Daily Lessons from Life 16 September 2009

"Eyeing China, Singapore sees Mandarin as its future
Strengthening ties with China has taken on a strategic imperative in Singapore. -Reuters -->
Wed, Sep 16, 2009 Reuters

SINGAPORE - A cacophony of Mandarin and English echo through the streets of Singapore's Chinatown as crowds of shoppers buy joss sticks and fruit as offerings to the spirits during the Seventh Month Ghost Festival.

English has long united the ethnically diverse island-state but Singapore's leaders now foresee a time when Mandarin will be the country's dominant language and they are aggressively encouraging their people to become fluent in Chinese.

'Both English and Mandarin are important because in different situations you use either language. But Mandarin has become more important,' said Chinatown shopkeeper Eng Yee Lay.


Hit hard by the global slowdown, strengthening ties with China has taken on a strategic imperative in Singapore which seeks to leverage the bilingual skills of its ethnic Chinese majority to get a larger slice of China's fast expanding economic pie.

'With the growing importance of China on the world stage, Chinese Singaporeans who are competent in the language and familiar with the culture would have a distinct advantage when working and interacting with Chinese nationals,' Lim Sau Hoong, chairwoman of the Promote Mandarin Council, told Reuters.


The government-sponsored campaign to promote Mandarin began in 1979 to unite under one language Singapore's disparate Chinese communities that spoke a multitude of dialects passed on by their ancestors who came from China in the 19th and early 20th century.

Unifying the Chinese majority in a country with sizeable Malay and Indian minorities was a priority and in the early days the Speak Mandarin Campaign discouraged ethnic Chinese from speaking the dialects that prevailed such as Hokkien.


Now, with a majority of Singaporeans speaking Mandarin in their homes, according to government figures, the focus is on improving fluency in spoken and written Mandarin.

'In two generations, Mandarin will become our mother tongue,' said Singapore's first prime minister Lee Kuan Yew at the launch of the 2009 Speak Mandarin Campaign earlier this year."

Personally I believed that the motive for focusing on Mandarin is wrong! It will not work if the Chinese knows that you speak Mandarin to him or her just so to profit from him or her! The Chinese has far too many suitors for his or her business that it does not really matter what language you speak if they can profit from you!

Lessons for me are:

1. learn the language for the right reason: to understand the culture and the people and to build long lasting mutually respectful relationship. Not just for commerce!!;

2. understand the ancient and recent Chinese history, changes in culture, custom, practices, etc are BASIC requirement when you enter into a new market to get connected with the local. At the same time, we MUST always focus on the individual Chinese with whom we are doing business with. They are changing too. They are also learning about the modern business world, its practices, etc. So, use the stereotype as a general guide but deal with the individual specifically;

3. be aware that there are 1.3B Chinese and not all of them are interested to trade with you or to trade with you on equal footing. So, pick your partners carefully and wisely!

As for making Mandarin our 'mother tongue', I think MM Lee meant 'mother tongue' for the Singapore Chinese. The other races can decide if they want to learn Mandarin to replace English as the unifying language for all Singaporeans.