed her timeline of learning it. It sounds crazy. But that's exactly what I did. Now, I fear that I can't reverse the mistake. I'll just have to try to make her like the language in any way I can, with stories, and simple, readable stories that she can read on her own.

I hope that one day, she will take to the language as brilliantly as she has with English.

And I hope that day will come fast, before she hits P6.