李光耀新加坡为何实施双语政策(国外英语资料).doc

李光耀新加坡为何实行双语政策 Lee kuan yew: why is Singapore bilingual (2011-11-29) Morning reading [newspaper conference] zhang xiaoqing: the credibility is to save the newspaper arms Zheng yongnian: the root of Chinas moral disintegration The mainland scholar has heavily criticized tsai ing-wen [early in China] the Wolf committed suicide in front of the pig This is the speech delivered by the founding prime minister, lee kuan yew, in his new book, the challenge of my life, the bilingual way of Singapore People asked me why I wrote this book that I thought was my most important. The reason is simple: I think bilingualism is the cornerstone of Singapores success story. Singapore has not always been this way: because singaporeans generally use English, people from all over the world can feel comfortable. When I started as prime minister of Singapore, the majority of Chinese didnt speak English. They use dialects, Malay, Tamil and other languages, such as different kinds of fish in the aquarium, which seem to be together but separate. The ethnic groups are isolated from each other. I will make them real and intentional, as my mission. Few countries have tried to implement bilingual policies in two entirely different and unrelated languages. English is a Nordic language, while Chinese prose is monosyllabic, tonal, not pinyin and pictorial or ideographic. Why do we choose such a combination? English has been the work language of Singapore since the British colonial era, and the law and all official records, including birth and death certificates, are in English. Second, Singapore is a multiracial society, and English will not disadvantage any ethnic group, such as Chinese, Malay and others. Everyone must learn the English that most people in the world use as the first or second language. For Singaporean Chinese, they must try to preserve their mother tongue in order to maintain a sense of identity, especially when more and more families are using English. In 1980, one in every 10 sma