By Goh Chin Lian

MINISTER Mentor Lee Kuan Yew yesterday reiterated his stand against Chinese dialects, saying that learning dialects adds to a child's burden.

Also, it takes away the child's time and energy from mastering English and Mandarin, he said.

In addition, English and Mandarin differ in their vocabulary, phonetics and syntax and adding on dialects will cause 'negative interferences' in the learning of the two languages, he added.

In defending the decision to promote Mandarin over dialects, he also noted that the value of a language is its usefulness.

With Mandarin, the reach is far greater than dialects: '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.

Mr Lee was speaking at the launch of the annual Speak Mandarin Campaign, which he introduced 30 years ago.

Since then, most Chinese Singaporeans have adopted Mandarin over other dialects.

However, about a fortnight ago, the acting head of Nanyang Technological University's (NTU) Division of Linguistics and Multilingual Studies, Dr Ng Bee Chin, sparked a debate when she reportedly said at a language seminar:

'Although Singaporeans are still multilingual, 40 years ago, we were even more multilingual. Young children are not speaking some of these languages at all any more.

'All it takes is one generation for a language to die.'

Her comment prompted Mr Lee's principal private secretary, Mr Chee Hong Tat, to write a letter to The Straits Times Forum Page the following day.

Mr Chee noted, among other things, that most people found it hard to cope with two languages when they were as diverse as English and Chinese.

He said 'it would be stupid for any Singapore agency or NTU to advocate the learning of dialects, which must be at the expense of English and Mandarin'.

The strong response led readers to write to the Forum Page, relating their experiences with the language.

One reader said although he spoke only Hakka at home and was not gifted in languages, he did not do badly in his English and Chinese in school.

Another writer argued that dialects can be useful at work and in business.

However, Mr Lee noted in his speech that overseas Chinese and foreigners are learning Mandarin, not Chinese dialects.

He recalled that 30 years ago, Chinese students and workers spoke Mandarin haltingly because they did not use it often. Instead, they spoke dialects among themselves and at home.

'If the Government had left language habits to evolve undirected, Chinese Singaporeans would be speaking an adulterated Hokkien-Teochew dialect,' he said.

To promote Mandarin, from 1979, the Government stopped all dialect programmes on radio and TV. Mr Lee too switched from making speeches in Hokkien to Mandarin.

Since then, far fewer Chinese families here speak dialects at home, according to Education Ministry figures on Chinese students registered for Primary 1.

It went from above 60 per cent to below 10 per cent in 1988 and less than 2 per cent from 2001.

Referring to the figures, Mr Lee said they showed most parents preferred their children to focus on learning English and Mandarin well.

NTU's Dr Ng declined to comment yesterday when contacted by The Straits Times.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.