Speak Mandarin Campaign apologises for using wrong Chinese character in tagline

SINGAPORE — Organisers of this year’s Speak Mandarin Campaign have apologised for using a wrong word in a display at a launch event, which showed a Chinese character meaning “showing disrespect” instead of the one that means “read”.

The two characters are both pronounced “du”.

When contacted by TODAY, a spokesperson for the campaign acknowledged the gaffe and said: “These are two distinct characters with different meanings. The character in error is not a part of the slogan, nor is it a slogan. It is also not intended.” 

The typo was noticed during the launch by people in the audience, and organisers were alerted to it after the event. 

“The campaign apologises for such an oversight and will take steps to address this,” the spokesperson said. 

“The campaign has partners who do put in much effort to encourage the use of Mandarin in Singapore. It is our hope that Singaporeans will focus on supporting them, so that we can ensure that the language remains in use with generations of Singaporeans.”

Photos of the Chinese phrase “listen, speak, read, write” — with the incorrect word for “read” — featured prominently on the stage podium when Ms Grace Fu, Minister for Culture, Community and Youth, launched this year’s campaign on Monday (July 10). 

The error drew the ire of several online users. 

“This is a terrible mistake, especially coming from the Speak Mandarin Campaign,” Ms Jesley Neo Yen Hiah wrote on the campaign’s Facebook page. 

Others commented in Chinese that it was an embarrassment.

In a response on Facebook on Tuesday morning, the organisers apologised “for the gravity of this oversight”, and said that the character for “read” was wrongly picked in the production process. 

In the same Facebook note, they wrote in Chinese: “This is our mistake ... We will be more vigilant about this in the future ... This episode is something we can learn from.”

The English slogan for this year’s Speak Mandarin Campaign is “Immerse yourself today. Mandarin. It gets better with use”. 

The campaign was first launched by then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew in 1979 to get Chinese Singaporeans to speak standard Mandarin instead of using various Chinese dialects such as Cantonese, Hokkien and Teochew. 

This was to unify language use and promote greater understanding among the community, and to support the bilingual education policy.

In a speech at the campaign’s launch on Monday, Ms Grace Fu had urged parents to continue encouraging the use of the Chinese language throughout their children’s developmental years so that they can keep the bilingual advantage. ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY WONG PEI TING