I REFER to Mr Patrick Khoo's letter yesterday, 'Mandarin useful but it may not be our mother tongue'.

I agree that learning Mandarin is now akin to learning English. Mandarin is useful for communication at work, for business, travel and at social gatherings. But we should not emphasise the use of Mandarin as mother tongue because it is not true for many Singaporeans.

My husband and daughter are Eurasian Singaporeans. There are also other new minorities in Singapore from the Philippines, Myanmar, the United States and Europe. Yet, my daughter and other students of minority races have to offer a mother tongue language in school and compete equally in examinations against their peers who have the advantage of being nurtured far more naturally in Mandarin as they are Chinese.

We chose Chinese for my daughter because of its greater usefulness compared with Malay or Tamil. But learning it within the rigours of a competitive examination system is a constantly uphill struggle. If learning Mandarin is already so hard for Chinese Singaporean students from English-speaking families, imagine the difficulty new minorities and Eurasians face.

The Education Ministry should consider allowing pupils to learn another language which is not their mother tongue as a non-examinable subject so that the children will enjoy it more.

It is not surprising that the top PSLE pupils in Singapore usually hail from Chinese families where Mandarin is their mother tongue.

Many expatriates and permanent residents may eventually assimilate their children in local schools. They will then face these same frustrations in being required to offer an alien mother tongue and compete at a disadvantage in important examinations. The problem will then be amplified.

Angie de Souza (Mrs)

This article was first published in The Straits Times.