was that policy right or wrong if you bring me back to 1965 I would say that is the same policy I would still adopt I used to believe that you can learn two languages at the same time whatever your IQ I was wrong we start off from where we were let's see after the war 1945 or even 1965 we were in different communal groups Malay kampongs Chinese Villages you can say Lauren tying hes Kamp Ubi Malay and so on you can go on hamu and so on what did we do as a government from 60 from 59 to 65 we had a la Fair policy We inherited from the British English schools Malay schools Tam schools and other schools so we introduced mother tongue in the English schools for those who are in English schools and we gradually introduce English into mle schools and Tamil schools when we became independent in 1965 the Chinese Chamber of Commerce Committee came to see me a few days afterwards in my office then at City Hall they urged me to have Chinese as our national and official language I looked them in the eye and said you must be mad I have to fight you because Singapore will come apart let's assume we were all Chinese no malays no Indians could we make a living with Chinese as our language of government and and our national [Music] language who who's going to trade with us what do we do how do we get access to knowledge so there was no choice the choice was having made English the working language of government and of administration what do we do about the mother town if we had no set policy and we allowed free market practices free choice all mother tongs would have eventually vanished because the first business of any parent is to make sure that his or her child can make a living there as simple as that therefore we decided that however unpleasant however contrary to the concept of a homogeneous society each racial group will learn his mother tongue as the second language was that policy right or wrong if you bring me back to 1965 I would say that is the same policy I would still adopt so I take responsibility will we ever become completely homogeneous a melange of uh languages and cultures no why did we take this route because we have no other choice if we have only English and we just allow the other languages to atrophy and vanish we Face a very serious problem of identity and culture an understanding of your native language even though you cannot it is not your master language but an appreciation of the Proverbs of the sayings of the aphorisms gives you that sense of identity how do I know this because I learned Chinese late in life and I rediscovered snatches of what I heard my parents my grandparents spoke to each other in dialect and I say ah yes that was what they meant it resonates holded my heartstrings would I want to see it lost absolutely no so because I have been primly responsible I would like to take this opportunity this afternoon to explain why we are doing this and why had I known all the difficulties of bilingualism in 1965 as I know now today would I have done differently yes in its implementation not in its policy I started off in a Chinese School jungan school in J my grandmother wanted me educate to be educated in Chinese I hated it my mother spoke to me in English at home and some prakan Malay I spoke to the Village kids in hokan and Malay here was this chap mumbling away in some dialect accented Mandarin I didn't understand a word of it so I persuaded my mother to send me to toow English school after 2 [Music] months she did sometimes I regretted having done that because I paid for it later on in 1955 when I went to tanaga to contest my first election and I've been paying for it ever since because my opponent lamb Tien a haker like me challenged me to a debate in Mandarin so what could I do shall I speak cantones because I could speak some cantones with my mid servants at home I debated this furiously with my wife she said don't this is Kitchen cantones don't try this so I got hold of a Chinese reporter leftwing reporter for sin PA it is a pro communist newspaper can you do a speech for me in Chinese one page [Music] Mandarin he did I say make it simple so I could read the characters the problem was the pronunciation so furiously learned the pronunciation I sweed blood 20,000 people in and my first speech in Mandarin they saw me struggle they cheered me I knew I'd win and I did by 1959 general elections I could make speeches in mandri no problem but unfortunately at that time the majority of the audience was Hy listening you reach the largest number of people in hokan so our hwan speaker first was Lim chin then he was arrested in DTA then we had on Guan good hwan speaker became the first mayor of Singapore but in 1961 he wanted to be the leader found some EX quarrel with the party resign by elction in Hungary by that time we couldn't trust Lim Chin Young anymore because we knew he was on the other side so King stre came to see me and says no choice you better learn hokan you will be our H and speaker otherwise we'll have no end to this [Music] problem I can tell you this was March 1961 if I did not learn hwan the rest of History would have been different I 11 like mad my first speech China street street rally lots of kids are around first meeting think March April look at because they all live in one one room cubicles so there nothing to do at night you watch an election rally on a with a lry crowded around I spoke H they laughed hilariously [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] let me explain the depths of the problem I used to believe that you can learn two languages at the same time whatever your IQ I was wrong you have to master one language enough to read and to absorb knowledge for all the other subjects another fact which I discovered you may have the same IQ score the same marks in science in mathematics and other subjects but your linguistic skills are different girls are better at languages than boys is statistically proven did I know all this I didn't my ambition was high I shared with beo yes make it bilingual he wasn't wanted French and English I wanted English and Chinese Malay and English Tamil and English it's a very difficult problem may I Round Up by saying we cannot ever settle this forever the language values the value of the language will change the emphasis that each parent wants for his child will change so we adjust our policies accordingly we start off with the realities that this is what we are and we should be grateful that we have got here in one piece how do you take it Forward I say please take note of how we have evolved it gradually and let it evolve further don't go for one stroke Solutions you may regret it fore for for so Engish for will you will never completely and finally settle the problems of our bilingual and bicultural Society there is always an undercurrent of competition for dominance between languages and cultures our special circumstances lead us rationally to accept the fact that English is the working language of our Society however we all want the culture the values the philosophy of life our philosophy of life to remain dominant over that of America Britain or other parts of the English speaking world this requires that we know English and enough of our mother tongues to appreciate our own TR traditions and approach to life from my observation the monolingual is more likely to be a language chauvinist and a bigot because he only sees the world through one eye bilingualism gives a more balanced and rounded view of the world [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] what your teing fore [Music] Chinese parents face this choice for their children English Mandarin or English dialect if they secretly want English Mandarin and dialect then they will find that their children finds Mandarin [Music] burdensome and will never Master therefore you have actively to encourage your children to use Mandarin in place of dialect and if you yourself do not speak mandrin may I suggest that it is not too difficult to learn how to listen and to understand so that your child can continue to speak in Mandarin and with a little bit more effort you can learn enough of a vocabulary to speak mandrin once it is clear to the government that parents want their children to master English and Mandarin and not dialect then the government will take a series of administrative measures to support this decision all government officers all government hospitals clinics all those Manning government counters will be instructed to speak mandin except to those over 60 so I say let us face the problem and make our decision if we continue with dialect it will drift into a Singapore type pwa h there is a certain drift in language use that choice is a stark one logically the decision is obvious emotionally I know it is painful and a language is first listened to heard and then spoken is not read or written that follows later and we started the wrong way we insisted on Madness we had teachers who are teaching in completely Chinese schools and they did not want to use any English to teach english- speaking children Chinese turned them off completely parents spent a lot of time and money extra tuition but their children had no interest they were turned off gradually I intervene successively over the years and insisted that my experience should guide the policy I was taking a risk I put it wrong I started wrong and I put it right successive generations of students paid a heavy price because of my ignorance but my insistence on bilingualism I want to get this message into the heads of the younger generation of teachers and said this is the way we were going to go use it use drama use every possible method to capture the interest of the children and doesn't matter what level they reach they will like the language is fun and later on in life they us it I get emails and letters from many singaporeans who are in China now doing business to thank me for having insisted that they do two languages [Music]