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Number of languages one can learn is limited

I refer to Mr Luke Lu’s commentary “Debunking myths in revitalising Chinese languages” (July 30).

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Steven Lee Thien Poh

I refer to Mr Luke Lu’s commentary “Debunking myths in revitalising Chinese languages” (July 30).

As in everything we learn and do, time and effort are needed. The question is whether most of us have the time to learn more than two languages.

With many pressing needs nowadays, one must prioritise — some may have to be reclassified as wants rather than needs.

There is a limit to what one can learn, due to nature or environment. By nature, I mean certain people are born with certain talents and everyone has a limited lifespan. By environment, I mean there is a need to acquire the skills to survive in society.

One of the reasons for the bilingual policy is the need for Singaporeans to be able to connect with the world’s biggest economy and most populous countries to improve our living standards.

For every policy, there is a minority group that defies the logic of the policy implementation. So, when the Government sets a policy, it can cater only for the majority and must allow a certain degree of tolerance towards the needs of the minority group.

A question I have is whether we have attained a higher level of proficiency in both English and Mandarin.

Standards of the former have fallen over the years. One needs only to observe carefully the grammatical errors, poor sentence construction, unclear meanings and use of wrong words in newspapers, online media as well as articles by individuals and organisations.

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