李光耀承認推行雙語教學政策錯誤

iamfine

Again you made the wrong assumption. As a matter of fact, I did not call you an idiot. There is a "s" at the end of "idiot".  Can't you read?  Everything is in black and white. I can't deny it if I'd called you an idiot, can I?  As to why you would choose to associate yourself with the word you highlighted in red, you know it better than I do.

You started the name calling and called me "narrow-minded, idiotic and not deserving serious consideration", questioned my "knowledge, experience and trust-worthiness" for no good reason.  That's why I felt so gutted.  Was I barred from echoing Mighty's view? Did I say it's wrong for Lee to think that students cannot do both English and Chinese well? (BTW, even if I disagree with Lee, so what?)  Wasn't it obvious that I was questioning his utilitarian view?

iamfine

By the way, یا گپھا کے idiots mean worldly result-oriented idiots.  I did not make reference to you when I posted, but if you are under a compulsion to associate yourself with those words, I'll leave it to you.

iamfine

I'll leave it to you, as I said.

[ 本帖最後由 iamfine 於 09-11-19 17:03 編輯 ]

tingtingting

Some interesting comments on the remarks of the Minister Mentor:

http://urbanrant.blogspot.com/2009/11/why-i-think-mm-lee-is-wrong-about.html

http://gweipo.blogspot.com/2009/11/where-theres-will-theres-minister.html

tingtingting

Just found some more:

http://theonlinecitizen.com/2009/11/mm-lee’s-admission-–-a-good-time-for-govt-to-reflect-on-policy/

http://seijieiga.blogspot.com/2009/11/mm-lee-on-singapores-bilingual-policy.html

http://sturmdesjahrhunderts.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/i-am-singaporean-ii-bilingualism-is-bad/

http://geraldgiam.sg/2009/11/my-struggle-with-chinese/#more-1097

Some of the readers' comments are very interesting.  Didn't expect that much of grievance from his fellow Singaporean though.

papa_pop

The headline is definitely a draw.  But, again, like some press stories, you have to read between the lines to really see what Lee Kuan Yew is confessing.

IF one interprets that Lee confessed the bilingual policy a total failure, it would certainly draw a lot of objections - among his fellow Singaporeans and peoples from other Western countries, esp those taking Singapore as a location of choice for their businesses and jobs.

If not for the Singlish accent, I would say that most Singaporeans are truly bilingual (if one 'defines' bilingual as someone 'perfectly mastering' two languages, that's another story.  In that sense, I doubt even some Europeans can claim themselves as bilingual or multilingual).  Their mastery of English can 'export' them as native-English teachers to other places, HK included.

As to why Lee had to admit failure, as someone pointed out, it's more a political gesture.  What he's trying to say, perhaps, is that he's TOO biased towards English in his bilingual policy.  However, one has to admit that generally Singaporeans (born after 1970s) command a native-level of English and speak at least one (own) ethnic language.  That already works well with the international world of business, finance, education....

By the way, what would he do to 'rectify' his mistake?

mattsmum

heard from shanghai: international companies prepfer to employ singaporean- they can master languages well, willing to go abroad.

difficult to recruit hk staff.

iamfine

Accent itself hardly matters.

Absolutely.

The English mania is such a phenomenon in China and many developing countries (http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en ... _english_mania.html).  

I guess I am still living in a developing country.

nintendo

口音, 唔係唔重要
不過讀, 寫, 理解, 甚至文法, 都比口音重要

PS. 唔好將 ACCENT 同 "讀音錯" 混淆