Dear Locke,
Learning an extra language does not need extra intelligence, really. It is a matter of environment, interests, habits and hard work.
FDI is not the only thing that determines whether a society should throw away their own language and learn other languages. Else, China will be in linguistic trouble right now!
Taiwanese and S Koreans do depend on FDI in certain aspects. But technological wise, they are dependent on the Western countries as well. I mean, the only way to have technological transfers, you need to understand other languages as well!
Well, they do send their brightest overseas, so do we. The difference does not lie in economics alone. There are many other countries in the world that have their own cultural languages preserved even though they deal with the world in English. Germany, France, Sweden (if I remember correctly, Sweden have 4 or 5 official languages) etc. Many people claim that they are homogeneous but no, not Sweden nor Finland. They comprise of many European races and now, with globalization, many other races as well.
The answer lies in the civil service administration willingness to preserve their official languages instead of taking the simple way out to take English as "Master Language" to solve it all.
It is only in Singapore that we keep thinking that learning multiple languages is a very difficult task. But yet, we see people willing to learn extra languages like French, German or Japanese instead of their own cultural languages! Why? Motivation?
Languages are something you need constant engagement before you could be proficient in them. Some people learn many languages because they have many different girlfriends from all over the world.
Learning Chinese in HK is very easy, while learning English will be more difficult. It is a total direct opposite of Singapore. Why? It is basically because when you walk on the streets of these two cities, you could see some glaring differences. In Hong Kong, Chinese characters are all over the place while in Singapore, only English ones are available.
Same for Taiwan as well as Japan. Of course, the main difference between Taiwan and Hong Kong is that one speak Mandarin while the other speak Cantonese. This is one of the key reasons on how languages are preserved...i.e. Daily usage, right from road signs to shops and speaking. This is especially important for languages that are in symbolic forms, unlike English which is in phonetic combination of alphabets.
The Civil Service plays an important role in this sense because road signs and even signage at service counters make the difference. Yes, it is going to be bulky with 4 languages all on sign boards for us, but this is how languages are being preserved.
Singapore's Chinese education has taken the wrong turn in recent years. They try to do away with recognition of Chinese characters while only concentrate on Hanyu Pingying. This is the strange way of pushing the romantization of Chinese. It will bring more harm than good to Chinese learning.
Goh Meng Seng
Dear GMS
I am afraid not many are as intelligent as you in being effectively bi lingual. The models you cited S Korea and Taiwan developed without the primacy of English because of their lack of dependence on FDI and their concentration on manufacturing and whilst the vast majority lacked the English base, the taiwanese and the S Koreans made sure that the best had the English education and sent them overseas. HK was dependent on FDI but not as dependent on manufacturing and went into services. It imported large numbers of its English talent. The smartest one's were effectively bi lingual but for many and yes the vast majority I saw them struggling in the UK because English was not the primary medium in HK.. I speak of those who were children of retired civil servants, police officers who were entitled to free UNI education in the UK
The policy of English primacy was I feel the correct in but the need for those who could be taught another first language and yes "minority" could have been better implemented. without SAP schools.
Locke
