Funny story.. I actually learned Mandarin speaking in the US working together with a bunch of Taiwanese. Since then, I am always mindful to talk to my kids using mother tongue while being mindful that they will always converse in English in their school and work life. So, letting English run it's own course was a no brainer. Reading and writing Mandarin was the hardest part and they required extensive tuition classes for that. Of course the key is constant conversations. I only speak Hainanese with the kids, my wife only in Cantonese. Their cousins only converse in Mandarin. I always told the kids that their mother tongue languages and dialects are their secret language when they don't want anyone eaveasdropping into their conversation. Now, my kids are in their late 20's, speak fluent English, Mandarin, Hainanese, Cantonese, Hokkien and Malay. Just make sure they have constant contact with family members who speak their mother tongues, and if you have an Indonesian maid, converse in Malay.

@Steven.Chia.Singapore

Жыл бұрын

you did well! Many have that idea too but to carry it out effectively is tough!

@jon_nomad

Жыл бұрын

@@Steven.Chia.Singapore Like they say.. no pain, no gain. Nothing succeeds without toil.

@aclark903

Жыл бұрын

Surely, a mother tongue is the tongue of your mother? 🤔

@kaiserlow652

Жыл бұрын

I am a S'porean ,my siblings and i also speak English,Mandarin,Hainanese , hokkien,cantonese and one of my sister can speak teochew also because she is married to a teochew nang.

@imoutsideoutintheforest8337

Жыл бұрын

You've done a beautiful job in descending your cultures..! You are such an inspiration.

I scored As for Malay and Higher Malay, even took Malay Lit for O level. But right after sec school, I had no Malay lessons, no Malay classmates in JC and uni, no Malay colleagues. So over the years i’ve definitely lost my fluency in writing and flowery language. But I can still speak conversational Malay no problem. And most of the time, that is enough, unless i suddenly decide to go into Malay journalism.

@choonhockong8215

Жыл бұрын

Good to be bilingual and will be better if tri-lingual like English, Mandarin and Malay. My biggest regret cannot read, write Mandarin except simple spoken Mandarin. Many years ago went to China to enjoy the scenic places, don't understand Chinese culture and felt embarrassed when speaking to the Chinese people. China economy is booming and many opportunities to do business there. Loss opportunity of not knowing Mandarin.

@albertpang102

Жыл бұрын

😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😅🤣😅🤣😅🤣😅🤣😅🤣😅🤣😅😂😅😂😅🤣😅🤣😂😂😂😂😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂

@jmjt3709

Жыл бұрын

@@choonhockong8215 Absolutely agree. On personal level, I'm diligently revising and brushing it up.

@razzahling8951

Жыл бұрын

it's hard. People are encouraged to speak english in every functional situations, there is no way to practice I think it is good enough to learn the basics. When you actually need to learn the language, it will be easy to pick up and master

@Way2go926

Жыл бұрын

@@razzahling8951 the thing is, most working environment are filled with ppl from different countries so most of them don’t really speak proper English either 😂

I attended Nanyang thru my primary school years. I was made to feel absolutely inadequate. In fact teacher said “I didn’t deserve to be a Chinese” as I could not read nor speak Chinese. I therefore rebelliously chose NOT to learn the language. It wasn’t till I was away in Canada that I ever attempted to pick it up again. No bad superior teacher, no negative feedback. Just acceptance.

@Steven.Chia.Singapore

Жыл бұрын

ouch! I went to nanyang primary too and it was tough but I was fortunate to have had some good chinese teachers. It's so important that they make the learning experience enjoyable otherwise we just end up hating the language! Glad you picked it up again! 😊

@etloo1971

Жыл бұрын

Nanyang used to be a Mandarin Chinese medium school until Lee Kuan Yew abolished vernacular schools and replaced it with English.

Dear Cikgu Dr Elmi Zulkarnain Osman, my husband and I are really grateful to you for teaching our child. Thanks to you, he got an AL1 for Malay. Your lessons are always so lively, energetic, humorous, fun and EFFECTIVE. Terima kasih.

I thought you were brave with all your food challenges Steve… but I really take my hat off to you here! To read to a group of kids and their parents for this programme… wow! RESPECT!!!

@Steven.Chia.Singapore

Жыл бұрын

ha ha...thanks!

being bilingual is a skill and a treasure we should cherish and preserve

@albertpang102

Жыл бұрын

Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

@GeeWhizzzz

Жыл бұрын

yes sure but beware when its force fed by CCP Dialects > IN Mandarin > OUT

@idk_wtf_is_going_on9614

Жыл бұрын

@kingcook lmao why are yall so fking whitewashed. go study mandarin and learn some basic malay while ur at it. knn bodoh kau

In my opinion for Mother Tongue, emphasis has to be put away from grades and more to practical usage. Singaporeans generally don't write academic papers in their mother tongue so why should we learn it in a heavily academic manner? Still being bilingual is very important in raising open minded children

@lexneuron

Жыл бұрын

@言行一致 , Probably still relevant in Taiwan, when elections come up. Politicians and their aids there are always scrambling to find opportunities to paint their opponents for plagiarism, hiring ghost writers to do the research, seminars, and write up the supposed thesis, or even dissertation (as some lady politician's involvement in LSE Ph.D. dissertation), while some of the accusations turned out to be fact and post-graduate degrees revoked. So, yes "academic papers" are very relevant in Taiwan nowadays. One would reckon after 2024, when the party involved in the LSE Dissertation thing steps down from her post, there is bound to be a whole lot more "relevancy" coming up regarding "academic paper." Some Dr. Peng (not the medical doctor, but Ph.D.) in Taiwan and his associates and friends might be able to bring forth more findings (possibly forensic kind thereof) on that. 🤣🤣🤣

@Carl-md8pc

5 ай бұрын

Are many academic papers written in Taiwanese hokkien? ​@@lexneuron

The so-called English schools in SG does nto help either, because people are shamed for performing well in MT. As a person who grew up in a Chinese speaking family (Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien) i have no issue with speaking, but just could not score in tests. I genuinely love the subject but was always average on mandarin exams with an average of Bs despite fluency in the language. When i look around at my fellow peers, many struggle with even the basics of ordering food, and some of them even outperformed me in exams!

Unfortunately my parents were strongly discouraged to speak to my siblings and me with their true mother tongues (or dialects).

@naan000

Жыл бұрын

why?

@croust1501

Жыл бұрын

why?

@yen7315

Жыл бұрын

What is your dialect? At least Mandarin? Ok 吧？

@irenej5522

Жыл бұрын

Shame!

@maura5730

Жыл бұрын

Cause the government think "dialects" are useless. You can see the way the government use the word "dialects" to refer different languages when they are in fact is a language on its own right. That mean they just see them as inferior languages compare to the the so call mother tongue when their parents dont even speak that language but forced to speak that language. I think the government should not named them as mother tongue but second language, and why the learning must based on race? When actually their parent dont originally speak that language at all?

2/3 of our public school students in my town in Minnesota USA start elementary school in an immersion program - either Spanish or Mandarin. They don’t start studying in English until 4th grade. Many are fully proficient with native accents in the foreign language when graduating from high school. What an advantage for them!

@GeeWhizzzz

Жыл бұрын

thats second / add language not mother tongue

I grew up in an English speaking household & w/o being able to hear authentic mandarin conversations, it was tough to figure the grammar out or build up a varied vocabulary. Coupled with possible ADHD (I’ve never been officially tested, but noticed I’ve similar traits as my son who has been diagnosed with it), learning Mandarin has been an epic struggle. Ironically, it was briefly dating a more Mandarin speaking person who loved Jackie Cheung in my early teens, and then growing to follow the popular Taiwanese singers like Jeff Chang, Panda Xiong, Valen Hsu, Faye Wong that started my foray into picking up the language. I chased Qiong Yao dramas like 青青河边草 too and started to try to read their novels to my MT teacher’s delight. Sadly, Taiwanese dramas aren’t the flavour of the month now. The Hallyu wave means parents are mostly watching Korean dramas. That means kids have even lesser opportunities to listen to Mandarin at home (when the telly is on or the music is playing). The only person who somewhat spoke Mandarin to me as a kid was my Mama when I stayed at her place for school hols, but even then, she spoke more Teochew (so I can speak a smattering of the dialect) than Mandarin. However, my kids have grandparents who are English speaking too, meaning my kids have had zero chance of utilising Mandarin at home. Supplementary classes barely help as they are only once or twice a week. My question is why have we dialled up the level of difficulty of Mandarin in our syllabus so intensely when more kids are coming from English speaking homes than ever before? By setting the bar so high, a huge group of students have a hard time playing catch up and eventually just grow disheartened and give up on the language. In fact, the piling pressure turns an initial curiosity and desire to pick it up into a deep seated resentment and phobia for others. Then we need to ask ourselves, what are the Caucasians doing right that their kids are picking up reading & speaking Mandarin faster than some of our kids? Could we merge their teaching style with ours to find a new way to teach Mandarin?

@coldstring5646

Жыл бұрын

That’s why there is streaming & differences in Normal Chinese, Higher Chinese & foundation papers. I took the Higher Chinese O’level over 10 years ago, you can get an A1 and that standard is still laughable compared to native mandarin speakers in Taiwan/China/Malaysia.

The phrase "mother tongue" is wrong. What has the languages imposed on us have anything to do with us. My Mother spoke to me in English. Her mother spoke to her in Teochew, and so on. Mandarin is just a foreign language imposed. Similarly Malay is an imposition on all the malay community. The bulk are Javanese, some are Bugis. Only Tamil people are learning their own language. Do we need to learn, yes. The best way to learn, used to be Channel 8 7pm Drama, the 8pm show and the 9pm drama. However I feel if we are going to use such a false term like mother tongue instead of second language, or Mandarin, we do not have the full picture and the basic honesty in accepting why we learn this. Not for an imposed culture, rather because we use it as a lingua franca.

@minks4431

Жыл бұрын

Yeah thats the problem with singaporean they lump all of different ethnic group to only 3 categories: Chinese, Indian, and Malay. Although there is hokkien, teochew, hainanese, cantonese, hakka, etc but lump together into 1 category as Chinese. The other is Indian there is tamil, punjabi, gujarati, sindhi, bengali, etc and also lump into Indian. Another one is Malay there is malay, orang laut, javanese, bugis, banjar, minangkabau, etc and yet they call them only as malay.

@fazhanshariff9853

Жыл бұрын

mother tongue mean the stronger side in your home language. yes mix marriage main to be - an example some mix hainanese with hokkien. how do u expect both of them talk mix. surely the parents will pick up the strong language to communicate...

@MrBoliao98

Жыл бұрын

@@fazhanshariff9853 the only Javanese young kids know is Nasi Rawon.

@fazhanshariff9853

Жыл бұрын

@@MrBoliao98 i am not javanese - my paternal grandparent mix of Malay/Arab & my maternal grandparent mix of Chinese/Boyanese. So my parents choose to speak mother tongue at home: English, BM & Mandarin.

@mynahlu977

Жыл бұрын

@@minks4431 Not sure about the other races , but other than for the Chinese Peranakan, it’s not problematic for most Chinese Singaporeans of different dialect groups to identify ourselves as “Chinese” (the ethnicity, not the nationality). Also, Mandarin has been the lingual franca for Chinese officials since around 1300s, and is seen as the unifying language of ethnic Chinese. In pre-independence Singapore, Mandarin was already adopted as the medium of instructions in privately funded Chinese schools. So to the vast majority of older Chinese educated Singaporeans, speaking/ learning Mandarin is just a natural extension of their identity as ethnic Chinese. Mandarin is not and has never been a foreign language, and it is hardly an imposition. I find it hard to be convinced by those who argue that their Mother Tongue is xx Chinese dialect and therefore refuse to learn Mandarin or find Mandarin difficult to learn. I grew up speaking Teochew only, and still dream in Teochew up to this day, but I had no problem learning Mandarin in school. In fact, I see the two languages as complementary due to their vastly similar vocabulary (same Chinese Characters but pronounced differently) and language structure. I think it would be the same for all the other major Chinese dialects in Singapore.

My children speak Mandarin fluently. My daughter went as far telling her interviewers that she is one of the very few in Singapore who command both Chinese and English very well. How did they do it?. When they were borne my wife spoke with them in Mandarin from day 1 whereas I spoke with in English. That would help them create interest in reading Chinese. English is never an issue as they will learn fast because all subjects are taught in English. Many children have difficulty with Mandarin because the parents make the fundamental mistake thinking that knowing English will move them ahead of the pack. How wrong. Even my 3 year old grandchild is fluent in both languages. Her father, maternal grandpa & paternal grandma speak to her only in Mandarin & the rest of us in English. So no problem for her. If there is an Indonesian maid, ask her to speak to her in Bahasa. In their adult years Chinese and Indonesian will also become important languages.

People can just take their own initiative to play a game like VRchat The funniest part is that I've met Singaporean Malays learning and practicing Malay language in Kampung Melayu world as well as Singaporean Chinese going to the Chinese bar to practice Chinese People have to take the initiative, effort, and time to properly learn to converse in multiple languages

For majority of ethic Chinese people in Singapore - mandarin isn't the mother tongue. It's a dialect from Northern China which has been adopted as the national language of China. Our Mother tongue would actually be the Min nan language or other languages from the south of China.

@kkxx7281

Жыл бұрын

wow,my mother tongue is also Minnan language ,it is one of the Chinese dialects, it is totally different from mandarin,

@etloo1971

Жыл бұрын

All the propagandas from chauvinistic Chinese got the majority of Southern Chinese to relinquish their original mother tongue.

@GeeWhizzzz

Жыл бұрын

Mandarin was force fed, dictated, shoved down throats beware the Communists/ CCP agenda Mother tongue is for the home / "mother" to decide Dialects IN > Mandarin OUT

The problem with Singaporeans parents (those born in the 1980s) are fearful or have misconceptions that kids could not cope with more than 1 language. Those of us I the Pioneer Generation or Merdeka Generation could easily manage formal languages, English and Chinese / Malay / Tamil and our own dialect mother tongue plus other dialect mother tongue. It’s a matter of exposure and practice. Let the kids go to school to speak their formal education languages and at home speak in your own mother tongue dialect (Teochew / Hokkien/ Cantonese / Hainan / Hakka etc)and also English plus 2nd language. The brain will know how to manage without getting confused.

@Steven.Chia.Singapore

Жыл бұрын

Yes, we lack the environment to use all these languages! Would love to be fluent like my parents! But also because we are largely exam oriented these days. So the intention behind learning the language is sadly pretty much just for exams

@leewn2319

Жыл бұрын

@@Klavissimo Yes, I got A for GCE 0 level literature Many of my classmates got As for English and a number are SAF scholars notwithstanding we were from a Hougang school which students including our Malay schoolmates spoke Teochew. The school environment back then the teachers converse in proper English among themselves and with students. We don’t have Singlish back then but we had Pasar English used in markets by hawkers to communicate with non dialect speakers. My school also had produced ministers, MPs & top civil officers in the government agencies.

@leewn2319

Жыл бұрын

Hi Steve, By the way, my dad was born in China and only primary education in Teochew back in the village. He came to Sg at 16 to work as cookie, but he self taught / learn to read write and speak English & Malay. He is effectively trilingual. At home he spoke Teochew to us. My siblings are all effectively bilingual and could speak Teochew. My eldest sister and brother could even read write in Teochew.

@gasun1274

Жыл бұрын

it's true that some children raised in polyglot environments will start speaking later, but think of it like early mental exercise. children's brains are very moldable, and training their brains early on from childhood will only bring good to them later in life.

@chandy3859

Жыл бұрын

@@gasun1274 i don't think it's true. I think children would not even recognize it's a different language. The only problem would be when they start recognizing which word is in which language. So that people in school can understand them.

My mother tongue is malay and omg the disadvantage in most childcares is lack of malay kids so some schools dont have a malay teacher Kids learn chinese from infant to K2 then go to p1 not very equipped to have the basis for malay, simple things like table and numbers would make a diff

🇲🇽 👶💬 🇺🇸 My cousins are Mexican and American, raised in the US in Illinois. Their parents, my aunt & uncle, instituted a policy in the home of speaking English in some rooms and Spanish in others. They grew up speaking both languages fluently but my grandfather (who was not familiar with their bilingual tradition at home) had a difficult time while babysitting them as toddlers one day when my cousin was in the kitchen in his highchair, crying for "platanos" (bananas). In the days before cell phones, there was no way to simply call my aunt and learn that you just need to take him in the living room and he would speak English. Needless to say, my grandfather was very flustered. 😅

@sheelapillay

Жыл бұрын

That's most interesting! A lesson for Singaporeans?

I think the key issues for learning a Mother Tongue language is that, it is taught in an environment where you have to memorize to score and get good grades out of it. I think what can be changed is that they can learn mother tongue but in a way where they learn the basic formalities of speaking the languages as well as the vocabularies. On top of that, students/kids are already coping with many other subjects in school so being able to learn another language is really a talent. At the same time, mother tongue exams will induce stress onto the kids and they will not like the language. Some of the parents are rather harsh on their kids when learning another language because it is their family's local language and they are forced to learn it. While some say it may work wonders by forcing your kid to study everyday and going for tuitions every week, it will seem like a torment to the kids and they will not have fun learning it. In summary, they should change how the education revolves the kids' life and create a more conducive and fun environment so that at the end of the day, they will feel accomplished about learning something new.

I find it so weird that now chinese sg people call mandarin they “mother tongue” but they ancestry never speak that language, (but other Chinese languages like hokkien teochew cantonese hakka hainanese…). The correct term for mandarin/huayu must be just “2nd language” as a lingua franca. LKY chose mandarin for being closer to China and the result now is just struggle to speak their true mother tongue and not fluent mandarin…

There's actually benefits in knowing more than one language 🤔

@yen7315

Жыл бұрын

@Christine sung I can’t agree with you more !!! (Hi Five)

@albertpang102

Жыл бұрын

Yes. Excluding filthy Mandarin Chinese language 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

@GeeWhizzzz

Жыл бұрын

yes sure but beware the communist CCP agenda to force feed mother tongue jam it down the throat by order and when being "bilingual" in job applications is code for must speak mandarin

@idk_wtf_is_going_on9614

Жыл бұрын

@@albertpang102 pls gtfo of sg albert. disgrace to the nation

Children can learn their mother tongue quite late and be fluent at it..... Last time I only spoke English and hated speaking Mandarin, but later on my parents bought a TV box from China for me and forced me to watch cartoons from China. That was when my Mandarin exponentially improved. Now I am so good that I can write essays and even write lyrics in Mandarin. After my Mandarin has been settled, I had to settle my Cantonese. My family occasionally spoke a little bit of Cantonese to me, but I refused to speak Cantonese although I knew a little bit. Then one day I made an effort to speak Cantonese and my cantonese has exponentially improved too.... Btw I'm from Malaysia and therefore I have a Cantonese or Mandarin speaking environment to some extent, which is a privilege most Singaporeans don't have

@lzh4950

Жыл бұрын

Like it or not Apple Daily taught me more Cantonese also

@yokelengleng

Жыл бұрын

@@lzh4950 ohhhh wow that's great! Are you Singaporean?

@lzh4950

Жыл бұрын

@@yokelengleng Yes

@yokelengleng

Жыл бұрын

@@lzh4950 it is quite rare for a Singaporean to be interested in watching Cantonese videos based on my impression. I thought Singaporeans are bananas that can only speak elementary Chinese. Do you speak Cantonese at home and how old are you (I'm asking because I think age plays a factor in whether you're interested in Chinese)?

Each and every language is beautiful and if given the opportunity and time to appreciate the language, one should give his or her all to learn it with no regrets...the deeper you study, the more you would be in awe by its beauty

It is always good know the mother tounge and local laungage first and then master the other laungages. However, it is always best to know more than two laungages.

In my opinion, films/movies are a good way of learning a mother tongue language too. One of the movies that came out, Encanto which was a magical-surrealism musical had many versions of their songs published. When I first found out that there was a malay version of the songs from Encanto I was ecstatic cause the film really was such an incredible one as it presented a contemporary issue in today's world and to be able to listen to the songs in Malay was cool so I had a listen and surprisingly I found myself learning words that I never thought I would have till I heard the songs in Malay. Thus, I think good movies that portray contemporary issues and have versatility with a good plot and melodic songs are able to help kids to learn words from their mother tounge.

@lzh4950

Жыл бұрын

Multi-lingual signs too

I'm very interested in where to watch the video of the 97.2 interview! The four of them are hilarious and with Steve I think the dynamics of the interview would have been amazing!

I am from Egypt and most people here speak arabic and english cuz we study both languages in school since elementary school , so we study both languages , arabic as first language and english as second , so in Singapore they can do that teach both offical and native language in schools

There’s a group of seniors raised in English speaking households and at that time the 2nd language policy wasn’t even in the syllabus until I got to secondary sch. , and I was from a mission sch. I passed Mandarin . Today I can only get by in ordering food in Mandarin. I will not be able to hold a sentence long conversation in Mandarin.

@GeeWhizzzz

Жыл бұрын

Mandarin was force fed, dictated, shoved down throats beware the Communists/ CCP agenda Mother tongue is for the home / "mother" to decide Dialects IN > Mandarin OUT

Great story. Steve has to be one of the best presenters for CNA.

@Steven.Chia.Singapore

Жыл бұрын

thank you! 😄

11:27 That is also most Indonesian Chinese feel. Most Chindo that born between 1960s to 1998 cant speak Mandarin or Hokkien or any Chinese language. And learning it in our adulthood is not an easy feat

@etloo1971

Жыл бұрын

Ethnic Chinese in Indonesia that can speak Hokkien are mostly concentrated in Medan while Hakka in Kalimantan.

seems like students are learning just to score good grades rather than having fun or trying to be fluent in the language. that could be why youngsters hate 'mother tongue' so much, coz when they think of MT, they think of exams. I have an idea.. students can probably have regular online language exchange class with students from a country who can speak the language fluently. For example chinese session with a taiwanese student. It will be more engaging and meaningful for students to understand the power of language. A taiwanese student would love to learn english from a native speaker as well

Where can i find the language aptitude test? Looks fun

I am an American. I live in Arizona USA. I was born in Chicago IL USA. I was raised by my immigrant parents from India. My parents grew up speaking a number of languages each. The only common one they spoke fluently in standard form was English. My father's mother tongue is Tamil. My mother's mother tongue is Kannada. They still spoken other languages, besides English or their mother tongues. Mom spoke Tamil and Hindi in addition to English and Kannada. Dad spoke Marathi, Malayalam, Hindi, French, and Gujarati, in addition to Tamil and English. My parents used to 'argue' in Tamil or Hindi. Mother studied in Delhi and spoke Hindi (Kari Bholi), the leading dialect. She always was correcting my father on his Hindi usage (Dad spoke Bombay Hindi). Dad spoke Travancori Tamil, and was forever correcting Mom on her Tamil usage. As a result I often got confusing messages whenever I spoke anything in a South Asian language at home. No one agreed on what I was saying was correct. As a result, I never became 'functional' in any mother tongue.. outside of English. My younger sister did study Tamil as an elective in university in Chicago, but I never had that luxury. Where I studied, Tamil was not offered. My younger sister studied French also, and she speaks it like a Bretonese. Father's French skills are awful. For me, what languages I learned beyond English were Castilian (Spanish)-I speak like an Argentinian, Russian-I speak it like a Moscovite, and Vietnamese-I speak it like a Saigonese. I learned Castilian because it was available, and I needed a language elective in high school. Also went to Latin America many times (1 year in Cordoba Argentina). I continued using Spanish in my adult life, as is is spoken along with English in Arizona. I learned Russian in university, Engineering School. Many of my professors were from Eastern Europe. My Vietnamese is as an adult. I am married to a woman from Vietnam (18 years and counting). I learned it to communicate with my in-laws. So there you have it...I speak nothing from South Asia as far as language.

Kudos to steven chia for putting himself out there.. haha! I laughed too much and can relate alot to this struggle with my son in mastering the mother tongue.. i supppse i shall just make it daily and fun.. journey rather than destination 😊

I completed my primary six and secondary 2, in Vietnam 48 years ago. I can read novels and write simple chinese . Chinese characters required learning from young, writing is the hardest part, every writing stroke has its own sequence of writing.

@etloo1971

Жыл бұрын

I heard Vietnam banned Mandarin schools due to the 1979 China Vietnam border war?

I’m with you brother. My Professor keeps getting on me for that word”菜” vs “ 在”! 🤪 Great topic, I love it!

I ❤️ CNA documentaries!

@naan000

Жыл бұрын

they're the only thing keeping me sane through my prelims lol. other than my books of course

Apart from mother tongue, the general observation I have made is our younger generation no longer know much about dialects let alone speak them on a daily basis.

@GeeWhizzzz

Жыл бұрын

Bring back dialects Dialects > IN Mandarin > OUT beware the CCP agenda

DR ELMI!!! YOU ARE ROCKING IT! YOU ARE THE COOLEST MALAY TEACHER IN SINGAPORE! YOU ARE THE BEST!

got A for a level h1 mother tounge but i’m not even fluent in speaking it compared to many many others

The team at Elemantra are all so proud of you, Dr Elmi! You really are a gem in the Malay Language community. #arifbudiman #elmizulkarnain #elemantracademy

If you don’t speak that language at home, how can you call it a mother tongue? As a Cantonese Chinese, I will never say Mandarin is my mother tongue, which is, though, not as foreign as English.

Anyone knows where I can find Steven's interview with Love 97.2 FM???

As a Malaysian myself, I have to be glad that I can master different languages easily whether it's English, Mandarin, Malay etc.

A HKer do not have a strong proficiency in pinyin or Simplified Chinese. Isn’t it better to compare them with mainlanders or Malaysians?

@jly5828

Жыл бұрын

Hongkonger are highly proficiency in Traditional Chinese

@gasun1274

Жыл бұрын

hong kongers are good at 書面語 they are worse at spoken mandarin than english. also hong kong children will just read those characters using cantonese literary pronunciation.

@kohwenxu

Жыл бұрын

@@jly5828 Singapore’s tests are in Simplified Chinese.

Good to know the basic of Bahasa and mandarin but best to focus on mastering English or you will face limitation in career and business opportunity

I used to work for a Chinese enrichment school. Sadly, now a lot of parents want their children to learn Chinese because it will be beneficial to them in the future rather than because it’s their mother tongue.

Unfortunately, many of them don't speak good english either.

For me, it's the opposite, I grew up in a mandarin speaking household, so I think I am quite accustomed to the Chinese language. Also, I like watching Chinese content and listening to Chinese songs. These definitely helped me improve a lot.....but only for the speaking component. I can't write for nuts since we are so used to typing characters using our keyboards....

@kohwenxu

Жыл бұрын

Yeah same, only thing for me is I’m slightly better at writing but not in using flowery language

Using games to learn is a great idea. I learnt my maths from Microsoft games CD when I was a kid. Thus, I grew up loving Maths and had always scored well on that subject at school.

CNA insider is my favourite youtuber

@yen7315

Жыл бұрын

Sama Sama

@yokelengleng

Жыл бұрын

This is a Singaporean state funded media lah.... Not KZreadr

@phambinhan17

7 ай бұрын

​@@yokelengleng KZread has never said that a state-funded cannot be a KZreadr

Haha i only picked up chinese at 18 because the university i studied in is full of chinese speaking folks. So i learned and practice with them till i mastered it when i hop in my 2nd job company later. So my total of practice and polishing is 10 years. I dont intend 2 learn reading and writing as long as i able 2 order food in hawker can already. Haha.

Testing mandarin in simplified Chinese and you found a kid from Hong Kong 🤷🏻‍♂️

@solarmoth4628

Жыл бұрын

Yeah I felt bad for the comparison person.

what is that app i cant seem to find the app

I got my mt exam paper back and I got 16/200 the rest of my grades were good

isnt the place they film at outram park

I learn how to speak proper mandarin when I start working

Why would you ask a native Hong Konger to take a mandarin language exam in simplified chinese? This is so cringefully wrong

From friends and my own experience, if our parents do not use our mother tongue at home, we lack exposure to our mother tongue environment after we graduate from secondary school. So what I did is go on vrchat for me to expose to languages 😂

And no exposure to business or industry related mother tongue words. That’s why they now have to come and learn business Chinese + the skill of translation after they graduate. It’s not an easy process due to the large linguistic difference between English and Chinese.

Ha ha ... Dr Sun He is so good at speaking Mandarin because she was born & grew up in an environment that is mandarin speaking . From her accent, I guess she is from China or Taiwan (?) , which explains why she speaks good Mandarin.

Wow德明校长。 Absolutely must like

As long as you are highly self motivated and self disciplined, you can master anything you want. Age is really just a number.

Super interesting! Singapore's power to speak to powers like China and USA makes it amazing!

Tried speaking to my kids who are half-chinese back when they were young and given my own rather poor Mandarin vocabulary, that monologue ended pretty fast. Besides my son told me since he was only half-Chinese, he only needed to know half as many words. Could not argue with the logic of a 5 year old.

many foreigners are very envoius of us malaysian chinese to be able to know more than one langauge/dialects, it shows that being multilingual is very benficial!

@fazhanshariff9853

Жыл бұрын

yes Malaysian chinese can speak 4 language at end of the day majority of them that come to wrk in Spore - despite they can speak 3 language but they still strong at BM & Mandarin only. coz we Sporen use to speak English and my chinese-malaysian friend normally will respond - Bang ckp melayu la lagi senang i faham mah... inggeris susah sikit la..

@leealex24

Жыл бұрын

@@fazhanshariff9853 Come to KL and you will learn Cantonese from Malaysian Chinese.

@albertpang102

Жыл бұрын

🤮🤧🤮🤧🤮🤧🤮🤧🤧🤧🤮🤧🤮🤧🤮🤧🤮🤧🤧🤧🤧🤧🤧🤧🤧🤧🤧🤧🤧🤧

@kaiserlow652

Жыл бұрын

Many older S'poreans speak at least 2 languages and 2 to 3 dialects too. it is a pity that the younger generation are not fluent in Mandarin and dialects.

@kaiserlow652

Жыл бұрын

​@@leealex24 many S'poreans speak cantonese too. I am one of them.

Hi Steven, First time hearing u speaking Mandarin. Quite fluent. By the way, your growing up years did your grandparents or parents speak to u in your own dialect other than Mandarin and/or English. Also do your converse in dialect with your kids? Languages are best learn by speaking and being exposed to it.

@Steven.Chia.Singapore

Жыл бұрын

Thank you, the 10 years of learning it in school did build some foundation. But for me, it was english all the way. Even my grandparents spoke english. I also can't speak any of the dialects fluently...only enough to order bak chor mee!

In Singapore, English is a working language. Our native language depends whether you are Chinese,Indian or Malay. Yet some Singaporean Chinese can’t speak proper mandarin. Is there something wrong with our education, society or Singaporean perspective about his/her ethnicity? Is Singaporean still having the post colonial mindset/syndrome? Can someone please explains.

Cool car.

Kids should aim for trilingual now to be relevant with the leading global economy. Chinese, Hindi and English.

I would say most are byelingual, considering that to be fluent, we need to be able to speak, listen, and write them (3 parts). Formal education and exposure is important, but also should be over a long period of time. Formal education might be the initial exposure and teach us about the rules of the language, and also how to read and write them. But long term exposure in those 3 parts, I would say, is the one that determines at which level of fluency we are at, or how multilingual we are. Written below are my experiences with languages so you can skip those if uninterested. For example, I scored B3 for English O Levels and C for General Paper A Levels. I scored A1 for Chinese O Levels and D7 for Higher Chinese O Levels. Well, it seems that I am average in both for examinations. (By the way, I had an English teacher in Secondary School who was extremely shocked that most of us don't know how to read this - ˈɪŋɡlɪʃ (I have no idea what they are called but they are used for pronunciation) - and it was never taught in my younger years or with my parents, and I felt that I wasn't able to speak proper English when my teacher said that.) But I do feel more confident in speaking English than Chinese, especially for technical terms like names of animals, scientific terms etc. If I change my phone language settings from English to Chinese, I will be lost if I look through the settings menu. I find myself unable to speak only Chinese to a person who only speaks Chinese, forgetting how to write Chinese characters since I don't need it for university and I use hanyu pinyin for writing in Chinese online. I also consume more English content such as news articles, watching KZread, dramas, reading mangas etc. I would choose English subtitles for Japanese anime or Korean drama. However, I can mostly watch Chinese drama with Chinese subtitles and read Chinese novels (小说) normally as well. There are times when I wanted to borrow a book from NLB and only Chinese translated versions were available for loan and I still am able to read it, though English translated names are slightly difficult. So other than English and Chinese, I learnt Malay as third language in Primary School (compulsory) and in Secondary School in Malay Special Programme (voluntary). My father's side is Teochew while my mother's side is Cantonese. Listening-wise, I understand Cantonese > Malay > Teochew. Writing-wise, Malay > Cantonese = Teochew (basically non-existent for both). Conversational speaking-wise, Cantonese > Malay > Teochew. So I am definitely not fluent in any but enough to get by at times but not enough to understand content like Cantonese dramas or live in a place that only speaks those languages. Furthermore, I self-learned Korean and Japanese. So I can listen, speak, and write them to a certain extent. And I took a Korean, Italian, and German class in university. Again, not fluent in any but also enough to get by. Now, I am more fluent in Korean and Japanese despite learning Italian and German in classroom settings as I expose myself more to those two languages via drama, music etc but I am still unable to read novels or fully understand lyrics etc.

Just play maybe 15min of Yanxi Palace in Chinese class. The kids will get hooked and they'll be motivated to watch more and passively improve their Mandarin. My friend had sh*tty Mandarin, and in the beginning he understood only like 20-30% of the content, but by the end he understood like 80%. Same probably goes for Malay and Tamil - get the kids hooked with cool dramas and stuff.

Might be good to consider, teaching the weaker language subject as a second language not as a first language. There is a difference in teaching approach.

I didn't do that well for higher chinese (C grade) and express chinese (B grade) but because of my home environment (Parents don't speak much english and mother is a chinese teacher), I end up being more fluent in mandarin in adulthood compared to my peers who got As for their chinese exams. My mom is always baffled why I can speak mandarin so fluently but not be able to score well XD Also chinese translated manga and light novels are cheaper.

My mother’s tongue would be Italian, even though my mom is Asian, since her maternal grandmother, her mom’s mom is Sardinian. Yet I can only speak Spanish, French and Mandarin

There's some problems with the way they tested language proficiency. Firstly, it's very insufficient to use three Singaporean kids as representative of a country of 5.5 million. To collect more accurate results, you need to test Singapore's entire population. Also, there was apparently no speaking or listening comprehension on the exam since it was paper only. Proficiency in a language reflects reading, writing listening, and speaking. As far as we saw, the exam only had reading comprehension.

If you learn Chinese Mandarin there is also different types of Chinese Mandarin for each region around expressing and speaking example; Good Morning my name is. China Mainland 早上好我的名字叫 ， Taiwan : 早安好我的名字？ Also Movies and City names are slightly different example: San Francisco 三藩市 舊金山 etc. Is like American English and British English .

@kohwenxu

Жыл бұрын

There is such a difference in terms used and all in the different types, that fun fact: Wikipedia Chinese provides you the option to change between 6 different kinds of Chinese depending on where you are from. (Still wiki leaves out the Chinese dialects)

I'm surprised for the Malay. I found a lot of Malay children spoke mostly in English when I was there (Malaysian here)

Original thought is the ore of the mind. Language is, but the accidental stamp and coinage by which it is put into circulation. Washington Irving

If most kids are now speaking English at home, how do you explain the general standard of English amongst Singaporeans?

@dingus42

Жыл бұрын

I suspect many of those families actually natively speak Singlish at home; but either the census the data is from doesn't have Singlish as a separate option, or CNA is not allowed to recognize it as a separate language on SG television because of the govt's attitude towards it.

@sheelapillay

Жыл бұрын

@@dingus42 That makes sense. Perhaps CNA's next topic should be 'Singapore's struggle with English' ?

@kohwenxu

Жыл бұрын

@@dingus42 Singlish is technically a pidgin language, it’s somewhat like slang, and the government is trying to reduce such usage of Singlish cause it affects English grammar (Singlish and English have the same words but the grammar in Singlish looks downright like a failing English student to a native English speaker, aka the grammar in Singlish is basically worse than standard English)

@GeeWhizzzz

Жыл бұрын

@@kohwenxu Singlish is NOT English - period. so far there has been no serious speak english campaign like the nutcase , incessant speak mandarin agenda & campaign of the past that was top gov priority to remove dialects and push mandarin social engineering the slogan was Mandarin IN, Dialects OUT it made the communists happy

@dingus42

Жыл бұрын

@@kohwenxu That is not correct; 1. Singlish is NOT a pidgin but a creole, which is a big difference; and 2. It has just as complex a grammar, with its own rules, that are just different from English since they are based on Hokkien and Malay grammatical structures.

CNA, did you really just test 3 children from overseas who have never studied under the MOE curriculum and compared them to 3 who have done so, and then was shocked that the 3 who had done so was able to do the exam under MOE better? Bro..

I used to think it is mostly only Singaporean Chinese that are forgetting their roots and not speaking their mother tongue at home. Well this video proved me wrong

"Mother tongue" sure ain't Mandarin for most.

@hiddenblush

Жыл бұрын

i mean the host is chinese, of course hes gonna try more with his mother tongue, that something the host knows

@MelvinSimKH

Жыл бұрын

@@hiddenblush I believe SK was referring to the fact that Mandarin is a northern Chinese language whereas most ethnic Chinese in Singapore would have Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese, etc, as their mother tongue instead.

@jackmilk6944

Жыл бұрын

For me it is ✌️

@GeeWhizzzz

Жыл бұрын

@@MelvinSimKH YUP SO TRUE Mandarin was shoved down pples throats / force fed there was no choice it was social engineering it made the CCP communists happy as they had first done the same force feeding earlier at their end over there so it would then pave the way for them to migrate here later and "feel at home" when increasing the population need to hit the right ratios and so Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese lose out mother tongue is a personal matter, should not be official gov business its for the "home & mother" to decide not to be dictated

to master a language, not just write / read / listen to a language, really need to communicate in that language everyday if possible.

could anyone tlel me what the first song is?

@Steven.Chia.Singapore

Жыл бұрын

it's actually about food! it's very common in Singapore to have a rice stall where you can choose your own main dishes. Here's the full music video - kzread.info/dash/bejne/naqo15qbqa23mKg.html

@aditidump

Жыл бұрын

@@Steven.Chia.Singapore ah not this one.. The one before this

While saying that Mandarin is not a "mother tongue" does have some merit, I wonder how many Singaporeans are actually even aware of the modern history of Chinese language and how Mandarin was the outcome of the May 4th movement, an important historical period when Chinese intelligensia led a vigorous movement to modernise Chinese culture. Since then, each Chinese community (Mainland, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore) has continued evolving from this movement in order to bring forward and reinterpret Chinese culture in the modern era. However, before this fully came to maturity in Singapore, the Chinese intelligensia consciousness was abruptly stamped out when Chinese schools and Nantah were forced to close and convert to English schools in the 70s and 80s in Singapore; this is why Singaporean Chinese are so detached from their cultural roots. They were denied the chance to continue the movement to re-interpret Chinese culture in modern society. That said, rejecting Mandarin entirely only goes further to drive a wedge between modern culture and traditional Chinese culture, in the process hollowing out the ethnic identity, losing its means to connect tradition and modern society.

The kids score better than I will ever score in my Psle

my cher friends n all start convo in eng and i return with chinese HAHA

Mother Tongue is a misnomer, at home my Mother and Father spoke CANTONESE, and not mandarin. So what is my Mother's Tongue ??. I know of a Neighbour, they are both Eurasians, both spoke English at home, the poor children left with no choice and struggled to learn Mandarin in school.

Did the parents attending the toddler class get a discount?

@Steven.Chia.Singapore

Жыл бұрын

ha ha! Let's just say they were highly entertained by the session!

The speak Mandarin campaign is a victim of its own success. Singapore Chinese Mother Tongue should be the dialect. With the banning of the dialect. Instead of speaking Mandarin… People choose to speak English instead.

@deadpool113

Жыл бұрын

I agree. But call it a yield of majority community. Singapore suffered racial conflicts so much. Lee Kuan Yew admitted supporting certain side makes quarrel. And he admitted Chinese should be treated as part of the land but acknowledge that they are immigrants. To unify society language was the matter. Not talking about Tamils and Malays. Even the people among Chinese. They are actually Hokkiens, Cantonese, Hakkas and Baba Nyonyas. They distinct one another. You may have heard the conflicts and violence among the chinese community was so big. Especially Hokkiens and Cantonese. Their languages are so different it's totally unintelligible for one another. And ROC and PRC set Mandarin as their official language so choosing Mandarin as official not only unites Chinese people but also make more chances to communicate and benefits from Mainlanders.

@deadpool113

Жыл бұрын

Singapore had no choice. They wanted to use the benefit of Chinese through the mainland. But there was barely no Mandarin speakers. But they couldn't beat the traders from Hong Kong because their English fluency was much better.

Always speak to children in your own language, particularly if you’re explaining something. I speak a bit of French, if I had to explain the solar system or even how to make toast in French it wouldn’t be great. However I can quite easily do it in English. I used to teach English as an additional language and parents we’re always shocked by that. Assuming they should only speak English at home! Children have an amazing ability to transfer knowledge from one language into another. If I teach you to count to 5 in several languages do you have to learn how to count & the order of numbers again? No, you transfer that knowledge over. Encourage bi linguistic and multi linguistic skills

@GeeWhizzzz

Жыл бұрын

thats sweet second language / mother tongue is for the home , parent to decide, and later the individual not to be jammed down the throat and force fed to citizens the CCP communist way / agenda

wonder can let #benjaminkheng #stevenchia sing #jjlin or #stephaniesun song in their #mothertongue?

Kairos is actually my classmate!

The lyrics of the first song sounds like "chicken nugget chicken nugget.."

Many Singaporeans speak half mandarin and half English, if they can't speak a full sentence in one language, I won't call them bilingual at all.

I have heard that apart from the two main langages, Mandarin and Cantonese, there are so many different dialects that people from one part of China cant understand people from another. With English, that is not the case. I can understand people from Scotland, Ireland, Wales, USA, Canada, Australia, Singapore, India, Pakistan, NZ, Jamaica and a few other places, we all speak the same type of English. I used to be able to speak and write Malay moderately well 50 years ago, but as I haven't used it for nearly 50 years it is a bit rusty now and I can no longer read Jawi script.

@albertpang102

Жыл бұрын

Go emigrate to Chinese China 🇨🇳 then.

@solarmoth4628

Жыл бұрын

English does have dialects. If a person from Jamaica was speaking patois or a person from Scotland was speaking scots you wouldn’t understand them both considered by many as dialects of english. It’s just that these groups also speak standard english in addition to their home dialect.

@dingus42

Жыл бұрын

That is because they are NOT dialects as the govt calls them, but actually different languages

@jackmilk6944

Жыл бұрын

Yes Chinese "dialects" are very different, but if you know Malay you'll know that the differences between Malay "dialects" are even greater.

@bernardedwards8461

Жыл бұрын

@@jackmilk6944 One of the reasons for that is that the Indonesian archipelago covers a vast distance and includes what used to be many different tribes and countries before the Dutch colonised them. Bahasa kebangsa'an is the language of Sumatra and Malay penisular, so other parts of Indonesia have to learn it as a second language.Even in Sumatra and Malaya there are tribes which have their own language, but in my experience they all speak Malay as well. As their own languages have some similarity to Malay, they might sometimes get them mixed up.

i see.

Comforting to know this isn't just an issue in the Phil

Hmm... the thing is Hong Kong uses Traditional Chinese in writing. Maybe the Hong Konger child may not know certain simplied words. I think the test is an unfair evaluation of one's mother tongue.