KiasuParents - Parenting in Singapore

Hi there,

Will the students' English be slackened if they choose sec schools that are strong in Chinese say River valley, Chung Cheng etc...?

Any feedback is appreciated. Thanks

hhmm ... I used to have the same thinking but I don't see any slacken. For eg. my girl would tell me, a portion of her classmates are pro-Chinese, the other portion are pro-English. Even in her CCA, the seniors are more pro-English, while the year 1 juniors are more pro-Chinese. So I see there is a mixture of students from Chinese and English family background.

When I look at her time table, English Language Art has 12 periods and HCL has 13 periods per week. So more or less, quite balance.

I think it is not inconceivable that sometime in the future, maybe 30 years, our world may becomes predominantly chinese speaking. So there is an incentives for students nowaday to really learn their chinese well.

People may not be aware. The dominant anglo-saxon cultural influence for the past 2 centuries is definitely coming to an end and they will slowly fade into the background just like any past empire in history. The world we know today will be a very different place.

Just see what happened. USA is basically bankcrupted. Their debt is more 10 trillions now and will keep expanding. US$ reserve currency status is under challenge. There is no real recovery in sight despite propaganda about green-shoot because theydidn't solve their root problem and never will because of political self interest.

What I meant is that the above worry maybe legitimate in the past but the reverse should be true today. If you attend an English speaking environment, will your chinese slacken?

I don't think so. My English has always been significantly better than my Chinese and that didn't change throughout my years at NYGH. If truth be told, NYGH helped to ensure my Chinese didn't fare too badly because of the number of lesson hours we had. I suspect that if I went to another school which didn't have as strong an emphasis, my Chinese would have hit rock bottom lol.

@ WeiHan I can't really see that Chinese will become the dominant lingua franca in 30 years time. It will definitely become more popular but to overtake English altogether would be extremely difficult, particularly since it is the only universal language at this point in time. Then again, who knows? Maybe the next "in" language to learn would be Tamil; but I agree that a student should be as bilingual as possible.

English is a universal language because of the influence of British colonial empire. But then you see how quickly the empire descent. It is not impossible that the world becoming predominantly chinese speaking in the foreseable future. You are from NYGS, you probably know that Jim Roger has deliberately migrated to Singapore and enrolled her daughter in Nanyang Kindergarten just so that she can learn how to speak Mandarin. And you will be surprise when you go to Japan, there are more people who can speak mandarin than you imagine.

I am not saying that China is so good. I am also not saying that the chinese market is big. Many people already know this. But because the western world, in particular USA and Great Britian, have been living on policy and in effect is akin to a slow suicide and everybody in the world will understand in the next decade.

Often people are so accustomed to the status quo that they thought thing will change slowly. Changes always happen slowly at the beginning and gradually it picks up steam and changes start to accelerate.

Just to add on a bit more. I don't see any slack in English in my girl. Yes, her Chinese improve but still she is scoring better in English than Chinese.

Actually, learning language shouldn't depend on whether particular language will be dominate language in the future of not.

People who chose to study chinese, most likely are 'Chinese'.
In third party (foreigner)'s eyes, as a chinese, that would be a shame if you don't study your own language well.

amylqf wrote:Actually, learning language shouldn't depend on whether particular language will be dominate language in the future of not.

People who chose to study chinese, most likely are 'Chinese'.
In third party (foreigner)'s eyes, as a chinese, that would be a shame if you don't study your own language well.

This view has often been expressed and is not new. The fact is that kandangs that know nuts about chinese have been doing very well in the past and probably still doing well now. How many highly paid civil servants in our government belong to this class?

No matter how much emotional values you want to attach to a language and culture, the fact is that they are just tools that help people to survive. If people find certain language or skill helps them survive better, then he/she will naturally pick up the skills. Culture is also just an evolving concept and the way people live. Even the term chinese is rather vague, China and Asia are made up of so many ethnic groups and the nuance in cultures and languages is so vaious that it is actually hard for you to define what is chinese precisely.

In short, I am not propagating a chinese imperialistic view. I am just making known a practical situation that will be even more pronounced as the trend accelerates.