刘学敏：以理性讨论母语教育（全文）（早报.言论.01/July/2002）

在最近的国会的辩论里，华文以至整个母语教育，也被提上了日程。无可避免的，这场争论的立场，也随着教育源流的不同，及其中所掺杂的感情因素而大相径庭，似乎永远也找不到交集的地方。此外，华校生及英校生的裂痕，又被重新提起。

在这种种的论点里，不外围绕着英文在经济上的重要性，及华文在保存传统价值观的必须这个大前提上，似乎这两种语文的角色一开始就被定位好了。其实这个假设一点也不新，不外是100年前提出的“中学为体，西学为用”的翻版。我们大可不必抱着这个观念不放。

太多的事实告诉我们，学习母语不一定就保持了传统价值。首先，所谓的传统价值并不是一成不变的。孝道是美德，但像二十四孝中所描述的一些愚孝行为，就大可不必。而对于不合理的，不合用于现代社会的传统价值加以批判、否定，不正是一种进步吗？五四运动以来的中国知识分子，更是用华文写下了数不清的批判传统价值观的文章。为什么在我们这里，华文就必须被定位于传统价值观的捍卫者这个角色之上？

不必活得像老祖宗

日本人、中国大陆人、香港人、台湾人，向来接受的都是母语教育，难道他们就都保持了传统价值，活得和他们的老祖宗一样？

学习母语的功用，是为了让我们对于自己所属于的种族有一个定位，一个归属。而一旦这个功用消失，学习母语也就没有必要了。像移民到美国的非英语系移民，不管是德国人、意大利人或荷兰人，一两代以后就都学会了英语，母语都不学了。今天不少美国人可以如数家珍的告诉别人自己祖先的来历，却不觉得有学习祖先的母语的必要了，毕竟他首先是美国人，以英语作为母语才有其必要。

就连华人，许多在移民到泰国，菲律宾以后，不也认同了当地的种族、文化，进而放弃了母语，成了当地人了吗？像泰国、菲律宾的前领袖，都可以自称拥有华裔血统，但他们首先是泰国人，是菲律宾人。

归根结底，学习语言只有两个目的：为了认同或为了生存。

在一般的民族国家，为这两个目的只需要学习一种语言就足够了。但在新加坡，为了保有各民族的特性及认同，我们必须学习各自的母语。但为了生存，我们也必须学习英语。如果个人的能力不足以应付两种语文的学习，矛盾就无可避免的产生了。

内阁资政李光耀曾经提过，全人口中只有极小部分可以流利掌握两种语文。在必须掌握英文以生存的前提下，我们实在不可能，也没有必要，要求每个学生在掌握英语的同时，也都能对各自的母语有一样流利的程度。

为普及英语付出代价

有媒体常比较新加坡和香港，特别指出香港的精英分子都能流利地在读和写方面，掌握英语和粤语。但我们别忘了，绝大部分的香港人只懂自己的母语。英语的流通，只限于人口的少数。许多香港人，穷其一生，并不需要掌握英语。英语的普及，以人口比例来说，肯定比新加坡人低。

至于其他的亚洲国家，像日本、台湾，在学校里也安排了英语的学习，但由于必须首先掌握母语，同样不能像新加坡一样，培养出普及化的英语环境。

母语程度的低落，是我们强调英语、普及英语的代价。这是无可避免的。

唯一能够为学习华语，提高华文程度提供动力的，是华语的经济价值。在新加坡经济不景，中国经济一枝独秀的今天，不少专业人士不禁怨叹自己华文程度不够，不能到中国发展。但他们却因此督促自己的孩子学习华语，以免将来失去机会。与此同时，不少特选源流的毕业生，因为掌握华英两种语文的能力，此刻可以在中国大展拳脚。许多欧美跨国公司在中国的高级主管，正是前几届的特选中学毕业生。

所以，对于没有能力掌握两种语文的学生，我们不须苛求。但对有能力的学生，我们必须确保他们有足够的机会并流利地掌握华英两种语文，才不至于在中国经济发展的今天及未来，失去竞争的能力。

对于语文教育的辩论，我们应该多一些理性的认识，了解到不是每个人都能熟练地掌握两种语文。为了普及英语，我们必须接受母语程度低落的代价。但我们也应该正确的认识华语的经济价值，对有能力的学生，提供学习的机会。华文的学习，对于我们的生存，将会起着越来越重要的作用。

（作者是一所特选中学第一届毕业生，目前在上海从事管理咨询工作 ）

国家

华人

马来人

印度人

页数

印尼

略少于3%

---

---

Pg151

马来西亚

(1991资料)

29.4%

58.3%

9.5%

Pg172

菲律宾

少于2%

---

---

Pg187

新加坡

(1990资料)

77.7%

14.1%

7.1%

Pg200

泰国

10%

---

---

Pg218

美国

0.7%

---

---

Pg269

The Straits Times (03/Feb/2001 Saturday) (Analysis)

Universal challenge of migration

CAMBRIDGE (Massachusetts) - So far, the West has done reasonably well containing terrorist threats.

A year ago, Osama Laden had elaborate plans to cause trouble in places across the planet, but mainly he was stopped. The high level of vigilance in the West against this threat seems to have paid off.

For now, the main threat still seems to come from political Islamists. But terrorism is the weapon of the weak, so undoubtedly other groups will emerge in the future.

Communications and travel links, strengthened by the globalisation process, make it easier for transnational networks - from terrorist to mafia - to operate.

Globalisation spreads disorder through the same kinds of links that enable the expansion of legitimate commerce. And a good part of the world today is covered by zones of disorder.

Migration is the central issue of our time. In the developed world, there is an ageing, and soon to be shrinking, population.

In much of the rest of the world, populations are expanding, generating a mainly youthful population that is the source of migration, instability and terrorism. Europe and Japan will face the greatest challenges in coming to grips with this reality.

The fertility rate in much of Europe is down to 1.2, while in Japan it is about 1.3. Unless they open themselves up to larger numbers of immigrants - something they are not accustomed to - these areas will not be able to sustain themselves economically.

This is particularly true of Japan. For it to open its doors will require a social revolution. European countries have had a bit more experience, but the pressures have already set off xenophobic reactions.

The dilemma there is that if they want to maintain their cultural integrity, these countries must limit immigration or stop it altogether. But they cannot do either, because of the economic necessity.

If they admit migrants without assimilating them into the local culture, then they will be faced with huge pockets of disconnected and disaffected foreigners.

These countries have little experience assimilating people from very different cultures. Moreover, many immigrants now do not want to be assimilated.

America is facing the same challenge as the rest. The factors that made assimilation work during past waves of immigration - in the mid-19th century and just before World War I - are no longer present.

Then, both waves of immigration ended, aiding assimilation as no more of the same kinds of people arrived. Immigrants also came from diverse sources, and upon arrival in the US, they dispersed across the country.

The current wave of immigration to the US is an endless stream, much of it illegal. It is overwhelmingly Hispanic, and within that, overwhelmingly Mexican. And it is concentrated in the south-west, in Texas and California.

In the first waves of immigration, there were two categories of people: the 'converts', who wanted to assimilate, and who moved over completely to the American way of life, leaving their language and native habits behind, and the 'sojourners', who worked in the US for, say, 15 years before returning home to Sicily.

Now, immigrants are neither converts nor sojourners. They go back and forth between California and Mexico, maintaining dual identities and encouraging family members to join them.

So, the US has to face a number of issues here, just like Europe and Japan. It cannot assume that because it was successful at assimilation in the past, it will be so in the future.

(The writer is chairman of the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies, and author of The Clash Of Civilizations And The Remaking Of World Order. This comment was distributed by the Los Angeles Times)

Asian migrants integrate fast, says Howard

A 'mellowed' Australian Prime Minister admits time has proved his views on the pace of integration to have been wrong

MELBOURNE - Asian migrants are being integrated into Australia even faster than their southern-European predecessors, says Prime Minister John Howard.

Australians no longer questioned the pace of Asian immigration, he told the Weekend Australian.

He also said his own views had changed and mellowed since 1988 when he provoked controversy as opposition leader by questioning the pace of Asian immigration.

He told the newspaper he regretted that opinion and believed time had proved it wrong.

In what the newspaper described as his most expansive comments on multiculturalism in almost 30 years in politics, Mr Howard said Asian integration had been helped along by a common language.

"Many Asians, of course, come from an English-speaking background. Their mother tongue is not English but their almost-mother tongue is English," he said.

The political demise of Ms Pauline Hanson, who championed Australia's anti-Asian immigration movement, showed the country had moved on.

"In a way we have seen off our Le Pen," he said, comparing the Hanson-led backlash against Asian immigration to that of the far-right French presidential candidate, Mr Jean-Marie Le Pen.

"My instinct is that Asian-Australians are very much part of the community now.

"I think their integration has been quicker. I just don't hear people talking about it now, even as much as they did five years ago, and I have an electorate which is very Asian."

Chinese-Australians and Vietnamese-Australians could be considered the country's new Greeks and Italians, who made up the bulk of migrants of non Anglo-Saxon descent after World War II.

Asked if Australia could one day have a Chinese-Australian or Vietnamese-Australian Prime Minister, Mr Howard said: "Very possibly, yes. I don't think there is any reason why we won't."

He was also confident that Muslim Australians would be integrated quickly despite facing greater cultural differences than earlier migrant groups.

But the Weekend Australian said Mr Howard's inclusive comments did not signal a shift of policy on asylum-seekers.

"People do draw a very strong distinction between people coming here legally and illegally - I can't say that too strongly."

Mr Howard gave the rare newspaper interview to explain his philosophy on immigration.

It took place after a Federal Cabinet meeting was held last week to consider Australia's migration intake for 2002-03.

Erasmus World - Europe's Fulbright

It aims to attract foreign postgraduate students and academics to the EU and to reverse the brain drain to the US

By Grace Sung
EUROPE CORRESPONDENT

BRUSSELS - As part of efforts to boost Europe's visibility and competitiveness, a European equivalent of the Fulbright programme has been launched to attract foreign postgraduate students and academics to the region.

While officials said the aim of the 200-million-euro (S$355 million) Erasmus World project was not to compete with the United States, it is hoped it will enhance Europe's attractiveness to third countries and stem the brain drain to the US.

European Commission (EC) President Romano Prodi said the programme would help foster mutual understanding and dialogue between cultures.

'By opening our universities to the world, we open them up to Europe too,' he said.

European Education and Culture Commissioner Viviane Reding pointed out that many international students chose to further their studies at American universities.

Europe, she noted, received too few foreign students and visiting scholars.

'This deficit is a problem not only because of its implications for the European Union's cultural, political and economic influence in the world but also because our universities could take advantage of this greater openness to enhance the quality of what they provide,' she said.

Erasmus World, which will operate for five years from 2004, would be a 'sort of Fulbright programme' which would offer an alternative to international postgraduate students.

It had added economic and social implications, she said.

'It means we will take our place in the world. People often go to the US seeking excellence. We have excellence here, but we need to show it. We need to strengthen our competitiveness and visibility on the world stage,' she said.

Erasmus World will complement existing bilateral and regional educational exchange programmes with different parts of the world.

For instance, Asia-Link, which started this year, helps enhance cooperation between higher educational institutions in EU and Asian countries by intensifying academic, research and student exchanges.

Under Erasmus World, the EC will grant scholarships worth 1,600 euros per month to 4,200 international postgraduates so they can attend universities in at least two of the current 15 and other new EU member states, over a two-year period.

An average grant of 13,000 euros will be given to 1,000 visiting scholars for three-month teaching and research assignments within the EU.

In addition, 4,750 European postgraduates and academics will get financial support to participate in exchange programmes with universities in third countries.

A new European Masters degree will be created and will receive funding from the EC.

At least three universities from three EU member states have to be involved and studies should be carried out in at least two of them.

International students pursuing such a masters degree would get 'cultural added value', said Ms Reding.

The details still have to be defined and Erasmus World has to be approved by the European Parliament and EU member states.

The programme came in response to concerns about loss of talent to the US.

The Commission recently put 1.6 billion euros into halting a brain drain of European scientists, lured particularly to the US by higher salaries and better facilities.

'This loss of human and intellectual wealth robs European science of valuable resources,' the EC said.

Japanese up against English brick wall

By Hau Boon Lai
STRAITS TIMES JAPAN BUREAU

TOKYO - For computer-chip designer Satoru Miyagi, the determination to reach a higher level of English was born out of necessity two years ago.

'It was a time when work-wise, I had hit a brick wall,' said the 38-year-old, whose high-school English had been all but forgotten.

Proficiency in the English language was needed to advance in the international company and for him to improve his technical knowledge and skills.

He would wake up three hours before work, spend 20 minutes of lunch time and another hour after work to polish up his writing, listening and conversational skills.

In a year and a half, his score for Toeic, the Test of English for International Communication, went from 550 to 745, which well met the company requirements for promotion.

Workers like Mr Miyagi are on the rise in Japan as companies dealing with international trade realise that English is an essential business tool not only for employees sent overseas but also for the majority at the headquarters.

Formerly traditional Japanese companies like Nissan and Hitachi have pegged Toeic scores to promotions for all workers, underscoring the need to be proficient in English to help do business and communicate with staff, clients and customers from all over the world.

At Matsushita, a few bilingual employees used to go through all English communication. Senior executive Noriaki Tsuchiya told a recent symposium that the system was passe.

'Today, we have branch offices in 45 countries and more than half of our workforce of 300,000 live abroad. English became extremely important for our employees and we now have a vast number of English-language training programmes at all levels,' he said.

At places like Nissan and Japan Telecom, the emphasis on English proficiency has been hastened by foreign chief executives who chair meetings and require reports to be done in English.

To date, about 13 per cent of corporations said in a survey that good Toeic scores were a requirement for promotion, a recent development.

But these workers and companies are the exception rather than the rule. In Japan, the proportion of gross domestic product reliant on international trade is only about 15 to 16 per cent.

'It means that some 80 per cent of the population would not have to deal with the use of English,' noted Dr C.H. Kwan of the Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry.

'Even with the trend towards more international trade, the proportion is unlikely to rise further than 20 per cent,' he said, adding that besides English, other foreign languages like Chinese will be needed within the 20 per cent.

It is little wonder that a bold attempt by a government panel to discuss putting English as an official language on the political agenda went nowhere.

A bigger problem is that Japan has failed to meet even such a relatively small demand for proficiency in English.

The Education Ministry recently released its latest proposals aimed at increasing the English proficiency of high school graduates by focusing on their speaking skills and considering teaching it from elementary school instead of from secondary school.

It has once again failed to address what is generally agreed to be the real problem - English teachers who don't know the very language they are teaching.

The much-touted Assistant Language Teachers programme, which brings in native speakers of English, has only about 5,000 to 6,000 teachers in Japan at any one time when hundreds of thousands of them are needed.

The economic impact of a failure to meet the demand for proficient English is likely to be considerable. Without a good supply of such speakers, almost all of the economic sectors identified as new growth areas by the government will be unable to take off.

Information Technology, biosciences, nanotechnology and tourism, to name a few examples, all need practitioners to attain a fluency that is all but impossible under the current system of English education.

To make matters worse, capable Japanese fluent in English are gravitating towards foreign firms, attracted by the better pay and working conditions.

Japan is also finding it difficult to attract foreign talents with superior skills in high-tech industries without an English-speaking environment to ease their integration into society.

The effects are not limited to the economic sphere.

In the Shenyang incident in May, deputy consul Hideharu Umaki at the Japanese consulate in the Chinese city put Japan to shame when it was revealed that he had handed back a letter from would-be asylum seekers because he did not understand English.

When Japan sent a United Nations peacekeeping team to East Timor, its first press conference was held in Japanese despite great interest from the international media.

'Japan missed an important chance to build confidence among its Asian neighbours whose war memories make them suspicious of any activity which smacks of the military,' said a Japanese journalist who covered the event.

Former UN diplomat Yasushi Akashi had pointed out that modern-day diplomacy should not rely on interpretation - negotiations could take place anywhere, anytime.

But most Japanese politicians, lacking proficiency in English, the language of diplomacy, fail in this aspect.

Despite the ability of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to read his speeches in English, Japan's 'faceless' diplomacy persists, and will continue doing so until a large number of politicians attain fluency in English and make a stronger mark on the world stage.

The lack of English proficiency is also an obstacle to Japan's efforts towards becoming more cosmopolitan. Most restaurants, for instance, are unable to provide even a menu in English, let alone staff who can take orders in the language.

And while independent travellers are on the rise, most of the 16 million or so Japanese who make their way overseas annually are still doing so in tour groups, and paying a premium to tour and store operators attempting to recoup their investments in training people to cater to their 'special' needs.

With increasingly stronger incentives to learn English, the Japanese are doing so in greater numbers but are being let down by the poor quality of English education available.

Generosity is a multi-racial thing

With generous actions, Singaporeans are making a statement - showing that we are a single people while cementing our relations as a people

By Asad Latif

HEART TO HEART

MY COLLEAGUE M.R. Narayan Swamy paid a moving tribute to Singaporean generosity last week when he wrote of his experience of being a volunteer collecting relief material for earthquake victims in Gujarat.

'In just two hours, the main entrance to the Ang Mo Kio MRT station resembled the perennially chaotic New Delhi railway station,' he said, describing the scene on Saturday, Feb 3, when he was among volunteers at Ang Mo Kio.

'Piled up near the stairs was a mountain of plastic bags and sacks. There was a constant swarm of people, and a general air of disorder and excitement.'

'Although the drive had not been very well-publicised, the outpouring of sympathy was astounding,' he remarked, adding that 150 tonnes of material had been collected in about 12 hours at the four designated MRT stations, including Ang Mo Kio, instead of the expected 30 tonnes.

The benefactors ranged from a woman who donated 1,000 kg of rice; to a poorly-dressed elderly man, who gave 10 kg of rice; to a teenaged girl who offered the contents of her piggy bank but had to be informed that the volunteers were not collecting money, but only goods.

That is not the whole story, however.

Mr Narayan Swamy, an Indian national, wrote: 'True, Indian nationals also came. But the overwhelming majority of the donors were Singaporeans of all races - generous and always willing to share, even for a place they may not have heard of before it was hit by the worst earthquake in the Indian subcontinent in 50 years.'

'There were hundreds of them - men, women and children,' he said, referring to people who had come to make donations, as well as those who had come to volunteer their time at the collection point.

As a Singaporean, I am proud of the fellow citizens whom my Indian colleague praises, but I am also humbled by his observant reminder of the multi-racial underpinnings of generosity in Singapore.

Why am I humbled?

It is because his re- port on the outpouring of support, cutting across racial and religious lines, affirms the multi-racial nature of Singapore, a reality that is sometimes in danger of being obscured by the role of ethnicity in the collective life of Singaporeans.

From the identity embodied in identity cards which mention race, to the presence of self-help groups to serve racial communities, ethnicity plays a crucial role in the self- definition of Singapore.

I admit that it is futile to ignore the reality of race. The self-help groups, for example, have genuinely improved the lives of their communities, contributing thereby to improving the lives of Singaporeans in general.

Some of their success comes, no doubt, from their closeness to the concerns and the aspirations of the races they serve.

The larger point is that Singapore's model of race relations is commendable.

Chinese, Malays, Indians and others are allowed to be themselves.

One alternative to this approach would have been racial assimilation. The question, then, would have been: Which race should assimilate the others?

Given the logic of numbers, the answer would have pointed to the Chinese, but the other races would have resisted assi- milation by the majority community, and naturally so.

By contrast, multi- racial integration gives the races space to be themselves while encouraging them to develop overlapping areas that allow the races to live, work and play together.

The merits of this approach are apparent in the racial tolerance that prevails today. Every Singaporean can take pride in this achievement.

That said, what is necessary is to move from tolerance to greater understanding, friendship and trust.

That goal calls for greater momentum in defining the fundamentals of Singapore's collective life in terms that acknowledge the reality of ethnicity but try to transcend it.

What lends urgency to the goal is that, globally, peace, tolerance and understanding are by no means guaranteed among the international races and relig- ions represented in Singapore.

All that Singaporeans can do, within the frontiers of this country, is to try and ensure that any clash of racial and religious civilisations does not destroy our space on earth, our home called Singapore.

Mr Narayan Swamy's article was a reassuring commentary on what makes us Singaporeans.

The fact that citizens of all races participated in the relief effort for an overseas community, one related to a minority within a minority here - as Gujaratis are among ethnic Indians in Singapore - reiterated that what makes us Singaporeans is not that we come from China, India, Malayan South-east Asia or elsewhere, but that we are here.

And shall always be.

The cynic may argue that occasional shows of generosity - when disasters have struck Turkey, Taiwan and now India - do not add up to a truly multi-racial spirit of caring.

By their very nature, the disasters are exceptions, and so the response to them is exceptional as well, they may say.

This is a dim view to take. How would Singaporeans have felt had the response to the plea for help for Gujarat come largely from Indian Singaporeans and Indian nationals?

By contrast, when Singaporeans of all races showed their humanitarian side, they made a statement about the nature of Singapore.

Let this spirit persevere, not only when Singaporeans respond to calamities abroad, but also when we are in a position to help those within our borders who need our help, whatever race or religion they may be.

Generosity will cement our relations as a people, as it shows others that we are a single people.