[Above: Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew launches the 2009 Speak Mandarin Campaign.]

By Rachel Chan

CHILDREN will run into problems learning Mandarin if both parents speak to them in English at home.

In the United States, research has shown that second-generation American-born Chinese studying the language in college found it just as difficult as their Caucasian classmates.

However, those whose parents spoke to them in Mandarin at home made the grade easily.

Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew made this point yesterday when he launched the Speak Mandarin Campaign's 30th Anniversary celebrations at the NTUC Auditorium yesterday.

His advice to parents? Speak to the children in Mandarin at home if they can.

"If one speaks in Mandarin and the other in English, the child will grow up speaking more English than Mandarin," he said. MM Lee, who spoke in both Mandarin and English, pointed out that the value of a language lies in its usefulness.

"If you speak Hokkien or Cantonese, you reach some 60 million in Fujian and Taiwan, or about 100 million in Guangdong and Hong Kong. With Mandarin, you can speak to 1,300 million Chinese from all provinces in China," he said.

With dialects being overtaken by Mandarin in the region where Mandarin is taught in all Chinese schools, it will become the common language of the overseas Chinese, he said.

"I understand the strong emotional ties to one's mother tongue. However, the trend is clear. In two generations, Mandarin will become our mother tongue," he said.

Madam Mary Loh, 58, a clerk, speaks to her two children in Mandarin at home.

"Children need to learn Mandarin at a young age. If they don't, no amount of tuition can help," she said.

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